Molly Gray on Monday formally announced her intent to run for lieutenant governor, a post she held from 2020 to 2022 before stepping down to make an unsuccessful run for Congress.
Gray, 41, told Seven Days in November of her intent to return to state office, saying she was “ready to get off the sidelines.”
She made it official on Monday during an event at a Burlington coffee shop, surrounded by friends, family and supporters.
Gray burst onto Vermont’s political scene in 2020 when she emerged at the top of a crowded primary field of Democratic candidates for LG and went on to easily defeat Republican Scott Milne for the state’s second-highest office.
She was about halfway through her first term when she jumped into the 2022 Democratic primary for Vermont’s lone U.S. House seat. Gray ultimately lost to eventual winner Becca Balint.
Gray stepped away from politics after her LG term expired, and is now the executive director of the Burlington-based nonprofit Vermont Afghan Alliance. The organization helps the state’s Afghan community acclimate to new lives.
That effort has become profoundly more difficult as the Trump administration has blocked federal funding for refugee organizations and reversed protections for Afghans who helped in the U.S. war effort.
Gray has said she also has become acutely aware of how middle-class Vermonters are struggling and wants to find ways to address the cost of living for working families. Since leaving state office, Gray had her first child and has been caring for her ill mother.
Gray is the first Democrat to announce her candidacy, but she is unlikely to be the last. In 2020, four Democrats sought the office.
It’s not unheard of for former office holders to reclaim their seats, as Progressive Democrat David Zuckerman did in 2022, before losing to current LG John Rodgers, a Democrat turned Republican.
Rodgers, who has said he plans to run for LG again, is widely considered a potential candidate for governor once Phil Scott, the most popular governor in the nation, steps aside.