It is almost the end of the year, and we want to take a moment to reflect on all of the progress VPIRG has made in 2025 towards defending our democracy. For over 50 years, VPIRG has worked to advocate for the rights and interests of all Vermonters, regardless of political affiliation. We’ve made significant strides in the State House since our founding in 1972 and have found respect and camaraderie among countless lawmakers across the political spectrum who share our mission to protect Vermont’s people, environment, and locally based economy. But this year, that mission has been under threat like never before.
Back in January, Donald Trump was sworn in as president of the United States, again. Based on his campaign rhetoric, our experience with his previous administration, and his actions immediately upon taking office, we believed that Trump’s administration and policy agenda posed an immediate threat to Vermonters, and we felt we had to take a stand. We couldn’t allow the federal administration to hurt our families, neighbors, and communities across Vermont again.
We knew that another Trump presidency would have far-reaching effects well beyond our democratic institutions, and touch every area VPIRG works on, from climate & energy advocacy, to healthcare, to consumer protection, and beyond. To meet the moment, we needed to try something new: a campaign about defending our democracy and finding the folks who are the most at risk, but the least engaged. Movement-building is a tricky business, and early in our campaign planning process, we recognized that this would be a unique challenge – after all, there is no single piece of legislation that can hold creeping authoritarianism at bay. After a legislative session filled with defending the progress our state has made in years past, we started gearing up for our annual summer canvass and kicked off Democracy Summer.
Nothing could have prepared us for how eager Vermonters were to meet the moment; Democracy Summer was the most successful canvassing operation in VPIRG history. In just over three months, our canvass team knocked on over 80,000 doors in all 252 towns across Vermont, identified nearly 20,000 Vermonters ready to stand up for our democracy, and laid the foundation for a movement ready to mobilize to defend the rights and liberties of Vermonters everywhere.
While this summer’s canvass was very different than our issues-based campaigns of years past, our message was simple: without access to a free and fair democracy, we can’t make progress in any of the other areas that matter. Democracy Summer offered a way for those who feel powerless or disconnected to fight back through grassroots action, digital organizing, community events, and voter engagement.
But the summer canvass was just one component of this growing campaign. We found community and coalition among other local and statewide organizations collaborating to stand up to the threat to our democracy. Thanks to the support of our members, VPIRG was uniquely positioned to take a leading role in organizing direct actions and lend our experience and infrastructure to others within the growing movement.
In early April, we helped organize the Hands-Off Rally in Montpelier, where thousands rallied on the State House lawn to reject Trump’s Project 2025 agenda.
In June, we were able to help make the first No Kings Day rally on the Burlington Waterfront possible, recruiting our members to attend and providing event insurance for the gigantic rally. There, we caught up with Representative Becca Balint, forged new connections with volunteer organizations 50501 Vermont and Third Act, and informed so many of the work we were doing with Democracy Summer.
A few days later, we were joined by State Treasurer Mike Pieciak to officially announce the Democracy Summer Canvass, with a message of embracing unity and rejecting oligarchy. We held a press conference in Burlington’s Dewey Park, fittingly framed by the “Embrace and Belonging” sculpture.
On July 3, our canvass team, staff, and members marched in Montpelier’s Independence Day parade, where our rallying cry of “embrace unity, reject oligarchy” resonated with Vermonters across the state, as we were reminded of our nation’s core principles: equality, unalienable rights, and consent of the governed.
As the summer canvass wrapped up and we moved into fall, we kept the momentum we’d gained, organizing and showing up at events across the state, like the Labor Day Rally on Burlington’s Waterfront. When the Trump Administration sent federal troops into American cities, we fundraised for buses to bring Vermonters (and a few VPIRG staff) to rally in Washington, D.C. against the normalization of military rule in the heart of democracy.
We also began the transition to Phase 2 of our movement-building campaign. Democracy Summer became Democracy Vermont.
The newly-renamed campaign debuted at the second No Kings rally in October, with VPIRG helping organize the Montpelier event and providing posters and materials. We were joined by thousands of Vermonters, activists, and legislators who flooded the State House lawn in a sea of people awash with Democracy Vermont signs.
