When Audrey Grant was making plans for college, she was excited to get out of her hometown of Hardwick, Vermont. “When you’re a young person in Vermont, especially in a rural community, you’re essentially told that success means leaving,” she tells Her Campus. But since Grant graduated high school amid the 2020 pandemic, her freshman year at Boston’s Simmons University was fully remote, meaning she spent an extra year in her hometown, where she rented a room in a local farmhouse to get a taste of living on her own — and that’s when things changed for her. “It was actually that year where I had my own autonomy [and] I was like, ‘Oh, wait. Vermont isn’t so bad.’ I always knew from that point on I was going to come back.”
After earning her bachelor’s in political science and master’s in public policy, Grant didn’t just move back to her hometown — she also became dedicated to improving it. She currently serves as the director of the local Girls State program, which teaches high schoolers about government, and works as the operations director for a local nonprofit focused on community organizing and advocacy.
Grant, who turns 25 this year, believes Gen Z voices are often ignored in politics. “The world literally has made it impossible for us to actually feel like our voice is heard and that we are worthy of this. The despair in Gen Z is so real,” she says. “It’s not going to get better until we make it better.”
That said, Grant always assumed she’d stay behind-the-scenes of Vermont’s political sphere. (Having a background in technical theater, her comfort zone is typically out of the spotlight.) However, an experience with Emerge Vermont, a program that trains young women and non-binary folks to run for office, changed that for her, inspiring her to run her own campaign. That’s how she ended up running for the Vermont House to represent her district of Caledonia-2, part of Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom, a rural region of northeastern Vermont. Her primary election is on Aug. 11, but since Grant doesn’t have a Democratic challenger, she’s already focused on the general election in November.
An avid gardener, Grant compares the experience of giving different plants different types of care and attention to the way she plans to take care of Vermonters. “One of the phrases that we have in my work is ‘meeting people where they are,’” she says. “I really think about that with my plants. Cucumbers want different kinds of soils and different companion plants than my potatoes, but both of them need soil. They need enrichment … [It’s about] not assuming what people need, but really listening to them.”
Grant is particularly devoted to Virginia’s rural areas. “I worked for an organization that did a lot of flood relief in 2024,” she says. “That really was such an eye-opening experience to how rural communities in Vermont are just not being equipped with the tools to actually work through disasters.” That’s why one of Grant’s top campaign priorities is local resilience. “Local resilience for me means building community connections, like making sure everyone in a town knows who and what the resources are and how to reach out for help,” she says.
Having grown up in rural poverty, Grant is all too familiar with how the government treats those who are struggling. “Being in poverty is a full-time job. Poor people are struggling every day,” Grant says. And she’s not shy about criticizing the shortcomings of programs like Medicaid and food stamps. “We’re just not actually taking care of people with these systems,” she says. “This is something I saw all the time with my own family.” Namely, Grant believes that there’s an overall lack of clarity about these programs and a very low threshold for losing access to them. “The moment you make enough money to no longer qualify for government assistance, you all of a sudden lose so much of your income. Now food costs so much more. Now you have to shell out thousands for health insurance. You’re now kind of stuck on a plateau where you’re still poor, but you’re not poor enough to actually get help.”
For Grant, running for office is about serving the state and community that raised her. “I just don’t want Vermont — and I don’t want the Kingdom — to become a rich person’s playground,” she says. “I really want us to recognize and honor our history as agriculturers, as loggers, as farmers — people who have built and worked this land so much.”
And if things don’t go her way, Grant will still pursue that mission. “Win or lose, my goal in life is to make other people’s lives better,” she says. “I know that even if I don’t win, I have a job that I love that actually makes a very positive difference in people’s lives.”
What are the top three issues you’re running on?
Affordability, infrastructure, and local community resilience.
Go-to karaoke song?
“Money, Money, Money” by ABBA.
Favorite local restaurant?
Hardwick Village Restaurant.
What’s one song you have on repeat while on the campaign trail?
“Rhinestone Cowboy” by Glen Campbell.
Go-to coffee order?
I’m not a coffee fan. I get a London Fog with extra vanilla.
Favorite season?
Fall.
Early bird or night owl?
Early bird.
Favorite politics-themed movie or TV show?
I love Succession, The West Wing, and VEEP.
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