Why H. Brooke Paige appears 4 times on the Vt. Republican primary ballot | Vermont Public
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Election 2026
Vermont Public is your source for this year's August primaries and November general election.
Why one name will appear 4 times on Vermont’s Republican primary ballot
Vermont Public |<br>By<br>Bob Kinzel
Published June 23, 2026 at 5:00 AM EDT
Bluesky
Oliver Parini
Vermont Public file
H. Brooke Paige, pictured here on election night in 2018, runs as a Republican candidate for multiple offices at once in statewide elections. This year, he's on the ballot for secretary of state, treasurer, attorney general and auditor.
Voters might be a little confused when they look at the Republican statewide primary ballot this year. No, that’s not a typo — there is one person, H. Brooke Paige of Washington, who is listed as a candidate for four different offices: secretary of state, treasurer, attorney general and auditor.<br>As the Vermont Republican Party continues to struggle to field candidates for statewide seats, Paige has once again chosen to be a legal candidate in these races as a way to block Vermont Democrats from securing the GOP nominations using the write-in process.<br>Because Vermont has an open primary system, any person can choose which party’s primary they want to vote in.<br>Paige said he was particularly irked in 2016, when no Republicans filed to run for the U.S. House, secretary of state or treasurer.<br>This made it possible for more than 1,000 people to “cross over” and request a Republican ballot with the express purpose of writing in the names of three incumbent Democrats. All three won these uncontested primary races, and this allowed them to be listed as both the Republican and Democrat candidate for the general election in November.<br>Paige said he went to Republican leaders and told them that the situation was “a glaring problem and an embarrassment to the party,” and he had a possible solution.<br>The answer was in the Vermont Constitution, which states that a single candidate is prohibited from serving in more than one of three specific statewide offices at the same time: governor, lieutenant governor or treasurer. Otherwise, there are no restrictions on how many statewide contests an individual candidate can run in.<br>Paige then turned to Vermont election law. He discovered that it allows a winning candidate to withdraw from a primary race if it’s done within 10 days after the election. In these cases, the state committee has the authority to select a replacement candidate and put them on the general election ballot.<br>Since the 2018 election, this is the strategy that Paige and the Republican state committee has used for a number of primary contests. The pattern is always the same: Paige runs for multiple offices, wins those races, drops out, and the state committee selects replacement candidates. Paige said that’s the plan for this year, adding that “my hope is that the party, myself included, can go out and find people who can be called on for civil duty.”<br>Why does the Republican Party have such a difficult time finding candidates for these statewide offices?<br>Party Chair Paul Dame said the GOP is focused on making a major effort to recruit strong legislative candidates this year to build on its successes in 2024. He also said it’s been difficult to persuade candidates to challenge incumbent statewide Democrats because of the time and financial commitment needed to run a competitive race.<br>But he said allowing the state committee to select a candidate can make the nomination more attractive to potential candidates. “It’s helpful to keep those slots open so if we do get a candidate that comes forward, we can pretty much guarantee we can get them on the ballot in November using Brooke’s approach.”<br>Vermont’s primary election will be held on Tuesday, Aug. 11 and Paige says in the days following the election he will follow his now familiar script. After he presumably wins the nominations for attorney general, treasurer and auditor, he will withdraw from those races. He then plans to concentrate his energy on the contest for secretary of...