At its core, Democracy Vermont stands on a simple principle: Harvard University’s Erica Chenoweth’s findings that transformative change can be achieved when just 3.5% of a population engages in sustained, visible, nonviolent action. With so many activists identified across the state, the next challenge was to organize them into an effective network of local “hives” in a distributed organizing campaign unlike anything we’d attempted previously. A Democracy Vermont Hive is a group of local Vermont activists eager to take action for democracy with the goal of building more resilient communities and leaders who are not afraid to stand strong in the face of federal overreach. At the end of the day, VPIRG is a small organization, but these hives serve as force multipliers to maximize our impact at the local and state level. We’ve started small, with five active hives across the state, but our goal is to grow to have one in each of Vermont’s senate districts in the coming year.
Interested in joining your local Democracy Vermont Hive? Fill out the Hive Interest Form, check out the Democracy Vermont website, stay up to date on our Instagram feed to stay tuned for upcoming events in the new year!
With the introduction of Trump’s disastrous “Big Beautiful Bill,” our work ramped up even further. With the help of our partners at Vermont Conservation Voters, Hunger Free Vermont, Vermont Natural Resources Council, and Planned Parenthood Vermont Action Fund, we began a Big Beautiful Tour About a Big Ugly Bill to educate Vermonters about the impacts of Trump’s signature agenda item and mobilize them to action.
Our most recent tour event, held last week in Brattleboro, was our largest so far, with almost 100 concerned Vermonters in attendance. Read more about the event in the Brattleboro Reformer.
In November, we were joined in Burlington by Vermonters from across the state for our first Democracy Vermont Volunteer Training, where our team gave an overview of the tools that VPIRG can offer to activists to continue organizing and prepare for the upcoming legislative session.
Later that same evening, we hosted VPIRG’s 2025 Annual Meeting, where we shared with members, board members, and staff–both current and past–the success of our summer canvass and what we have planned for Democracy Vermont. We were joined by Attorney General Charity Clark, who has been on the front lines of standing up to the Trump Administration’s overreaches, filing, and winning, countless lawsuits to protect the rights of Vermonters.
As our Democracy Vermont campaign continues to grow, so will the opportunities to learn and participate. Check out our Community Activism Webinar to learn how to safely protest, and stay tuned for more sign-making parties before large-scale rallies, alerts to keep Vermonters informed of harmful legislation coming out of D.C., and more. We’re in this together, and we will continue to encourage folks to show up, take care of each other, and engage in small acts of resistance however they are able.
As 2025 comes to a close, all of us here at VPIRG are preparing for the 2026 legislative session, working with key allies and legislative champions to prepare a suite of policies for consideration in the coming year. Given the severity of the threats we face, we’re backing bold plans to counter authoritarian overreach, defend the voting rights of all citizens, protect our people, environment, and economy, and implement other pro-democracy reforms.
We’re expanding our policy work into new areas to meet the moment as well. We’ll be working to counter illegal actions of I.C.E in Vermont, and just last week, we helped convene an I.C.E mobilization strategy session with other allies to explore future actions.
We’ve been busy this year, but through it all, we continued to produce episodes of our podcast: Vermont’s Voice. Throughout the year we were joined by Vermont leaders like U.S. Senator Peter Welch, Attorney General Charity Clark, Senator Anne Watson and Representative Monique Priestly, Secretary of State Sarah Copeland Hanzas, Treasurer Mike Pieciak, Representative Dara Torre, Senator Becca White, and many more. You can learn more about the show at www.vpirg.org/vermonts-voice, and stay tuned for our second season!
We have accomplished a great deal this year, and yet there’s so much more to do. All of us here at VPIRG are motivated to continue this fight alongside our neighbors, community members, families, friends, and fellow Vermonters. We know that we could not have accomplished any of these achievements without the support of VPIRG members across the state. Whether you’ve been a member with us for decades or just got involved this year, we see you, we appreciate you, and we hope to keep connecting and collaborating in the new year.
A huge THANK YOU goes out to our amazing canvassers, both past and present, who showed up in record numbers this year in rain, sleet, snow, or the occasional sunshine to learn, resist, and mobilize fellow Vermonters in this fight to defend our democracy.
Standing up to autocracy isn’t easy, but the momentum is growing on our side. Thank you for engaging, contributing, and helping Vermont play a role in this movement.
