This is a screenshot of the first two rows of prominent Democrats and Progressives endorsing former lieutenant governor Molly Gray’s bid to return as The Hand That Holds The Gavel. Gray, who’d all but announced (to Seven Days) before Thanksgiving, finally made it official today, Monday, January 5.

After those first two rows there are 11 more. Declared Gray supporters include nine sitting state senators, 29 state representatives, plus prominent figures such as former governor Howard Dean and former lawmakers Brian Campion, Kitty Toll, and Jessica Brumsted.

It truly is an impressive haul, not only for the numbers but for the ideological spectrum. Team Gray ranges from the Progressive camp to centrist Democrats. If she’s left a lane open for another Democratic candidate, I can’t identify it. The lefty names on the list should help overcome the perception that she’s a policy squish, which helped doom her 2022 bid for Congress.

Not that endorsements are the be-all, end-all. But this is a show of force aimed at avoiding a competitive Democratic primary, and it may well succeed. Curtis-Hoff award winner Ryan McLaren, who’s been an aide to Peter Welch (as U.S. Representative and Senator) since 2015, has been considering a run for the office, but he has to know he’d be facing a very well-connected opponent with far more name recognition. This is not the softest of targets.

So how did we get here? Cue the semi-informed speculation!

Since losing the 2022 primary to Becca Balint, Gray has kept a fairly low public profile. I assume she’s been busy in political circles, building capital, burnishing (Only in Journalism word) her image, awaiting a good opening. I have to think she sees Republican Lt. Gov. John Rodgers as a soft target, I agree with that assessment. I’ve never bought the perception, echoed again in today’s Seven Days story about Gray’s launch, that Rodgers is a future gubernatorial candidate ready to carry on the legacy of Gov. Phil Scott as a Republican capable of winning in deep blue Vermont.

Rodgers’ 2024 victory was more a confluence of circumstance than a reflection of his political appeal. Never forget that his campaign was an empty, cash-poor shell as late as July 1. After that, four-figure checks started rolling in from the Barons of Burlington and Scott poured himself into supporting Rodgers in a way he never had before with any other Republican office-seeker. Rodgers’ campaign was a mess from start to finish, including a failure to accurately report its finances. He continued to do stupid stuff after taking office, including a partially plagiarized, grammatical disaster of an official bio which took him weeks to fix.

Oh yeah, there’s also his ongoing legal battle with his own hometown, which kind of belies any claim he might have to Phil Scott’s Good Ole Vermonter fairy dust.

So yes, Rodgers is vulnerable, an inviting target for Gray’s, I guess we have to call it a comeback? (She’s only 41, for Pete’s sake.) The number of pols jumping on the Gray Train indicates that my view or Rodgers is widely shared. It’s also no stretch to infer that Rodgers isn’t exactly a beloved figure among his fellow Statehouse denizens. That shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who followed his career in the Senate, where he was often the most cantankerous and unpredictable member of the majority caucus.

But why did so many Progressive types like Sen. Tanya Vyhovsky and small-p types like Sen Becca White and Rep.Conor Casey endorse Gray instead of hoping for a visibly left-leaning option? Well, a few things come to mind. First, there may not have been such an alternative in the works; I doubt we’ve heard the last of David Zuckerman, but I don’t see him running in 2026. Was anyone else in the Prog/prog ranks ready to make the staewide leap? Anyone you might name is on Gray’s endorsement list.

Second, and you may or may not agree with me on this, but maybe Gray has gone through some changes. She was recently a guest on the “There’s No ‘A’ in Creemee” podcast, where she spoke eloquently of her work with the Vermont Afghan Alliance. She sure didn’t sound like Generic Centrist in that outing.

Besides, there’s something to be said for the old Vermont tradition of second chances. It used to be fairly common for politicians to lose their first bid for statewide office and use it to build connections and name recognition. Lately, it’s been more like one-and-done. You get labeled as a loser. It’s why so many prominent Democrats are unwilling to challenge Phil Scott: They believe they only get one shot, and they don’t want to waste it on a losing bid. So if Gray can make a “comeback,” maybe others will be more likely to take a risk.

In any case, it’s still early days but I wouldn’t bet against her winning the nomination and returning to the post of Gavel-Wielder-in-Chief. Whether or not she’s the centrist squish of her past reputation, she’d still be a vast improvement over Rodgers.