Vermont General Election 2024: Congressional Elections

The primaries are over, and it's on to the general election.  Every federal race is contested, though none are competitive in this state (the Presidential race is obviously very close on a national level).

Representative has four candidates:

• Becca Balint, the Democratic candidate and incumbent.  On her issues page, she mentions concrete action she has taken to try to move those issues forward.  The only serious candidate in this group. 
• Mark Coester, the Republican/Libertarian candidate.  He has an issues page, but no concrete proposals.  He did not fill out his VTDigger profile.  According to the 7 Days Q&A, he thinks we should abandon Ukraine to Putin, so, no thanks.
• Jill "Jessy" Diamondstone, the Vermont Peace and Justice candidate, does not appear to have a campaign website, couldn't be bothered to fill out her VTDigger profile, and according to the 7 Days Q&A, is essentially unreachable.  
• Adam Ortiz, an Independent candidate, has a campaign website that looks more like an ad for his business than a serious attempt to become the representative from Vermont.  According to the 7 Days Q&A, he also thinks we should abandon Ukraine to Putin, so, no thanks. 

Senator has five candidates:

• Steve Berry, an Independent candidate, thinks freedom of speech and the right to assemble were suspended during Covid, (from the main page of his website).  Hard pass.  
• Mark Stewart Greenstein, the Epic party candidate.  His campaign HQ is in Connecticut, he appears to be a CT citizen, and it's unclear why he's allowed to run in VT.  Hard pass.
• Matt Hill, the Libertarian candidate, lists "bringing Federal jobs to Vermont" as the first bullet point on the main page of his campaign website, which feels really weird for a Libertarian candidate.  I thought they were all about eliminating Federal jobs.  On his VTDigger profile, he states the border is the number one issue before Congress, but does not seem to advocate for either of the libertarian perspectives on immigration.  Pass.
• Gerald Malloy, (not to be confused with Gerald Malloy from South Carolina) the Republican candidate, is running for Senate again, after losing to Peter Welch two years ago.  I think there are issues he wants to address that make sense.  I don't think he makes a sufficiently good case for why he would be better at effecting positive change than Bernie.   
• Bernie Sanders, an Independent candidate with the endorsement of the Democratic party, and the incumbent.  In the past, I have complained that Vermont is too slow to update its represenation at the national level.  Happily, Leahy finally retired in 2022.  Sanders is not retiring this year, will almost certainly be reelected, and will be nearly 90 when his next term expires.  
  
  I went to go look at Bernie's issues page; below is a screenshot of his website's navigation bar.  That's right, "Shop" is the number two nav item after "Meet Bernie".  That's some bullshit right there.
  
  
  
  
• Justin Schoville, the Vermont Peace and Justice candidate.  Unlike many of the other Peace and Justice candidates, Justin filled out his VTDigger profile.  Like Gerald, I think there are issues he wants to address that make sense, but I don't think he makes a case for why he would be better than Bernie.