Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., is projected to win the Democrat Senate primary Tuesday night, according to Decision Desk HQ.
The race for the seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., was called at 7:36 p.m. ET, after the polls closed at 7 p.m.
Welch, a liberal Democrat known for working across the aisle, has held his House seat since 2007. He easily defeated Niki Thran and Isaac Evans-Frantz in the deep blue state.
Welch will compete in November's general election against whomever wins the Republican Senate primary between Gerald Malloy, Christina Nolan, or Myers Mermel.
Former President Donald Trump, who has won more around 95% of his midterm endorsements this cycle, has not made an endorsement in Vermont.
Leahy, who has held the seat since 1975 and was the last of Congress' so-called Watergate babies.
During the years he has been in Congress, Welch has been one of Vermont's top vote-getters and would be an odds-on favorite to win the general election.
The two leading Republican candidates vying to face off against Welch in the Senate race are Vermont's former U.S. Attorney Nolan and retired U.S. Army officer Malloy.
Both believe they can win the seat, although Vermont is considered by many to be one of the most liberal states in the country. No Republican has represented the state in Washington since 2001 when the late Sen. Jim Jeffords left the GOP to become an independent, switching control of the Senate from Republican to Democrat.
Welch's decision to run for the Senate seat opens up his seat in the House, the first time since 2006 that there have been any openings in Vermont's three-member congressional delegation.
Becca Balint has been project the winner of the Democratic nomination for Vermont's at-large congressional district, according to Decision Desk HQ as of 8:28 p.m. ET.
In deep blue Vermont it is likely the winner of the Democrar House primary will win easily in November, erasing what some consider to be the blot on the liberal state's reputation of only being represented by white men.
The two leading GOP candidates for the U.S. House nomination are Ericka Redic, of Burlington, and Liam Madden, a Marine Corps veteran from Bellows Falls.
Redic says, if elected, she would focus on fighting inflation, illegal immigration, drug misuse and government overreach, particularly as it concerns vaccine mandates.
Madden, a non-traditional candidate in the Republican primary, says he's an independent. He said he had thought of declining the nomination if he wins, until he learned that would allow the party to choose a replacement for the November ballot.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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