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Vermont Is Pricing Out Its Own People | Aly Richards

Morgan Gold

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CHAPTERS
0:00 Who is Aly Richards?
01:10 I showed up at Aly Richards's house
01:38 Why Aly Richards is running for governor
02:58 From advocate to chief executive?
03:43 Knocking doors in Brattleboro
07:57 Fact-checking Aly Richards's origin story
09:14 But what does she actually stand for?
09:42 The ice cream truck
10:31 What Act 76 (childcare) actually did
14:10 Her pitch: education, health care, and a plan
16:00 Rural Vermont, Act 181, and trust
18:13 Housing and the "canary in the coal mine"
21:22 The economic action plan — and the hard math
24:35 On the campaign trail
25:45 Energy, climate, and data centers
29:40 Running against Phil Scott
32:00 Where the race stands
32:43 My honest take on Aly Richards
36:42 Aly Richards is Leslie Knope in real life

If you're looking to find my Substack where I publish weekly comics and essay about Vermont, go here: https://substack.com/@morgangold

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I knew next to nothing about Aly Richards, the current frontrunner to be Vermont's next governor — so I showed up at her house to find out who she actually is. This is a day on the campaign trail with her: knocking on doors in Brattleboro, talking childcare and Act 76, housing, health care, and the question nobody can avoid — can anyone actually beat Phil Scott? Can Aly Richards beat Amanda Janoo in the Democratic primary? At the end, I give you my honest take.

Aly Richards spent the last decade running Let's Grow Kids and helped push through Act 76, the law that overhauled how Vermont funds childcare. Now she's making the leap straight from advocacy to running for governor. I went canvassing with her, sat down for a long interview, fact-checked her origin story, and tried to work out whether the substance holds up. I came in a skeptic. Where I landed surprised me.

20 Comments

@judykinsman3258 3 months ago

Thank you Morgan for being an activist for good, informed citizens.

@familyengineering5591 3 months ago

Its everywhere theyre pricing out their young people

@wasimhbaig 3 months ago

I've never set foot in Vermont and probably never will. And yet here I am in Islamabad, more invested in this race than anything closer to home, coz Morgan doesn't just narrate it, he puts you right in the middle of it.

@StarksboroVT 3 months ago

Thank you, Morgan. I'm a Vermonter (who has never voted for Phil Scott), and I'm happy to know a lot more about Aly now.

@CassidyWarren-c4v 3 months ago

Lived in VT for 20 years. Left 2 years ago after selling my business and house. Too much regulation on small businesses and housing doubled in price since all the out of staters bought sight unseen during COVID. The locals can’t afford to live the simple life that everyone liked about VT.

@kimmichaels899 3 months ago

What did she do for housing, Healthcare, and property tax? Our home taxes doubled, our Healthcare actually got worse and our daughter has not been able to work for 8 years because childcare is so expensive!! Whats going on here?? More bs??

@IVolutionI 3 months ago

I have a small family and moved and started a company here in vermont. We now have decided to leave after living here for years.

@Azzy224 3 months ago

More spending more government and more regulation doesn’t sound like it’ll make Vermont affordable. The only thing that can really make any place in America affordable is lower taxes, less regulation and a smaller government. Govern the public areas and use money for schools, streets, safety and protection of the environment but that’s it. These state governments spend things on way too much crap that nobody sees any results from. Then they raise taxes spend more raise taxes spend more and eventually price everyone out of everything

@meghanhughes 2 months ago

This was an awesome interview & it was a pleasure to meet you in Brattleboro while you were down here filming!

@megangoerig4896 3 months ago

i was listening to this in the background while driving and at the end when you made the Leslie Knope reference i actually shouted out loud in agreement! without seeing the video, that’s exactly who i imagined was talking in her voice ❤

@Ohhaiimpaul 3 months ago (edited)

Her position on healthcare is a joke. Even if Janoo’s position on universal healthcare is a long shot in the legislature, she at least is proposing a concrete solution. I got on Richardson’s website, and all she does is mention vague ideas about brain storming, basically. One of the number one burdens in this state is property taxes, which is due to out-of-staters coming in and buying high, and healthcare for school employees. No one is proposing to even renegotiate with BCBS or find another company. It’s literally like the number one thing that never came up when they passed this terrible school consolidation law. I’m not voting for anyone unless they have a serious, concrete proposal to fix healthcare. This video reminds me a lot of the VPR Q&A with Zoie Saunders, where she spoke for two hours without really saying anything.

@NightIsComing12 3 months ago

I’m a fan of the Gold Shaw Farm videos. I saw this guy and heard his voice and thought, “There’s something familiar about this guy!” I was right!

@Kupkaik 3 months ago

I moved here from the midwest, it's just me and I work in a hospital. I can't even afford to live in the state and have to commute from NY every day for work. For me, it's the rent prices. $1600 for an absolute run down home built in the 1800s not kept up with because Vermont won't allow actual apartment buildings. Not to mention with so many single family homes being renovated to Temu apartments, it really kills off the housing for single family homes and drives up the cost of the market.

@Netasurfer 3 months ago

For your political activity and defense of the interests of ordinary people, I express my respect to you.

@ginnys8215 3 months ago

This is really good, I hope many ppl watch it. Great job!

@dacokc 3 months ago

It’s everywhere… for sure.

I wonder how my small kids will ever afford a house at this point.

@pacodefrancis7235 3 months ago

Act 76 was ultimately still an expansion of government. We need a leader who is a problem solver but can make life better for vermonters without raising an extra dime in revenue. She's taking a moderate stance, at least in the primary to seperate herself from Mandy Janoo, but she has not yet said how she'll reduce spending which should be priority number 1 for every voter.

@vettech7197 2 months ago

I LOVE VT, My soul is here. I have been here for over a decade and assimilated into the culture and lifestyle before I got here, you can relate. I have unfortunately found myself sicker and poorer. Being from MASS and seeing their cheaper gas prices, food prices, and highest quality medicine makes you go hmmmm if only finding a place to, live IN was affordable. AAAand if you live in a tourist town, esp. in rural NEK, the price of bare essentials can force you to make choices like food or gas or medicine.

@timbenson6577 3 months ago

The average mortgage for first time home buyer in Vermont is over $3000 dollars and growing,look at the average education level,look at the the average income level,look at the new industries coming into Vermont.We have to try to understand how people make a living now and what is realisticly possible for job growth in Vermont.We can't become a second home,work from home State that Taxes residence out of there homes.For the average working class voter a $1200 mortgage is really tough.