Howard Dean will not challenge Phil Scott for governor in 2024
https://www.vermontpublic.org/local-news/2024-05-20/howard-dean-not-run-governor-phil-scott-esther-charlestin
Howard Dean will not challenge Phil Scott for governor in 2024
Vermont Public | By Peter Hirschfeld
Published May 20, 2024 at 4:36 PM EDT
Former Democratic Gov. Howard Dean ended
weeks of suspense over whether hed challenge Republican Gov. Phil Scott this year when he announced Monday morning that he will not be a candidate for elected office.
Dean said a poll that he commissioned recently found that even with his high name recognition, he would still only get to within 10 points of defeating the popular incumbent in a general election matchup.
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Closing that gap, he said, would require a brand of campaigning to which hes unwilling to stoop.
In theory, this is a winnable race, but Ive been in state and national politics for a very long time. And theres only one way to close a 10-point gap between two well-known candidates, and that is to run a scorched-earth negative attack campaign like ones being run all over the country, Dean said at a press conference in downtown Waterbury Monday morning.
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