Becca Balint live in WCAX studio on House victory

BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) - Congressional-elect Becca Balint visited the WCAX studio the morning after her win over Liam Madden for Rep. Peter Welch’s seat.

Dom Amato: Becca Balint has done it making history and securing the US House seat for Vermont. She joins us live this morning.

Alexandra Montgomery: Thank you so much for being with us. So for the longest time when we said Vermont’s congressional delegation, that was all men. Now there’s a woman included when we say that. What’s the real importance of that?

Congressional-elect Becca Balint: So many things. I think first and foremost, we know that policy changes when you have women in the room, that when you have women weighing in on reproductive rights when you have women weighing in on things like minimum wage. A really important dynamic of policymaking is to have really a broad spectrum of support and all this to say, you know, I couldn’t be more proud to be joining this team as well.

We’ve been very well represented by our congressional delegation and Senator Sanders, Senator Leahy, and Congressman Welch, soon to be Senator Welch, have done an amazing job. I know from talking with a lot of Vermonters who bring their kids to meet me, couldn’t be more proud that Vermont’s sending a woman. And I’m glad of that woman.

Dom Amato: And we know, obviously, Vermont isn’t a large state, but power comes with seniority. So how do you make sure we’re not forgotten on the national level?

Well, that’s such a great question. It is something that I’ve been speaking about in earnest with both Senator Sanders and Peter Welch, that I want to be effective. I want to be effective for Vermonters. People gave me their vote of confidence. And with that comes an incredible responsibility to make sure that I always keep Vermonters at the center of the work that I’m doing.

So much of the work ahead of us is going to require a lot of deep work across party lines, across geographic lines and I just want Vermonters to know that I ran on a platform that included a lot of people across the political spectrum. That’s who I’m going to be in Congress as well.

Alexandra Montgomery: Well, I have a couple of seconds left here, but I wanted to ask, did you ever think you would get to this point?

Congressional-elect Balint: Only in the last few weeks. Honestly, There are so many things that people were concerned about when we went out on the campaign trail. Initially, they thought I couldn’t win because I wasn’t from Chittenden County. All those things I could tell.

Dom and Alexandra: Thank you for coming.

Congressional-elect Balint: Thank you.

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