Hudson Ranney ’29 elected High Bailiff

Hudson Ranney ’29 has been passionate about politics for as long as he can remember. At just three years old, Ranney memorized all the presidents of the United States from a set of flashcards. As a Vermont native, Ranney had the formative experience of attending a Bernie Sanders rally in 2016, where he met David Zuckerman, who was running for lieutenant governor at the time. Eight years later, in a full-circle moment, Ranney had the opportunity to work on Zuckerman's campaign. Most recently, Ranney was elected High Bailiff of Windsor County, Vermont.

High Bailiff is a position unique to Vermont’s legislature. The Bailiff's sole power is to fire the county sheriff if they are deemed unfit for the position, and to fulfill their civic duties during the process of finding their replacement. High Bailiffs rarely use their power, with some serving twenty years without having to do anything. However, in Windsor County, this is not the case. Earlier this year, Sheriff Ryan Palmer stepped down from his position after facing charges of sexual misconduct. Ranney explained that after Palmer stepped down, the previous High Bailiff took responsibility for running the department, and he was recently elected to be the next Sheriff of Windsor County.

Ranney said that this situation made him reflect on the seriousness of the role. “There's a duty to uphold the Constitution and serve, and I look forward to doing that,” he said in a Nov. 7 interview with The Justice. Ranney’s political opponent in the race, Anthony Leonard, is a Lieutenant in the Windsor Sheriff's Department. Ranney believes that unbiased civilian oversight of the Sheriff's Department is important, and said that the “[High Bailiff] should not be anybody who works at the sheriff's department. I think that's a huge conflict of interest.” For Ranney, transparency in local government is highly important: “ People are really dissatisfied with the government, and there needs to be some ways that we keep accountability.” He believes that this position is a way for him to help achieve these goals.

For Ranney, local government is the backbone of American democracy, and the best way for Americans to directly make an impact and work towards progress. “ People really are worried about what's happening on the national level, and nobody really is worried about what's happening on the local level … I don't think people realize in a small state how much agency you have at the local level.” Ranney feels passionately that young people especially should engage in local politics, saying that “we have to break down the barriers of the old boys' club of politics and get more young people and more diverse people elected.”

To Ranney's delight, this is something that is beginning to happen across the country. The 2026 midterm elections resulted in an incredibly diverse and young group of representatives being elected to Congress for the first time. Additionally, Ranney isn’t the only young candidate who won a race last Tuesday. At just 19 years old, Daniel Darris-O'Connor was elected state representative of the 22nd Middlesex district of the Massachusetts House of Representatives. Winning his race by just 438 votes — just enough to gain him a 51.3% majority vote — Darris-O'Connor will replace Republican incumbent Marc Lombardo, who has served on the Massachusetts House of Representatives since 2011.

Ranney hopes that his being elected will empower more young people to run for office. When he initially told Sheriff Palmer he planned to run for High Bailiff, Palmer heavily discouraged him. “ All it made me do was wanna run for office more,” Ranney said. He explained that for young people in politics, this discouragement is actually quite common, but he encourages other young politicians to overcome this and fight for what they believe in. “There's this age discrepancy … in politics where everyone is like, ‘Wait your turn, wait your turn, wait your turn.’ And sometimes you just gotta run,” said Ranney.

Running a political campaign is a very familiar task for Ranney. He worked as a campaign manager for Monique Priestley's state senate campaign and as a deputy campaign manager for Elizabeth Burrows. In these campaigns, he learned what makes a good candidate and how to effectively mobilize communities to get out and vote through peer-to-peer organization. Ranney, however, did not find it necessary to run a rigorous campaign for High Bailiff. He raised $500 for his campaign and used that money to make his website, put up some lawn signs and buy some T-shirts. His opponent did nothing to promote his campaign. Running as a Democrat, Ranney felt quite confident that he would win, even with minimal campaigning. He explained that a lot of people in his county simply vote for Democratic candidates across the board.

He was right to be confident. Ranney won by a significant margin, earning 14,692 votes, 51.46%, while his opponent received 8,563 votes, 29.99%. 5112 of the ballots, 17.99%, were left empty. Ranney theorized that this was because the High Bailiff question was on the back of the ballot and a lot of people don’t flip the ballot over.

Part of the reason Ranney chose to run for this role is that he saw it as an opportunity to serve his community without having to put himself in the public eye too much. Being the face of a campaign was a new challenge for Ranney, who is not used to being in the limelight. “I'd be at events, and they'd be like, ‘Oh, Hudson's running for high bailiff.’ And I’d … wanna hide,” he said. From this campaign, Ranney learned that fundraising and promoting someone else's campaign comes much easier to him and feels more comfortable, saying, “ I consider myself more of a political operative than I do a politician.” He also expressed that in a smaller county, being on a ballot and winning an election can lead to a lot of people knowing your name, saying, “ I can't go anywhere in the county without getting recognized, which is really weird.”

Ranney said the night of the election is “ one of those nights that I'm gonna probably remember for the rest of my life.” He expressed immense happiness seeing both his election results and the overwhelming win for democrats he witnessed on Nov. 3, and said that the midterms gave him so much hope for the future of progress in the country. High Bailiff is likely just the first stepping stone. Ranney, whether it be as the face of a campaign or steering things behind the scenes, is getting an early launch to an exciting career in politics — driven by passion and belief in the importance of accountability in government.

Hudson Ranney ’29 elected High Bailiff

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