Several times over this election season (including last week), we have profiled candidates who fall outside of the two main predominant political parties in the United States. These candidates bring unique and more perspectives to the political discussion. The success of these candidates is a testament to the desire of the American people for more, new, and different voices to represent them and their interests.

This week we are profiling Tanya Vyhovsky (she/they), the only member of the Vermont Senate from the Vermont Progressive Party, the 3rd-largest political party in Vermont (in 2022 we profiled Taylor Small, the leader of the Vermont Progressive Party in the Vermont House of Representatives). As a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Tanya’s platform is about bringing working class, younger voices that have often been shut out of power into the statehouse. The issues Tanya cares most deeply about are; a sustainable and just economy, healthcare, mental health, climate, criminal legal change and democracy.

Where are you based?
Essex, Vermont.

What is your position/what position are you running for?
I currently am launching my re-election campaign for state senate representing the Chittenden central district.

How would you briefly summarize your platform?
My platform is three tiered and grounded in economic, social and environmental justice.

What inspired you to run?
In my job I work as a clinical social worker supporting adolescents and transition age young adults. I quickly realized upon entering that work that I was offering personal solutions to systemic problems that have only been getting worse over the years and that felt irresponsible to me. In my previous work developing the Vermont Support Line under the Mental Health Transformation Grant I had run into many people serving in office and in my work as a community organizer I learned that many of them view these issues through an intellectual lense rather than as lived experience. Growing up in a single parent working class home and struggling still to afford living in Vermont I felt like I needed to bring the voice of every day struggling people into the statehouse in a real lived experience way.

What change are you hoping to bring to your district and country?
I want to see a Vermont where every person has the ability not just to survive, but to thrive. We are as a state facing the confluence of many crises decades in the making and we need to rebuild a truly just and sustainable Vermont. We need deep investment in affordable social housing, sustainable local agriculture, strong investment in public schools and a public health response to the opioid crisis.

How long have you been in office? What do you consider to be your major accomplishments so far?
I served from 2021-2022 in the Vermont house of representatives and was sworn into the Vermont Senate in 2023. So I am finishing up my 4th year in the general assembly. In my first biennium I sponsored and passed a bill that mandates equity education for mental health providers and established a taskforce for the expansion and diversification of the mental health workforce. In the Senate I have sponsored and moved bills that would have eliminated cash bail, ended deceptive interrogation practices and established a system of ranked choice voting — while these all passed the Senate they did not make it out of the house. I worked hard this year (and for many years before I was elected) on legislation allowing overdose prevention centers in Vermont. I also worked with my counterpart in the house to ensure we established a more unified and stable system of pre-charge diversion into restorative justice. I also ended disparate treatment of crack/cocaine and powder cocaine in Vermont this year.

What do you feel are the most important issues right now, why, and how do you plan to tackle them?
Because of decades of underinvestment in those who need the most support, a delegitimizing and defunding of our public institutions and catastrophic climate events Vermont is facing many crises level issues in affordable housing, public education, healthcare, mental health, and overdose deaths. It is my view that we cannot solve these problems by doing the same thing we always have and I am always advocating for transformational and innovate solutions and hope to be able to make movement in a different direction that makes Vermont more welcoming, safer, more affordable and diverse.

America is extremely divided these days. How would you hope to bridge that divide with your constituents to better unite Americans?
I try to use both my skills as a social worker to hear what people need to connect with them and build relationships and my training in restorative justice to look for harm and restoration. America is incredibly divided and I believe that this is in large part because people are hurting, the status quo is doing so much damage and hurt people often hurt people. Having spoken to restorative peace builders around the world who have negotiated peace in war zones, I have come to believe that it is only through the dynamic, generative and often uncomfortable process of truly listening, acknowledging harm and working together with those most harmed to find solutions that we can heal and go forward.

How do you see your unique identity and background to be an asset to you in office?
As a working class person, who is younger than most of my colleagues as well as one of the very few renters in the state house I bring the experience of the majority of people to a place where this is not the majority experience. I am able to bring real life experience to intellectual discussions and I am deeply connected to people who are rarely if ever asked to come to us and speak about the very real impacts of our policy choices. It is important to me that we hear from the people closest to the problems we are trying to solve as I know first hand that usually those people know exactly how they need us to solve the issue but rarely have access to the power to make that happen.

What is your motto in life?
I believe strongly if we are in a position of power or privilege that we have an obligation to always use that to stand up for what is right and just — regardless of the consequences. The law is a measure of power who has power not what is just, but it does not have to be that way.

Where can we find out more about you?
tanyavforvt.com, @tanyavforvt on FB, Insta, and twitter

Our Favorite Progressive Candidates in 2024 - Tanya Vyhovsky, Vermont Senate, Chittenden Central