Newbury, VT - The 2026 Vermont gubernatorial ballot could include a name familiar to many area residents. Alyson “Aly” Richards, daughter of Bruce and Leslie Richards and granddaughter of Mari Luz, all of Newbury, formally announced her bid for governor at Newbury’s historic general store on Monday, April 6th.

“Aly contacted me to take part in Monday’s kickoff because she said I played a role in the opening chapter of what has become a stellar career in political activism,” Larry Coffin explains. “In 2001, she was a student in my 9th grade social studies class at Oxbow High School. I encouraged her to seek an appointment on the State Board of Education, even though it usually went to an older student. She had a successful interview with Governor Howard Dean and became the youngest student to have held that position. With admiration, I have followed her activities both in state government and in her work to protect the children of Vermont.”

Those close to Aly describe her as tenacious and pragmatic, community-centered and family-oriented. She is frugal, sensible, and dedicated to the people and platforms she believes in. Aly is not afraid to use a little elbow grease to tackle challenging situations and will do the work that needs to be done to solve tough problems. Her “Put me in, Coach!” mentality is backed by a lengthy track record of rolling up her sleeves and getting her hands dirty. Aly’s supporters contend that she embodies the characteristics and values of a true Vermonter.

“There is a right leader for every moment, and I believe Aly Richards is that leader for Vermont right now. I’ve seen firsthand that Aly is a problem-solver who knows how to bring the right people together to get things done. She doesn’t just talk about challenges; she builds coalitions to solve them,” declares Michele Asch, Chief People Officer of her family’s contract manufacturing business, Twincraft Skincare. “When Vermont faced a childcare crisis, Aly brought together business leaders, CEOs, and policymakers from across the state. She earned their trust, aligned their interests, and helped build support for a sustainable and affordable childcare system. Because of that leadership, thousands of Vermonters have been able to return to work, strengthening families, businesses, and our economy. That’s what real leadership looks like. Aly has the vision and the discipline to move Vermont forward, to grow our economy, expand housing so that people can actually live and work here, and create real opportunity across our state. She knows how to bring people together and turn ideas into real results, and that’s exactly what this moment demands.”

Aly’s deep-seated love for Vermont began when, at the age of three, her family moved from New Jersey to the small town of Newbury. She attended Newbury Elementary School, and like many other children, she took swimming lessons at Hall’s Pond, picked strawberries during the summer months, attended turkey suppers at the West Newbury Town Hall, and collected Easter eggs on the Newbury Green. “I had a wonderful childhood, just a great sense of community,” Aly says, reflecting on the perks of growing up in a small town.

Aly attended Oxbow High School, where she was voted class president and student council president. She started the school’s first recycling club, was a member of the Olympians’ cross-country ski team, and earned the role of Mole in Green Mountain Youth Theatre’s production of The Wind in the Willows. Aly was a well-rounded student who took Advanced Placement (AP) classes, including AP U.S. History and AP English courses taught by her father. “I promise you that he did not cut me any slack,” Aly says in jest.

At age 15, Aly served as a student member of the Vermont State Board of Education, an honor that, she says, fueled her aspirations for public service. “That was my first taste of state government, politics, and policy… As I got my feet under me, I got my courage up to realize that I had things to add to the conversation that were valuable. It really helped me grow my confidence.”

Following her high school graduation in 2004, Aly enrolled at Brown University in Providence, RI, where she earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in International Relations, a major that encompasses history, languages, political science, economics, negotiation, psychology, anthropology and more. “I went out of state hoping to change the world,” Aly recalls. “I took classes in every possible subject you can imagine. I explored everything.”

Aly’s first job after college led her to Washington, DC. “It was an exhilarating experience.” Aly started as a finance assistant but was quickly promoted to Deputy Director of Mid-Atlantic Finance for the Obama administration. “I was running fundraisers in the DC area, meeting incredible people who were supporting the President from all different sectors, and yet my husband and I both were not motivated to do this work because we didn’t believe that money should be in politics in the first place… It just wasn’t how we wanted to live our lives. I was hoping to go to the center to change the world, and what I found was that it was broken, and I couldn’t fix it… People who did not agree with each other didn’t talk to each other. How would we ever get anything done? So, I came back to Vermont as soon as I realized you couldn’t make forward progress in DC.”

Upon returning to Vermont, Aly went to work for the governor's office where, she says, she became deeply aware of the structural issues facing Vermont. “I realized that a root cause of so much of what was facing Vermonters was access to childcare. High-quality, affordable, early childhood education. We have all these jobs in Vermont. We just don’t have any workers to be in these jobs. Why? A big reason is because they can’t find or afford childcare.”

During her tenure as CEO of Let’s Grow Kids, a non-profit organization whose mission is to provide all Vermont families affordable access to childcare, Aly led the bi-partisan charge toward giving Vermont children the best opportunities possible from an early age. “We passed the most significant childcare bill in the country, and it’s working. It’s doing what we hoped it would do. It’s reducing costs for 5,000 Vermonters, and these are significant, life-altering costs. It’s allowing them to stay in the workplace and stay in Vermont. It’s opened up over 100 new childcare businesses all across Vermont, including in rural communities. It created 2,000 new childcare spaces all around Vermont. It’s raising the wages of the early childhood educators. It’s creating hundreds of new jobs. It’s this wonderful opportunity to move Vermont forward and spark economic growth.”

When asked to prioritize her top three goals, Aly cites housing, the economy, and health care. “Housing is really my number one priority. Building more housing. We need to be the state that is growing. We have basically a 5-alarm fire everywhere you look other than the growth we’ve seen in childcare. The costs are crushing us from our housing to our health care premiums to our property taxes for education. We need structural change, like we did in childcare, in all these areas.” Aly believes structural change is the “key solution” to revitalizing Vermont communities, and she is committed to making that happen.

Highly-skilled and industrious, Aly is a powerhouse in her field and a devoted mother who balances her dedication to her career with an equally strong commitment to her family. Aly volunteers as an assistant coach for her sons’ basketball team. She plays pickup basketball once a week, enjoys spending time with her friends and neighbors, and frequently returns to Newbury to spend time with her parents and grandmother. Aly and her family have movie nights once a week, host family board game nights, and eat pancakes and waffles together on the weekends. Aly has even been known to belt out a few of her favorite tunes on karaoke night.

Aly Richards is authentic. She is real, and she is a workhorse. Aly is motivated to work with and for the people of Vermont. She invites all Vermonters to meet and talk with her in person at some of her upcoming events, which are posted on her newly developed website alyforvt.com. “We have the power to change our future,” Aly maintains, “and that’s the power of people coming together, ready for change.”

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