Becca Balint

Rebecca A. "Becca" Balint (born May 4, 1968) is an American politician who is a member of the United States House of Representatives from Vermont's at-large congressional district as a member of the Democratic Party. She served as a member of the Vermont Senate from Windham County from 2015 to 2023, as majority leader from 2017 to 2021, and as president pro tempore from 2021 to 2023.

Balint was born in Heidelberg, West Germany, and raised in Peekskill, New York. She was educated at Walter Panas High School, Smith College, Harvard University, and University of Massachusetts Amherst. She moved to Vermont in 1994, and worked at the Community College of Vermont in Brattleboro, Vermont.

She served as a town meeting representative and on the Development Review Board in Brattleboro. She was elected to the state senate alongside Jeanette White in 2014, becoming the first lesbian to serve in the state senate. Balint was selected to serve as majority leader by the Democratic caucus in 2017, and as the president pro tempore in 2021. She is the first woman and openly LGBT person to serve as president pro tempore in Vermont.

Balint was elected to the U.S. House in the 2022 election. She is the first woman and openly LGBT person to represent Vermont in Congress. This was also a national milestone, as her victory meant that women have been elected to Congress from every U.S. state.

Early life and education

Rebecca A. Balint was born in a United States Army hospital in Heidelberg, West Germany, on May 4, 1968, to Peter and Sandra Balint, and was raised in Peekskill, New York. Her grandfather was killed during the Holocaust and her Hungarian-Jewish father immigrated to the United States in 1957. She graduated from Walter Panas High School in 1986. Balint graduated magna cum laude from Smith College with a Bachelor of Arts degree, a Master of Education degree from Harvard University in 1995, and with a Master of Arts degree in history from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She later worked at the Community College of Vermont in Brattleboro, Vermont.

Balint came out as a lesbian in the sixth grade, although she came out formally after high school, after she was bullied for telling another girl she had a crush on her, with "lezzie" written on her locker. She moved to Vermont in 1994. She met Elizabeth Wohl in 2000, formed a civil union with her in 2004, moved to Brattleboro with her in 2007, and married her in 2009, after same-sex marriage was legalized in Vermont. The couple have two children.

Balint supported the Vermont Progressive Party in the 2000s, and supported their gubernatorial nominee, Anthony Pollina, in the 2000 election. She served as a town meeting representative and on the Development Review Board in Brattleboro.

Career

Vermont Senate

Elections

Balint announced her campaign for the Democratic nomination for a seat in the Vermont Senate against Peter Galbraith, who retired, and Jeanette White in the 2014 elections. She raised the most money in the race, around $13,000, with donations from people such as Jane Lynch, and was endorsed by Majority Leader Philip Baruth. Brandon Batham, the chair of the Democratic Party in Windham County, served as her campaign manager and later as the campaign manager for Kesha Ram's lieutenant gubernatorial campaign. Balint won the Democratic nomination alongside White and placed second in the general election ahead of an independent and two Liberty Union candidates. Her election made her the first lesbian to serve in the state senate. She was reelected in 2016, 2018, and 2020 against independent, Liberty Union, and Republican candidates.

Tenure

In 2017, the state senate voted 20 to 10, with Balint in favor, to suspend Senator Norman H. McAllister following accusations of sexual assault, his arrest in May 2015, in the Vermont State House, and a criminal trial against him. Balint served as the chair of the Senate Sexual Harassment Panel. During her tenure in the state senate she has served on the Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs, Finance, and Rules committees. The Democratic caucus unanimously voted to make Balint majority leader in 2017. In 2020, the Democratic caucus selected her to replace Tim Ashe as president pro tempore of the Vermont Senate, and she became the first woman and LGBT person to serve in the role.

During the 2016 election she was a member of the Victory Leaders Councils formed by the Democratic National Committee. During the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries she and other members of the Vermont General Assembly declined to endorse any candidate for president.

U.S House of Representatives

Elections

2022

On November 15, 2021, Senator Patrick Leahy announced that he would not seek reelection to the United States Senate in 2022. Peter Welch, a member of the United States House of Representatives from Vermont's at-large congressional district, announced that he would run to replace Leahy.

On December 13, Balint announced that she would seek the Democratic nomination to succeed Welch in the 2022 election. Natalie Silver was selected as her campaign manager. She raised over $125,000 within 24 hours of her announcement. Balint said she would follow Bernie Sanders's example by not accepting campaign contributions from corporate political action committees, but accepting political action committee donations from labor unions. The Campaign Legal Center stated that her campaign website was using red-boxing, a practice that allows a campaign to coordinate with super PACs.

During the primary, the LGBTQ Victory Fund spent around $1 million on Balint's behalf, with most of it coming from a $1.1 million donation from FTX executive Nishad Singh. Sam Bankman-Fried donated $26,100 to Balint.

Balint won the Democratic nomination with 59.6% of the vote. She won the general election, defeating the Republican nominee, former U.S. Marine Liam Madden, with over 60% of the vote.

Caucus memberships

* Congressional Progressive Caucus

Political positions

Balint sponsored legislation to limit police involvement with immigration enforcement by the federal government, opposing President Donald Trump's support for a federal registry on religious and immigration status. She voted to expand background checks on gun sales in 2018. The Vermont Conservation Voters gave her a lifetime score of 100%.

Balint opposes voter identification on the grounds that voter fraud is extremely rare and that voter ID laws are used to restrict people from voting. She supported legislation that sent all voters mail-in ballots and said that it was a part of Vermont's legacy of making voting easier. She sponsored legislation to implement ranked choice voting for presidential and congressional elections in Vermont.

Balint supported legislation to prohibit conversion therapy on minors. She supported legislation banning the gay panic defense, which passed unanimously in the state senate, but was unable to vote for it because she was presiding in place of Lieutenant Governor Molly Gray. She and Speaker Jill Krowinski gave an apology for Vermont's involvement in eugenics, including legislation from 1931 that supported a eugenics study conducted by Henry Farnham Perkins. In 2021, an amendment to the Constitution of Vermont to codify ''Roe v. Wade'' passed in the state senate, 26 to 4, with Balint in favor.

In 2016, Balint opposed legislation to legalize marijuana despite her support for legalization, saying that she "believed this bill does not leave room for the home-grown and the small growers who would like to be a part of this new economy." She initially voted against marijuana legalization in a 16 to 13 vote in 2017, but became the only member in the state senate to change her vote after an amendment by Senator John S. Rodgers reduced the cultivation application fee that ranged from $15,000 to $25,000 to $3,000 to $7,500.

Electoral history

See also

*List of first openly LGBT politicians in the United States

References

External links

Becca Balint for Congress
campaign website
Senator Becca Balint
official legislative website
*

, -

, -

, -

{{DEFAULTSORT:Balint, Becca
1968 births
21st-century American politicians
21st-century American women politicians
21st-century LGBT people
American people of Hungarian-Jewish descent
Harvard Graduate School of Education alumni
Jewish American people in Vermont politics
Lesbian politicians
LGBT state legislators in Vermont
Living people
Majority leaders of the Vermont Senate
People from Brattleboro, Vermont
Smith College alumni
University of Massachusetts Amherst alumni
Democratic Party Vermont state senators
Women state legislators in Vermont