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In his third congressional race, Republican Gerald Malloy is looking for middle ground

Gerald Malloy, Republican candidate for Vermont’s U.S. House of Representatives seat. Photo by Emma White/VTDigger

By Emma WhitePublished Oct 16, 2026, 3:37 PMUpdated Oct 17, 20267 min read

A man in a suit and yellow patterned tie stands in front of a large black-and-white photograph of a building under construction.

Gerald Malloy, Republican candidate for Vermont’s U.S. House of Representatives seat. Photo by Emma White/VTDigger

" data-large-file="https://vtdigger.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Gerald-Malloy-2026.png" /> Gerald Malloy, Republican candidate for Vermont’s U.S. House of Representatives seat. Photo by Emma White/VTDigger

It’s been six years and two big losses since “Deploy Malloy” first entered Vermonters’ vocabulary — but this time he’s taking a different tack.

The slogan belongs to Gerald Malloy, a U.S. army veteran, former defense contractor at Lockheed Martin, Bowhead and Raytheon, and perennial congressional candidate in the Green Mountain State since 2022. He previously lost to two liberal U.S. senators in landslide races, and he’s now seeking a congressional office for a third time, challenging U.S. Rep. Becca Balint, D-Vt.

His message? Lower bureaucratic barriers for business to develop in Vermont and bring balanced representation back to Vermont — representation that reflects red parts of Vermont as well as blue.

Malloy arrived on the Vermont political scene in 2022 with an endorsement from President Trump and conservative stances on issues like immigration and abortion, according to Middlebury College political science professor Matt Dickinson. He positioned himself to the right of Christina Nolan, the moderate Republican candidate whom Gov. Phil Scott endorsed, Dickinson added. Malloy also expressed his support for a border wall and disclosed that he had voted for Trump in past elections.

Now, political experts say Malloy may be changing his tune. He said he has broken with Trump on certain issues, such as the tariff war with Canada, the government’s military strategy in the Iran war and some current immigration enforcement tactics.

Despite some disagreements with Trump, Malloy said he still considers himself a conservative Republican. This time his platform centers around affordability and business. Vermont’s young people are leaving the state, he said, due to issues with affordability, and he wants to turn the tide.

Balint, the Democratic incumbent, is the third member of the Vermont congressional delegation that Malloy will face off against. First elected to national office in 2022, Balint champions issues like affordable housing, healthcare, climate action and reproductive rights. She is a vocal opponent of the Trump administration as well, encouraging Democrats to stand up against the White House.

Polls indicate Balint is the clear favorite, with one recent survey from Vermont Public showing that if the election was held on the day of the survey, 43% of poll respondents would vote for Balint and 28% for Malloy.

It is notoriously hard to unseat incumbents in House races, Dickinson said, especially as a Republican in a blue state. Malloy’s previous opponents, U.S. Sens. Peter Welch and Bernie Sanders, won in landslides, with Welch taking 68% of the vote in 2022 and Sanders taking 63% of the vote in 2024.

And Vermont is a special case, Dickinson added, noting that the last time an incumbent governor was ousted was in 1962.

“Vermonters generally stick with what they know,” he said.

Malloy disagreed. He’s been going door-to-door and talking to people all over the state, he said, and he’s heard a different message.

“Vermonters want change,” Malloy said. “They want balance. They want results, and they want accountability. We don’t have that right now.”

And Malloy has shown grit and connection with people on the ground throughout his campaigns, according to Paul Dame, chair of the Vermont Republican Party.

“I think Malloy is somebody who, even during his first run, was somebody who went everywhere to talk to everybody,” Dame said. “I mean that’s one of the reasons he was sort of the surprising win in the first primary, you know, against Christina Nolan, is he just puts in the work and he goes to people.”

Malloy has always been a strong candidate in the primaries, according to Nicholas Charyk, the manager of government and public affairs at Downs Rachlin Martin — the largest law firm in Vermont — and a past campaign manager for multiple Vermont Democrats, adding that his win against Nolan came as a surprise to many in Vermont’s political community. He drew a comparison between Malloy’s 2022 campaign and Democrat Amanda Janoo’s recent gubernatorial primary win against Ali Richards, whom many political experts expected to win.

