Vermont Democrats have a new leader.
The party announced Monday that May Hanlon, who was born in Island Pond and later worked in Democratic politics in Pennsylvania, will be its new executive director.
Hanlon replaces former party director Jim Dandeneau, who stepped down last month.
“Growing up in the Northeast Kingdom, I saw firsthand how policy decisions ripple through a community. This shaped my idea that elections aren’t just about candidates, but about deep listening, meeting people where they are, and proving that Democratic policies can work for all of us,” Hanlon said in a press release Monday morning.
Her appointment to the party’s top staff role, which reports to the elected party chair and leads campaign strategy, comes at a challenging time for Democrats in Vermont and at the national level. The party turned over its state chair last month, too, with Jim Ramsey, a Manchester business and nonprofit leader, voted in to replace David Glidden.
In last fall’s election, Democrats lost more seats in Montpelier than in any other state Legislature in the country. The Vermont Republican Party gained a net 19 seats in the state House and six seats in the state Senate, stripping Democrats of powerful supermajorities in both chambers. (Democrats still control a majority of the seats in each body.)
Meanwhile, some Democratic U.S. senators’ support for a GOP-led funding package that averted a government shutdown last week showed deep divisions in the party over how its national leaders should respond to President Donald Trump — and to the recently-elected Republican majorities in the U.S. House and Senate.
According to the press release, Hanlon’s most recent experience was on the national stage, leading marketing strategy at the Democratic National Committee for the major political action committee that funded Kamala Harris’ 2024 presidential campaign.
Before that, Hanlon worked in the key swing state of Pennsylvania on that state’s House Democratic Campaign Committee. The release says that, in 2022, Hanlon “executed data-driven, long-term electoral strategies” that helped flip a net of 12 seats from GOP to Democratic control, resulting in the state’s first Democratic majority in a decade.
Hanlon started her career, the release says, working for the Vermont Public Interest Research Group, a Montpelier lobbying firm.
“I am committed to ensuring that our campaigns aren’t just about one election cycle, but about building long-term, sustainable movements that empower communitie,” she said in the release. “Together, we will strengthen Party infrastructure in every part of the state.”
Read the story on VTDigger here: Vermont Democratic Party names new executive director.