BELLOWS FALLS-With a cheer of “out with the old, in with Janoo,” an enthusiastic crowd of around 100 people met with Democratic gubernatorial candidate Amanda Janoo Sept. 18 for a morning question-and-answer session at the Flat Iron Café.
The crowd was standing room only and spilled out onto the sidewalk.
Janoo faces incumbent Republican Gov. Phil Scott, who is running for his sixth two-year term. She has strong local support however, as Janoo defeated her challenger in the August Democratic primary, Aly Richards, by a 2-to-1 margin in the Windham-3 district, which includes Rockingham, Westminster, and Brookline.
Janoo, 38, was born on a farm and grew up in South Strafford in a working-class, biracial family. Her father, a Malaysian immigrant, worked as a civil engineer by day “while washing dishes at night to support his family,” according to her official biography.
Her upbringing was steeped in rural Vermont agriculture — raising sheep, gardening, and maple syrup production. She says that attending the Annual Town Meeting in her town was where she “received her first education in both democracy and economics.”
Educated as an economist, she has worked globally with the United Nations and other international development organizations helping develop local economies.
In recent years in Vermont, she co-founded the Wellbeing Economy Alliance of Vermont and served on the boards of the ACLU of Vermont and Rights & Democracy Vermont.
Healthcare concerns
Local access to healthcare was the focus of many comments and questions at Friday’s event, and for several reasons.
Attendees brought up four recent disruptions in local options for medical services in the Bellows Falls region:
• The Health Center at Bellows Falls by NorthStar Health closed in 2024, which has forced residents to travel at least 17 miles for even basic medical services.
• Brattleboro Memorial Hospital is struggling to keep its birthing center open. The hospital has reversed course on its previous announcement that it would likely close the facility later this year.
• Earlier last week, Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, the primary choice for local residents facing serious medical issues, announced that it is eliminating 427 jobs at its main hospital in Lebanon, New Hampshire and across its southern region clinics.
• The University of Vermont Medical Center in Burlington has announced the elimination of 199 positions across its medical system.
Others asked what could be done about the “astronomical cost” of health insurance premiums, especially as the Trump administration has cut healthcare funding at the federal level.
Marty Gallagher, executive director of Greater Rockingham Area Services, urged Janoo to make access to rural healthcare a priority if she is elected.
Janoo agreed that the entire healthcare system in the country is in crisis and that there “is a need to lay a foundation for universal healthcare.”
Describing healthcare as a “multi-state issue,” she said she would seek a multi-state coalition to address the healthcare crisis instead of waiting for the federal government to act.
She also said that her platform includes a program to “train and attract” more primary care health workers.
Immigration and small-business support
Steve Crofter of Bellows Falls spoke about the town’s history of being a welcoming community for waves of immigrants over the past two centuries.
Crofter, the founder of the Community Asylum Seekers Project, said he saw that legacy as a strength for the community.
Janoo agreed that Vermont has a history as a “very welcoming place” for immigrants and added that she wants “to make sure that everyone in Vermont feels fundamentally safe.”
Larisa Demos, who operates the Flat Iron Café, asked what Janoo would do to help small businesses.
Janoo spoke of using small-business tax incentives and subsidies, noting that millions of dollars in subsidies are available for large corporations, while just “$2,000 can make a big difference for a small general store.”
She also said that she would look into taxing some of the “larger online companies.”
Candidates offer praise
“Amanda represents a change, a new direction,” said Chris Lundberg of Rockingham, one of the candidates for a Windham-3 seat in the state House of Representatives.
“She is intelligent, driven, and brings a newer perspective,” Lundberg said, adding that he was willing to support her and help her make things work.
On the night before the Bellows Falls event, Janoo attended a Windham County Democratic Party fundraiser in Brattleboro along with Democratic candidates Molly Gray for lieutenant governor, Tim Ashe for auditor of accounts, and Mike Pieciak for state treasurer.
“Being able to participate in the Meet the Candidates night in Brattleboro and the next morning in Bellows Falls with Amanda at the Flat Iron Café strengthens my belief in democracy,” said Bellows Falls resident Robert McBride, who gave Janoo a tour of the village after the question-and-answer session.
“Little Vermont offers all of us that opportunity to engage, participate and make a difference in our communities and elect candidates that represent us,” said McBride, founder and director of the nonprofit Rockingham Arts and Museum Project (RAMP).
He added that Janoo “is clearly a competent candidate to become our next governor. She has experience, ideas, and perhaps the greatest attribute — she listens.”
Lundberg said he also attended the Brattleboro event and was impressed with all the Democratic candidates for statewide office.
“All of them are intelligent and articulate,” he said. “Mike, Molly, and Tim all have experience in the offices they are running for. All are younger, which I’m hoping will bring a fresh perspective and new ideas to their offices.”
Lundberg said that he liked that the candidates “all seem enthusiastic, and my feeling is they will work very well together.” He said that Janoo, while not having held an office like this before, “is intelligent [and] has a solid background in economics, along with extensive travel and experience dealing with a range of economies and people.”
He finds Janoo and the other candidates “open-minded, willing to hear the ideas and opinions of others and willing to change course if necessary.”
“I left this meeting feeling pretty good about these candidates and hopeful for the future of Vermont,” Lundberg concluded. “These times call for something new.”
State Rep. Michelle Bos-Lun, D-Windham-3, attended both events and said that “Amanda’s values and approach are what Vermont needs. I have served in the Legislature for six years and have seen repeatedly how Scott vetoes important legislation that had bipartisan support.”
Bos-Lun, who is running for re-election for one of the seats in the two-seat district, said that the body passed preliminary legislation to set the way for Universal Primary Care.
“Janoo wants Universal Primary Care, too — it is one of her primary platform issues,” said Bos-Lun, adding that Janoo “also has spoken in support of a tax on the 1% to support the other 99%.”
“Both these policies are ones Vermont should implement,” Bos-Lun said. “So many Vermonters are struggling right now.”
She also cited “environmental policies like the Data Center bill (H.727), or medical bills like the Hospital Savings bill (S.190) that Scott vetoed in 2026.”
Bos-Lun praised Janoo as “smart, dynamic, caring,” and for being someone who “listens deeply,” and she said that, for those two days, she watched the candidate “inspire groups of people who in most cases had not seen her in person before.”
She said she saw Janoo speak at the Brattleboro fundraiser and also helped with her visit to Bellows Falls.
“At both events I watched the crowd erupt with an enthusiasm I have only seen for [U.S. Sen.] Bernie [Sanders] in the past,” Bos-Lun said.
This News item by Robert F. Smith was written for The Commons.