As noted previously, Gov. Phil Scott and former gov Jim Douglas were scheduled to hold a meet ‘n greet this evening for Republican legislative candidates in Addison County. They’ll be lending their names and “moderate” reputations to a passel of far-right hopefuls with, um, no hope of winning in a deep blue county.

Take Renee McGuinness, pictured above. Please, take her.

McGuinness is one of two Republican candidates in the very Democratic Addison-4 district, currently repped by Mari Cordes and Caleb Elder. It last elected a Republican in 2016, and the two incumbents cruised to re-election in 2022 by a wide margin. (Elder made an unsuccessful bid for state senate this year; Herb Olson joins Cordes on this year’s Democratic ticket.)

McGuinness is known in Statehouse circles as an advocate for the Vermont Family Alliance, a very conservative organization aligned, in worldview at least, with the notorious Moms for Liberty, which seems to be plummeting earthward after a brief ascent to political influence in Ron DeSantis’ Florida. MFL has been identified as “extremist” by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Doubtless VFA is too small to have attracted SPLC’s notice.

VFA touts itself as a parental rights group, fighting against government intrusion into parents’ “natural right to make decisions” about their children’s upbringing. Which sounds kind of benign on the surface, but their idea of government intrusion is pretty darn broad.

VFA’s website makes clear that it is against gender-affirming health care. Its Facebook page touted Moms For Liberty’s March for Kids, which drew a stunningly small crowd on August 31 in Washington, D.C. Organizers expected thousands to show; they moved the gathering to an indoor site at the last minute, where about 300 people gathered.

Moms for Liberty has hit a rough patch of late, including a sex scandal involving the group’s co-founder Bridget Ziegler and her husband Christian (isn’t it ironic?), who was forced out as chair of the Florida Republican Party. MFL has also lost a bunch of campaigns for school board in Florida jurisdictions that apparently grew tired of its persistent, loud advocacy of book banning and other far-right hobby horses.

VFA also took to its Facebook page to promote a showing of “The War on Children,” a “documentary” that purports to expose “the plan to sexualize children” and promotes the conspiracy theory that toxic chemicals are causing children to identify as LGBTQ+. VFA also cites the American College of Pediatricians’ position opposing gender transitioning of youth. The ACP is a tiny right-wing organization (membership roughly 700) that tries to pretend to be the American Academy of Pediatrics, the real professional society for pediatric medicine, which has a membership totaling 67,000.

In the Statehouse, VFA supported H.405, a bill proposed by the notorious and thankfully retiring Rep. Art Peterson that would have established school choice throughout Vermont. Funds for school choice grants would have been subtracted from Education Fund payments to whichever public school was losing a student. The bill went nowhere. Shocking, I know.

McGuinness testified on VFA’s behalf against S.220, which has become law as Act 150. It requires library material selection policies to comply with the First Amendment, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and state laws prohibiting discrimination. It also establishes confidentiality of library records for any patron 12 or older. In her testimony before the House Government Operations Committee, McGuinness implied that reading a book can turn you transgender. “When these books are available to young kids, um, that encourage them to explore their gender, their gender identity, their sexuality,” she said, “if they’re reading books like that it can influence their decision making.”

She added, “In terms of what is appropriate, we need to let the parents decide that.” Which sounds kind of sensible, but what it means in application is that the most restrictive parent is making decisions not only for their own kids, but for every other library patron. We’ve seen this in action elsewhere, as a small number of Moms for Liberty activists have flooded libraries with demands for removal of books.

In 2023, McGuinness testified against H.89, which became law as Act 14. It protects gender-affirming health care “if the service is permitted under the laws of this State,” including for patients from elsewhere who seek care in Vermont. The bill passed the House on a vote of 130-13, and sailed through the Senate by a margin of 26-4.

As of September 1, McGuinness reported raising $5,690, a healthy sum for a rural district. Notable donors include none other than the O.G. social conservative moneybags Lenore Broughton and Adam Nilson, co-founder of Atlas Gunworks ($1,120 apiece, the legal maximum for House candidates). She also got $600 from Rev. Ed Wheeler, pastor of the far-right Valley Bible Church in Middlebury, and $500 from Jon Christiano, the ultraconservative and very unsuccessful candidate for House in 2020 and 2022.

So yeah, she’s definitely outside the mainstream of Vermont politics. And she’s definitely the kind of social conservative who’d be a more comfortable fit in a state like Florida than in Vermont. Our putatively moderate governor has spent the last few years speaking out against the growing influence of McGuinness types in the Vermont Republican Party, but now he’s making common cause with them. I guess if McGuinness would support his vetoes, then the rest of it is unimportant to him.

Thankfully she won’t get anywhere near the Statehouse, at least not as an elected representative. She is far too conservative for her district, and she’s going to lose badly in November, even with the active support of Phil Scott.