The 2000 United States Senate election in Vermont took place on November 7, 2000. Incumbent Republican U.S. Senator

Jim Jeffords James Merrill Jeffords (May 11, 1934 – August 18, 2014) was an American lawyer and politician who served as a U.S. senator from Vermont. Sworn into the Senate in 1989, he served as a Republican until 2001, when he left the party to become ...

won re-election to a third term in office. In May 2001, Jeffords left the Republican Party and announced that he would become an independent who would caucus with the Democratic Party. His party switch broke the 50–50 lock in the Senate and effectively gave the Democrats the majority. Despite his 40-point victory, this remains the most recent congressional election in Vermont won by a Republican, and the last time as of 2022, either party won this seat.

Democratic primary

Candidates

Declared

* Ed Flanagan,

Vermont Auditor of Accounts The Vermont State Auditor of Accounts is one of six constitutional officers in Vermont, elected statewide every two years. The Office provides an independent and objective assessment of Vermont's governmental operations. The current Auditor is ...

Jan Backus Jan Backus (born July 30, 1947) served as a Vermont state senator representing Windham County from 1989 to 1994 and Chittenden County from 1997 to 2000. A community activist, Backus served as a member of the Vermont Southeast Supervisory Unio ...

, former

Vermont State Senator The Vermont General Assembly is the legislative body of the state of Vermont, in the United States. The Legislature is formally known as the "General Assembly," but the style of "Legislature" is commonly used, including by the body itself. The Ge ...

and

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate

Declined

Howard Dean Howard Brush Dean III (born November 17, 1948) is an American physician, author, lobbyist, and retired politician who served as the 79th governor of Vermont from 1991 to 2003 and chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) from 2005 to 200 ...

Governor of Vermont The governor of Vermont is the head of government of Vermont. The officeholder is elected in even-numbered years by direct voting for a term of 2 years. Vermont and bordering New Hampshire are the only states to hold gubernatorial elections every ...

Results

Republican primary

Candidates

, incumbent U.S. Senator * Rick Hubbard

Results

Independents and minor parties

Independents

Declared

*Rick Hubbard

Declined

Bernie Sanders Bernard Sanders (born September8, 1941) is an American politician who has served as the junior United States senator from Vermont since 2007. He was the U.S. representative for the state's at-large congressional district from 1991 to 2007 ...

, U.S. Representative from

VT-AL Vermont has been represented in the United States House of Representatives by a single at-large congressional district since the 1930 census, when the state lost its second seat, obsoleting its 1st and 2nd congressional districts. There were on ...

; former mayor of

Burlington Burlington may refer to: Places Canada Geography * Burlington, Newfoundland and Labrador * Burlington, Nova Scotia * Burlington, Ontario, the most populous city with the name "Burlington" * Burlington, Prince Edward Island * Burlington Bay, no ...

General election

Flanagan was widely seen as having little chance of beating the highly popular Jeffords, who was thought of as a liberal Republican. Flanagan campaigned on "shaking up Washington" and portrayed himself as a reformer. Both candidates supported same-sex

civil unions A civil union (also known as a civil partnership) is a legally recognized arrangement similar to marriage, created primarily as a means to provide recognition in law for same-sex couples. Civil unions grant some or all of the rights of marriage ...

and remained silent on the issue of

same-sex marriage Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same Legal sex and gender, sex or gender. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 33 countries, with the most recent being ...

, but Flanagan, who was openly gay, noted receiving backlash from voters opposed to same-sex marriage. The

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is a ...

community in Vermont was divided between which candidate to support, as Jeffords had been strongly supportive of LGBT rights and had received a perfect score from the

Human Rights Campaign The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) is an American LGBTQ advocacy group. It is the largest LGBTQ political lobbying organization within the United States. Based in Washington, D.C., the organization focuses on protecting and expanding rights for LGB ...

Endorsements

Results

Notes

References

{{United States elections, 2000

Vermont Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to ...

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

2000 Vermont elections

Democratic primary

Candidates

Declared

Declined

Results

Republican primary

Candidates

Results

Independents and minor parties

Independents

Declared

Declined

General election

Endorsements

Results

See also

Notes

References