In Vermont’s congressional races, Tuesday was one of the quietest nights in recent memory. 

The two incumbents seeking reelection, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and U.S. Rep. Becca Balint, D-Vt., won their Democratic primaries unopposed. On the Republican side, Gerald Malloy faced no challengers in securing his party’s nomination for the U.S. Senate, and neither did Mark Coester in becoming the GOP nominee for U.S. House.

Vermont’s third congressional delegate, U.S. Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., is two years into his six-year term and was therefore not on the ballot Tuesday.

Not since 1956 had four of Vermont’s major party federal primary races featured no competition, according to the state’s election archive. That year saw Republicans George Aiken and Winston Prouty, two heavyweights of 20th Century Vermont politics on the ballot.

For Sanders, who is seeking a fourth six-year term in the U.S. Senate, the primary win was a matter of routine. In his previous three Democratic primaries for the seat, Sanders had never received less than 94% of the vote, according to the state’s election archive, and he also ran unopposed in the 2012 election.

An independent, Sanders typically runs in the Democratic primary and then declines the nomination — though he does caucus with Senate Democrats.  

Sanders will face Malloy, the Republican nominee — along with a slew of other candidates — in the general election on November 5. Malloy, a businessman and Army veteran, beat out two opponents in Vermont’s GOP U.S. Senate primary two years ago, but lost in the general election against then-U.S. Rep. Peter Welch. 

“I don’t know Mr. Malloy terribly well. I’ve met him once,” Sanders told reporters in front of the Robert Miller Community and Recreation Center in Burlington late Tuesday morning, after casting his ballot in Vermont’s primaries. 

Sanders said he suspected that he and Malloy had “very fundamental differences of opinion on the issues,” including on abortion rights, campaign finance, the federal minimum wage and universal health care. 

Balint, who took over the state’s at-large congressional seat from Welch after the 2022 election, had a much smoother path to her party’s nomination this time around. Two years ago, she took part in a hotly contested primary against then-Lt. Gov. Molly Gray, but emerged with a resounding victory on Election Day, priming her to become the first woman and LGBTQ+ person to represent Vermont in Washington. 

“It feels very different not to have that pressure,” Balint told VTDigger Tuesday morning, standing outside the polls in her hometown of Brattleboro. “Primaries are psychologically and emotionally hard. You don’t want them to divide, but they do.”

In November, Balint’s Republican challenger will be Coester, a small business owner from Westminster who ran for state Senate last election cycle and drew his own party’s condemnation after displaying an alt-right symbol and flying a fascist flag at a 4th of July parade. 

Reached by phone Tuesday evening, Coester characterized that story as “utter and complete hogwash.” He said the flag — featuring a bundle of arrows commonly associated with the Spanish Falange, a fascist movement tied to dictator Francisco Franco — was flown by a young man who climbed onto his log loader. 

As for the drawing of “Pepe the Frog” — a cartoon character linked to far-right and white nationalist groups — on the side of his truck, Coester said: “Who gives a damn? It’s a frog.” 

Instead, Coester described himself as a moderate Republican and said he believed he had “a very good chance to win” in November. 

“I am a kind of common sense, pragmatic conservative. You know, middle of the road. I try to look at things from all sides,” Coester said. 

The general election will also feature an array of minor party and independent candidates equally hopeful of unseating Sanders and Balint. 

On the Senate side, these include Justin Schoville, chair of the state’s Green Mountain Peace and Justice party, formerly known as the Liberty Union Party — in which Sanders got his start in Vermont politics in the early 1970s — as well as Libertarian candidate Matt Hill, Epic Party candidate Mark Stewart Green and independent Steven “Steve” Berry. 

The Peace and Justice party will also compete for the U.S. House seat with nominee Jill “Jessy” Diamondstone, while independent candidate Adam Ortiz — who got 1.2% of the vote in the same race in 2022 — will once again appear on the ballot. 

Kevin O’Connor and Graham Krewinghaus contributed reporting.