Vermont Business Magazine Tim Ashe, the former state Senate pro tem and currently the state's deputy state auditor, announced today he will run for state auditor in the November General Election. State Auditor of Accounts Doug Hoffer, who was first elected in 2012, announced before the 2024 election that he would not seek reelection in 2026. Ashe ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor in 2020, eventually won by Molly Gray. Gray again will seek that seat this year.
Tim Ashe statement:
Today I am announcing my campaign for State Auditor.
Vermonters deserve excellence from their state government. I intend to use the tools of the Auditor’s office to help make sure they get it, by ensuring taxpayer-funded departments and programs deliver results.
As I’ve crisscrossed Vermont the last few months, listening to community leaders and Vermonters from all walks of life, I’ve heard both frustration and optimism. Vermonters are frustrated by rising health insurance premiums, the scarcity of affordable homes to own and rent, seemingly intractable homelessness and public safety problems, and brutal property tax increases. Many of those same people are optimistic, too, that we can do better. I feel the same.
I look forward to using my experience — which includes four-plus years as the Deputy State Auditor, a decade developing hundreds of units of affordable housing, and service as the president of the board of Vermont’s largest non-hospital primary care organization — to hold government accountable to make progress on the bread-and-butter issues that matter most to Vermonters.
I served in the Vermont Senate for 12 years – four of them as its leader. There I learned firsthand that, to effectively tackle the state’s problems, policymakers need accurate, unbiased data. The State Auditor’s Office, Vermont’s independent accountability office, is uniquely positioned to bring “just the facts.”
As State Auditor, I’ll also work with the executive and legislative branches to identify risks to Vermonters’ interests, such as financial mismanagement, inadequate preparation for weather-related emergencies, and the policies of President Trump.
I’ll lead this work not with the goal of placing blame but of making things better.
In the coming months, I’ll be talking with more Vermonters in communities all over the state, to hear what they want to see from the state’s chief taxpayer watchdog.
I’ll be hosting a campaign kickoff later this winter.
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