Thank You - A Post-Primary Letter

Dear Friend,

While the election results are a disappointment for us, I want you to know how grateful I am for your support—and that my commitment to serving Vermont and Vermonters in whatever way I can has not wavered at all.

You know, in some ways democracy is just straightforward math. Tally up the ballots and the candidates with the most votes win.

But I experienced something else meeting people across our district throughout the campaign and then seeing the returns last night: democracy as a kind of alchemy. Each vote isn't just a number. It's a powerful representation of someone's concerns and hopes transferred to and entrusted with a person they believe can help make a difference for them and their community.

I am so humbled by the thousands of voters across our district who entrusted me with one of their votes. We don't know the final tally yet but the likely 5,600 plus votes I received are not just a number to me. I know that within that overall number are so many people who I respect and admire so much, people who had unique and powerful reasons for giving me their vote. I am so honored to have received each and every vote in that total, and I am humbled by what those votes represent. Even if it’s not as your Senator, I will keep working both with and for you.

I want to congratulate Anne Watson, Ann Cummings, and Andrew Perchlik on winning the top three spots in the primary. And I want to thank Jeremy Hansen for putting himself out there, too. I think the five of us ran a positive, issue-focused campaign. Congratulations especially to Mayor Anne Watson for such a strong result. I am proud to call Anne a friend. I know her to be a very good person and I am confident that she will be a very good Senator for the Washington district, joining Sen. Perchlik and Sen. Cummings.

Our three Democratic nominees for the Senate in the Washington District are all good people and devoted public servants. I look forward to supporting all of them in November and doing whatever I can to help them between now and then.

We always knew this was going to be a tough race. Of the five candidates, I was the only one appearing on a ballot for the first time. And, because of the required political neutrality of my professional work, I did not have the Party relationships that the other candidates had. While I hoped that the conventional wisdom could be turned upside down, the power of incumbency and high name recognition proved strong, yet again, in our district. I earned the support of so many people who I was able to meet and talk with in person, yet I feel like I just couldn't meet enough people in time. And while I knocked on doors and/or held events in all 23 towns and cities in the district, I still only met a small fraction of voters -- and that's a tough position for a first-time candidate.

I don't have any regrets. This has been such a wonderful experience. I got to meet so many amazing people who I otherwise wouldn't know. I got to travel down dirt roads and see beautiful parts of our district that I otherwise wouldn't have seen and have experiences I otherwise wouldn’t have experienced— including encountering so much kindness and generosity from Vermonters.

Most of all, I am so proud of and humbled by your support. I may not have had the broadest support—but among the supporters I did have, it was deep support. I felt that depth of support throughout the campaign and last night into this morning and it means so much to me—making coming up short hurt a little less.

More people donated to our campaign than any other State Senate campaign in Vermont. Over 75 Washington District voters—including many of my favorite people in the world—endorsed me, as did others outside the district, and the member organizations Rights and Democracy, Sierra Club, VPIRG, and Vermont Conservation Voters.

Special thanks also to Kate Stephenson and Glen Coburn Hutcheson; Christine McGowan, Catherine Crowley, and Christine Donovan; Chelsea Bardot Lewis; Ben Doyle and Angela Shea; and Caitlin Corkins and Elizabeth Peebles, who hosted wonderful meet & greets in Montpelier, Stowe, Waterbury, and Barre City.

I was also the youngest candidate in this race. And I want you to know that I am still in the early stages of my public service in and for Vermont. I look forward to returning to Energy Action Network full time (this afternoon!) and to continuing to serve on the Vermont Climate Council and on the Board of the Public Assets Institute.

And, when the time is right, I look forward to getting this group of supporters back together, adding to it, and seeing what we can do in the future after applying all the lessons learned from this first campaign.

If I had to summarize the purpose of politics in just three words, it would be: keeping our promise. To me, that phrase has a dual meaning, looking both backward and forward. Keeping a promise to—or fulfilling the bond we have with—our ancestors. Those people, from family members to social movement members, who worked hard and sacrificed to entrust us with the world and state we have today. We have to keep a promise to them that we will honor all they did for us by leaving this world and our state a better place than we found it.

Because we also have to keep our promise in another way, and that is to keep alive the promise of our next and future generations. That is why I am so dedicated to real and equitable climate action -- to preserve the still-possible and unmet promise of a more just and sustainable future for our kids and their kids.

In thinking about past and future generations, I want to end with some gratitude for my family.

When the opportunity to run for State Senate first came up, the first person I talked about it with was my wife, Joan. Her immediate reaction was "you have to do this." Her 100% belief and unwavering support gave me early confidence and helped make this campaign possible. And our son Liam dutifully spent much of his summer at political events, patiently waiting while I talked to voters. He earned more than a few creemies—and one of the silver linings of this outcome is that I'll have a lot more time over the rest of the summer and fall to play with him.

My mom, Alice Blackmer, is more responsible than anyone for developing and nurturing my love of Vermont and Vermonters. And she has always believed that I have something important to contribute to the world and encouraged me to be of service to others, however and as authentically as I feel called. One of the highlights of the campaign for me was spending a weekend canvassing with her and ending a day at the East Warren Community Market, across the street from where my Great Grandmother, Eloise McGlaflin, was born.

I've been thinking about my Dad, Bill Duval, who passed away in 2015, a lot during this campaign. The economic effects of the health challenges he faced during my childhood and beyond seared into me a strong class consciousness and a passion for economic justice. I hope that he would be proud of the hard-working, blue-collar campaign we ran. I will always come from and be deeply committed to the working class of Vermont. It was especially nice to meet a voter in Stowe yesterday who had worked with my Dad at the Trapp Family Lodge back in the 1970s while he was a chef there.

Thanks also to all the Javier, Duval, Blackmer, Palmer, Dorrance, McKay, and more family members who stepped up to help out. And my list of family includes a lot of chosen family, too. Those of you who were there from the beginning, at the campaign launch on the State House Lawn or who made early and generous donations. Who joined us in parades or for canvassing or who held a sign at the polls. And so much more than I can name… Thank you, thank you, thank you.

And, while I know this is already a long post-election message, I can't close without saying this: Sen. Andrew Perchlik is one of the most decent people and one of the most devoted public servants I have ever had the privilege to know. We are so lucky to have him as one of our State Senators.

Andy is not your typical politician. He is humble. He's often quiet and deliberate. He listens more than he talks. He is down to earth. And he always does what he thinks is right, even if it's not easy. Endorsing me in this race was not a rationally advisable decision for Andy to make. Many establishment interests didn't know what to do with a first-time candidate like me. But Andy endorsed me anyway because he thought it was the right thing to do. I am so proud to have Andy as a State Senator and I feel so blessed to call him and Marianne friends.

Andy has such an admirable combination of virtues. He studies the issues, he responds to constituents with empathy and devotion, and he treats everyone with respect. While I won't be in the Senate in the next two years, I take particular heart in knowing that Andy will be there working for us—if we give him all the support he deserves in November, along with all of our other Democratic candidates.

Sincerely…and still and always yours in service,

Jared