ORLEANS COUNTY – A small family farmer, raising goats, chickens, ducks and bees, with more than 15 four- by 25-foot beds where he and his wife raise flowers, plant starts and have herb and tea gardens, Samuel Doulass, newly elected to represent Orleans County in the Vermont Senate, seems not to be a stereotypical Republican.
He says, rather than being nonpartisan, he thinks of himself as all-partisan. To him that means he sees himself as open to talking with anyone and forming associations of mutual benefit with others of all stripes.
As a proud multi-generational native of the Northeast Kingdom (NEK), Douglas has deep connections to the region, its communities and culture, he said. He understands the problems that his constituents are facing, because he faces them too.
He grew up in Troy and Jay as a child of divorced parents. As a single mother, he said his mom fought hard to make sure he had every opportunity available. She often worked two or more jobs and often went without, just to ensure that her children had enough.
From this upbringing, he has an intimate insight into the trauma and challenges often faced by lower- and middle-income families, he said.
Douglass attended North Troy Elementary, North Country Union Junior High School, and North Country Union High School before leaving the area to attend Johnson State College.
Coming from a family that has long worked in social services and mental health, it was natural to continue that legacy; and since 2019, he has worked as a suicide counselor and crisis interventionist, he said. He also works as a real estate agent and parliamentary consultant.
Douglass has held a variety of jobs, including working at Jay Peak, the Stoweflake Resort, a pizzeria and making the donuts at 4 a.m. at North Country Donuts. He’s served as a lister for the Town of Troy.
Actively engaged in his local community, Douglass is an advocate for volunteerism and charitable work. He currently serves on a local committee aiming to bring back life, energy and safety to the town of Troy and volunteers weekly for Meals on Wheels with the Northeast Kingdom Council on Aging. Douglass has been organizing a new neighborhood watch.
Douglass said, since being elected he’s been in a lot of talks with both Senate Dems and Republicans about the coming session. President Pro Tempore Phil Baruth has been asking what committees new senators might like to sit on.
Baruth, along with expected Lt. Gov. John Rodgers and the third member of the Committee on Committees, Sen. Ginny Lyons have been working together to plan a smooth start to the 2025 session “because it’s easier and more efficient to do that work ahead of time.”
Douglas said his top choice is likely to be the Agriculture Committee because it’s so important to the state, Orleans and surrounding counties. He wants to make sure the NEK is represented on that committee. His interest in continuing the legacy, established by Sen. Bobby Starr, on the Agriculture Committee, is important too since he will be filling Starr’s seat in January. Douglass has personal farming experience with his homestead farm where he makes cheese and butter.
Beyond that, Natural Resources, Judiciary and Government Operations Committees round out his top four choices of committees to serve on.
Douglass said he’s always been interested in the law, but his path never took him in that direction. He doesn’t think there are many senators with legal experience and hopes he can serve on the Judiciary Committee to help address his concern with working on bills that can help address crime, drugs and substance abuse, which he says he can only anticipate will keep getting worse unless “we do something right now to stem the tide.”
His interest in Government Operations, which deals with the running of the government, ties in with his desire to tackle government efficiency and see things are running smoothly, he said.
Douglass sees government efficiency as spending less money where we can in ways that emphasize what’s important. He sees endless studies as inefficient, particularly when they are done to avoid making hard, but obvious choices. He wants to “avoid the bureaucratic ticker tape that keeps us running in circles.”
Prioritizing important things first will help cut through the bureaucracy, he said, seeing the issues as essentially working with other senators and being willing to make compromises to get some of the efficiency he’s looking for without compromising too much of who he is, or what he wants to accomplish in Montpelier.
He sees it as being important to have really good relationships and talking earnestly and honestly with each other, both within and across party lines. Saying, “Hey, this is something I talked about a lot when I was running, or this is something my district really needs,” he said, suggesting he’d ask other senators, “What are some things you are trying to do and how can we accomplish both of them together in a way that’s going to be efficient, in a way that’s not going to cost too much in the way of resources, and how can we get it done quickly without compromising the quality of what we are trying to do?”
Things that are done quickly don’t always turn out the best he says. Sometimes it’s better to take a slower, more fragmented approach, he adds, suggesting biting off more than we can chew makes anything harder to accomplish.
He talked about his Senate orientation this past week and had good things to say about the two new Democratic freshman senators. He feels the Senate is much less partisan than the House and it’s really good for him because, while he has firm beliefs in the party he belongs to, he believes more importantly in doing what’s best for Vermonters and cooperating with others.
Coming from a varied political background where his parents were Democrats, with his father leaning toward the progressive side of the political spectrum, he is comfortable talking with those with very different opinions “because we can all get something out of it,” he said. Working to simplify bills that are too long and trying to accomplish too much is also important.
Doing studies to find out what people on the ground have been telling us for decades isn’t efficient when we already know the answers, he says.
Douglas looks to pursue pro-business policies that he isn’t likely to have a chance to work on in the money committees since those assignments aren’t typically filled by freshman senators. He hopes that, by serving on the Government Operations Committee and working with others, he might have some influence.
It isn’t just Amazon that is curtailing the state’s ability to grow our economy and our businesses while maintaining the businesses we have, so he expects to borrow policies that have worked elsewhere in addressing those, he said.
Crime, catch-and-release and substance abuse are issues he expects to be a hawk on, he says and notes his constituents raised them a lot during the campaign, feeling they are under the radar and need more attention. As part of that, Douglass mentioned concern with drug gangs coming from other states and finding ways to address them.
He wants to be focused on all those things while making sure they don’t come with a hefty price tag and don’t raise taxes on Vermonters.
He said he’s not going to be a mayfly; someone who is everywhere during the campaign, but nowhere to be found after the election. He intends to go to as many administrative breakfasts and as many other events as he’s invited to, then not just the places he’s invited, but even places out of his comfort zone so people have the chance to approach him.
Douglass invites future constituents to contact him with their questions and concerns at his new legislative email address, sdouglass.leg.state.vt.us
Paul Fixx is editor of The Hardwick Gazette and lives in Hardwick.
