MONTPELIER, Vt. (WCAX) – Former Addison County educator and Middlebury Select Board member Esther Charlestin on Friday announced her bid to become Vermont’s next governor.
Charlestin, who describes herself as a working mother who owns her own consulting firm, previously worked both in the Middlebury school system and at Middlebury College. She left her dean position at Middlebury Union Middle School last year after she said she endured racism at the school.
She announced her candidacy at the Statehouse in Montpelier on Friday. “We are here to make it better. I want to be a part of the shift, because Vermont is changing. Change is coming and we must be ready. We must embrace it and we must shape it, and that’s what I plan to do as your governor,” she said.
Charlestin is the eldest child of immigrant parents and says she’s experienced some of Vermont’s issues like the challenges of finding housing firsthand in her five years living in the state.
Vermont’s primary election is August 13th.
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