Malloy vies for Balint’s seat in Congress

October 16, 2026  |  By Keith Whitcomb Jr.  |  The Times Argus

This story was first published by The Times Argus on Oct. 9.

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Incumbent Democrat Becca Balint and former U.S. Senate candidate, Republican Gerald Malloy, are the two major party candidates looking to represent Vermont in the U.S. House.

Phoenix Altair, Adam Ortiz, Suzanne Seymour and Ryan Walton are running as independents.

Incumbent House Rep. Becca Balint (D). Courtesy photo

Becca Balint

Balint took office in 2023. Before that, she’d served in the state Senate since 2014 and left as president pro tempore of the Senate.

“My case to the voters is that I’ve worked very hard on behalf of Vermonters for the last two terms,” Balint said.

Balint said she’s brought $25 million to the state for investments in housing, infrastructure, and healthcare.

Balint said the division in Congress is the worst it’s been in recent memory, and that makes getting things done difficult, though not impossible.

“The issues that I’m very focused on shouldn’t surprise anyone who is familiar with my work in the state legislature,” she said. “I’m still very much focused on housing and how that relates to the workforce, and I am very eager to continue my work on hopefully dismantling these tariffs that are absolutely killing so many of our small businesses in Vermont.”

The Trump administration has imposed tariffs on many other countries, notably Canada.

Balint said that even if the tariffs go back to normal, it will take time to repair the United States’ relationship with Canada.

Balint has a background as a teacher and studied history in school. She said she’s often tapped in committees to be the one to explain complicated things to the public.

“I’m hoping to be on the small business committee next year so that I can match my work working on behalf of small businesses with my work in judiciary, which is focused on breaking up monopolies that are making life incredibly expensive for people,” she said.

She said she is hearing from Vermonters their concerns about affordability.

“They’re very concerned about the cost of fuel, whether it’s fuel in their gas tanks to get to work, whether it is hearing from folks in the ag industry about how diesel is through the roof and how that’s impacting their bottom line, or people who are concerned about how they’re going to heat their homes this winter and the attacks on LIHEAP, and how that’s going to impact Vermonters. So affordability is huge,” she said, adding that the cost of housing and healthcare isn’t far from people’s minds, either.

She said people are also telling her they’re upset over corruption in the federal government and how that’s impacting their costs.

“People are outraged that (President Donald Trump) is spending a lot of taxpayer dollars on his personal pet projects, whether it is building the ballroom or whether it’s building the Trump arch, or it is making sure that his donors are being taken care of. People understand that there are certain people that are well connected that are doing just fine in this very tough economic climate, but everybody else is really suffering for it,” she said.

She said people are also worried over the integrity of the elections.

“I hear every single day when I’m out around Vermont, people are deeply concerned that the president is going to try to do what he did in 2020, which is to overturn a free and fair election,” she said.

Balint said elections are run on the local level and that she has faith in Vermont’s election officials.

She said given that Vermont has only one representative to the House it’s important to build coalitions and work with others.

“The other thing that I do is continue to remain committed to having good relationships with people on the other side of the aisle, which is not easy to do right now because we’ve had a president and a speaker of the House who have instructed Republicans not to work with us. That makes it challenging,” she said.

Gerald Malloy

House candidate Gerald Malloy (R). Courtesy photo

Malloy ran an unsuccessful campaign for U.S. Sen. Peter Welch’s seat in 2022. According to his website, he’s a West Point graduate who served 22 years in the United States Army.

“It’s time for change,” said Malloy. “It’s been 25 years since Vermont has had moderate balanced representation for all Vermonters in Washington, D.C., and right now my opponent is not delivering results.”

He criticized Balint for past remarks she’s made, and for not attending events like the State of the Union address.

Malloy said he wants to work on passing legislation that helps Vermonters and avoid partisan mud-slinging

“I’ve got a business background. I know I can bring business to Vermont,” he said. “That’s what Vermont needs, so young people stop leaving. I know I can work across the aisle with whoever the next governor is. I know I can work with that person to do things for Vermont.”

He said the so-called affordable housing that Balint has worked to bring into the state is not in fact affordable, but rather expensive. He said this is the result of the government being involved in the private sector, and that he’d seek to change that dynamic.

Malloy said he’s aware that Trump is not popular with many people in the state.

“In many respects, neither am I, and I look to actually have an impact on some of the policies that are going on for Vermont that Vermonters are not happy with, such as immigration. I don’t think we need to be trying to track down every single person that’s not fully documented,” he said.

Malloy said he’s also not happy with how the Canadian tariffs were handled, nor the war with Iran.

“We just did a terrible job there. We didn’t even consider the Strait of Hormuz and the impact on energy prices, so I would look to get to the negotiation table and have a peace agreement ASAP, so that we can get … energy costs, diesel and gasoline, down to reasonable prices. I think we can even get below $3 a gallon.,” he said.

Malloy said that as for healthcare, he doesn’t support universal healthcare, noting that Vermont’s own plans to establish such a system were deemed too expensive, even under the leadership of a Democratic Governor, Peter Shumlin.

Malloy said he would introduce bills aimed at increasing competition and transparency in the healthcare industry. He said he’ll work towards making it so new pharmaceuticals can come onto the market sooner, and be cheaper.

He said he’d promote the construction of more trade schools to teach people how to build homes. He noted that education costs are high as well and to address this he would support tax incentives for people with children in college.

Malloy said that as he’s been campaigning, he hears a lot from people who do not like President Trump. He said he stresses to people that this election isn’t about the president. He said he wants to work with people to solve issues.

“So if you’re not going to elect me, a better candidate, because you think you’re getting back at President Trump, you’re doing a disservice to Vermont. You’re not impacting him,” Malloy said.

He said there are burdens to doing business in the United States and Vermont in particular.

“So bringing business into Vermont is one of the things that I most want to do, and I know the president is trying to regrow and re-shore manufacturing, production, innovation, technology business here in the United States, so I support him in that effort,” said Malloy.

Malloy said The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act (SAVE Act) was mishandled, though he did support it, and that he’d like to see people go back to voting in-person and needing voter ID. He said the ID doesn’t need to be stringent, but something like a Social Security card would suffice.

The General Election is Nov. 3.