Vermont's Dems Choose Corporate Narrative Expert for Top Spot
Vermont Democratic Party Leadership Change: What the Election Reveals
On November 15, 2025, the Vermont Democratic Party elected a new chair in a 33-12 vote. While the election itself was straightforward, an examination of the candidates’ backgrounds, platforms, and the context surrounding the vote reveals significant questions about the party’s strategic direction following major losses in 2024.
The Basic Facts
Lachlan Francis, a 29-year-old political consultant from Westminster, defeated Justin Willeau, owner of Inspired Coffee Merchants in Vershire, to become chair of the Vermont Democratic Party. Francis previously served as chair of the Windham County Democratic Committee.
The election took place just three days after a 43-day federal government shutdown ended, during which some Democratic senators broke ranks with their caucus to pass a spending deal—a moment that highlighted divisions within the national party.
The 2024 Electoral Crisis
To understand the significance of this leadership change, it’s essential to understand what happened in Vermont’s 2024 elections.
Republicans gained 17 seats in the Vermont House and 6 seats in the Vermont Senate, breaking the Democratic Party’s veto-proof supermajorities in both chambers. The Senate went from a 22-7 Democratic majority to 16-13 (with 1 Progressive), while Republicans achieved their best House result since 2004.
Jim Dandeneau, the party’s executive director at the time, attributed the losses to Governor Phil Scott’s effective messaging on “property taxes” and “pocketbooks,” which “overwhelmed people’s concerns about the future of our democracy.” This admission became crucial context for understanding the 2025 leadership race.
The Two Candidates and Their Platforms
Lachlan Francis: The Establishment Choice
Francis entered the race as the outgoing chair of the Windham County Democrats with substantial backing from party insiders. His endorsements included three former state party chairs (Dottie Deans, Jake Perkinson, and Bruce Olsson), DNC member Ryan McLaren, and three former DNC representatives. His campaign materials featured photos with Vermont Democratic Party figures including former Senator Patrick Leahy, Senator Peter Welch, Representative Becca Balint, and former Governor Peter Shumlin.
Professionally, Francis works as a researcher at Global Strategy Group, a New York-based firm. While often described as a polling firm, GSG identifies itself as a “full-service communications, research, and public affairs agency” and was named 2023 Public Affairs Agency of the Year by PRovoke Media.
GSG’s services extend beyond polling to include “corporate reputation” management, helping clients “craft compelling narratives,” “build and protect reputations,” and “influence decision makers.” The firm works with Fortune 100 companies including Comcast, Citigroup, Google, Alaska Airlines, and Con Edison.
The firm has had notable controversies, including a $2 million settlement with the New York Attorney General’s office over allegations of helping steer money to private equity clients seeking access to the state pension fund. GSG also conducted polling for Representative Joe Crowley in 2018, predicting he would defeat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez by 35 points; Crowley ultimately lost by 15 points.
Justin Willeau: The Community Builder
Willeau, founder of Inspired Coffee Merchants and operator of a community coffee bar in Vershire, ran on a platform centered on grassroots community engagement. His signature proposal was “Democrats Build…”—a program where the party would organize at least one service project in every county each year.
Willeau described his coffee bar as a “community-building exercise” that brought residents together, and he proposed applying this model to party organizing. The goal was to “build trust within the party and with the electorate” through tangible, non-ideological acts of community service.
Willeau also addressed the party’s relationship with Republican Governor Phil Scott. Calling Scott “our favorite punching bag,” Willeau noted that attacking the governor made little strategic sense when 57% of Vermont Democrats approve of Scott’s job performance, according to an April 2025 Green Mountain State Poll. “I think the question is,” Willeau asked, “does this committee represent Democratic voters the way they actually vote?”
The Strategic Choice
The 33-12 vote represented a clear decision by the party’s 45-member committee about how to respond to the 2024 losses.
One path, represented by Willeau, acknowledged that the party’s abstract messaging about democracy had been defeated by Scott’s concrete “pocketbook” messaging. His proposed solution was to rebuild trust from the ground up through visible community service and to stop attacking a governor whom the party’s own voters overwhelmingly support.
The other path, represented by Francis, maintained establishment continuity while bringing in professional communications expertise from a national firm specializing in narrative management and reputation building.
The committee chose the latter approach by a decisive margin.
Questions About Potential Conflicts
Francis’s employment at Global Strategy Group raises questions about potential conflicts of interest. GSG represents major corporations whose interests may conflict with Democratic policy priorities. For example:
How will the party chair balance his role when GSG’s client Comcast has interests in Vermont’s broadband policy debates?
What happens when the party takes positions on consumer protection, financial regulation, or corporate accountability that might affect GSG’s Fortune 100 clients?
Will Francis’s expertise in corporate reputation management and top-down narrative crafting translate to the grassroots organizing that Vermont Democrats traditionally emphasize?
These questions remain unanswered in public reporting about the election.
The “Youth” Narrative
Both Francis, 29, and newly appointed Executive Director May Hanlon, 26, have been described as representing a new generation of party leadership. Francis has been called “one of the youngest state Democratic Party chairs in the country,” while Hanlon has described herself as “the youngest Democrat in her role in the country.”
For context, Anderson Clayton was elected chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party at age 25 in 2023, making her younger than both Vermont leaders when she took a more senior elected position in a much larger state.
What Happens Next
The new leadership takes office as the party faces significant challenges heading into the 2026 election cycle.
With veto-proof supermajorities lost in both legislative chambers, Democrats will need to negotiate more extensively with Republicans or depend on Governor Scott not vetoing legislation. The 2026 gubernatorial race is already drawing attention, with Treasurer Mike Pieciak and Attorney General Charity Clark considered likely Democratic candidates to challenge Scott.
The choice between Francis and Willeau represented two distinct theories about how to rebuild: double down on professional messaging and establishment infrastructure, or pivot to grassroots community engagement and service. The party chose the former.
Whether this approach can reverse the losses of 2024—when Scott’s kitchen-table messaging on property taxes and cost of living defeated Democratic appeals on democracy and abstract values—remains to be seen. The 2026 elections will provide the first test of whether the new leadership’s strategy can reconnect with Vermont voters who have recently shifted away from the Democratic Party in historic numbers.