Vermont's At-Large Primary

Vermont's at-large congressional district covers the entire state, from Burlington in the northwest to Brattleboro in the southeast, since Vermont is one of seven states small enough to send a single representative to the U.S. House rather than dividing into multiple districts. The primary falls on Aug. 11. Vermont runs a traditional partisan primary; each party holds its own separate election, and the top vote-getter in each advances to the Nov. 3 general. There's no top two or ranked choice component.

Incumbent Democratic Rep. Becca Balint (D-VT) faces no primary opposition. The contest to watch is on the Republican side, where two candidates are competing for the right to challenge her in November.

The Candidates

Rep. Becca Balint (D-VT) won her seat in 2022, becoming Vermont's first woman and first openly LGBTQ+ person elected to Congress. She serves on the House Committee on the Budget and the House Committee on the Judiciary, and in the 119th Congress she's sponsored the Mental Health Career Promotion Act and the Addictive Design Act of 2026. Before Congress, Balint was a public school teacher and served as Vermont State Senate Majority Leader. She's running for a third term.

Mark Coester (R) is a Vermont businessman, sugar maker, and logger running on a constitutionalist platform; he's filed with the FEC under the committee name Carl Mark Coester. This is his second run against Balint. Gerald Malloy (R)) is a West Point graduate who served over two decades as an Army field artillery officer before moving into private sector defense contracting; he lives in Weathersfield and campaigns under the "Deploy Malloy" banner.

Outside the primary itself, Andrew Giusto (Unity Party) has declared as a write-in candidate for the November general election, and two independents, Suzanne Seymour and Ryan Patrick Walton, have also registered with the FEC for the race.

The Money Behind the Race

Balint leads all candidates in fundraising by a wide margin according to the FEC, having raised $956,339 with $475,768 spent and $626,332 in cash on hand. On the Republican side, Malloy has raised $58,280 and spent $38,573, leaving $19,707 on hand, while Coester has raised $36,040 and spent $17,760, leaving $9,208 on hand against $114,000 in committee debt. Seymour and Walton have not reported any fundraising activity.

Ratings vs. Odds

Cook Political Report and Inside Elections both rate Vermont's at-large congressional district Solid Democratic, and Sabato's Crystal Ball rates it Safe Democratic, its most confident category. Kalshi prices the Democratic contract for the general election at around 99% and the Republican contract at 3.2%, on only $681 in trading volume as of 12:12 p.m. ET on Thursday, Aug. 6. Vermont hasn't elected a Republican to the seat since 1988, and according to both the markets and raters, it's going to stay that way this year.

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