It is very strange how popular our republican governor is, I think he'll be around a long time. In my opinion as a lifelong Vermonter and democrat, I think part of why people here loved Scott so much was because of his emergence around when Trump rose to popularity. A lot of democrats felt really scared that this is what the Republican party looks like now- that being a Republican meant being a trump supporter. Then here comes Scott who says "yes I'm a Republican but I'm one of the good ones." He made so clear so early on that he was anti-trump. I know a lot of democrats who felt really secure and optimistic about the political future because of that.