But after the primaries, the two candidates’ roads diverged, Charyk said.

“I think Amanda has continued to surprise people by gaining real traction and making it a real race,” Charyk said. “Malloy was unable to do that.”

Dickinson described Malloy’s 2022 platform as “hawkish,” with an emphasis on foreign policy and Malloy’s military experience, which inspired the slogan “Deploy Malloy.” He embraced Trump’s endorsement, Dickinson said. Malloy also expressed support for a nationwide abortion ban in June 2022, but he reversed course after Roe v. Wade was overturned.

“The problem is, as he found out when he was beaten easily by Peter Welch, is there’s a ceiling to being a MAGA type Republican in Vermont,” Dickinson said. “You’re not going to get more than 30% of the vote.”

Since 2022, Dame said there has been an effort from Vermont’s Republican party at large to bridge the gap between Gov. Phil Scott’s moderate stances and the more conservative national GOP.

Supporting Gov. Scott has been a core facet of Malloy’s campaign platform in 2026, Dickinson said. Malloy argued that Scott has not been receiving the support he needs from Balint, Sanders and Welch, pointing out in an interview that all three members of Vermont’s congressional delegation endorsed Janoo, Scott’s opponent.

Balint countered that argument, highlighting collaborations between herself and Scott on housing, infrastructure, rural health care and the impacts of the tariff war with Canada.

“We certainly don’t agree on everything, but we do work together to get results for our state,” Balint wrote in a text to VTDigger.

It is difficult for her to “tease out” the exact reason why Malloy was running for a seat in the national congressional body, Balint said.

“He’s very focused on state issues, which I totally get,” Balint said. “We have a lot of them here, and a lot of the stuff he talks about is focused on state-level issues, which we in Congress don’t get to weigh in on.”

Malloy has drawn attention to expletives in statements made by Balint in previous cycles, which he argued are “disgraceful,” and called on Balint to resign.

“She’s committed misconduct and should not be in office,” Malloy said in the interview.

Balint, for her part, said she’s seen a “different side” of Malloy, who she said has been quite “affable” over the years. She said she was surprised by the tactics in his campaign ads and his emphasis on her instances of “coarse language,” adding that she has a large body of work in healthcare, housing and other issues that shows her dedication to Vermonters.

“You can make a case around policy for why you might not support what I believe,” Balint said in an interview, “but he is openly supporting a president who has said absolutely horrible things about women, about immigrants, about trans people — really horrific things.”

Some Vermonters remain skeptical about Malloy’s allegiances with Trump, and whether he will be willing to break with the president on key issues. Charyk said he sees clear evidence that Malloy’s stance has moderated lately, but he does not know if it will be enough for Vermonters.

“He was pretty full-throated in his support historically,” Charyk said, “but whether sort of a nuanced, slight differentiation is going to be meaningful to Vermont voters, I’m very, very skeptical.”

Balint agreed, arguing that Vermonters have experienced real harm in the past few years through the decisions of the federal government.

“I think that Vermonters can see directly how this president’s initiatives have really hurt them, from, you know, the cuts to Medicaid, to letting the Affordable Care Act subsidies lapse, to the cuts to SNAP,” she said. “And so he doesn’t seem to have a clear case that he’s making to Vermonters that he will be a check on this president, because I think he’s still very much in support of this president.”

Charyk and Dickinson both emphasized one thing: Malloy has an uphill battle ahead of him. But Malloy said he likes his chances, and he will continue to fight for the Vermont he wants to see.

“I want Vermont to be a place to stay, live, and thrive,” Malloy said. “It’s not on that path right now.”

Read the story on VTDigger here: In his third congressional race, Republican Gerald Malloy is looking for middle ground.

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In his third congressional race, Republican Gerald Malloy is looking for middle ground

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