As Brad Peacock watched Sen. Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential run, he was struck by the Vermont Independent’s call for young people to “stand up and make a difference.”
“So I took his words to heart and decided that that is what I was going to do,” Peacock said in an interview in June.
This year, Peacock is a first-time political candidate. And the office he’s seeking is currently held by Sanders.
The 38-year-old vegetable farmer supports many of the same positions as Vermont’s junior senator, a national leader of the progressive movement.
“The nuance of this is I agree with a lot of the things he’s doing and I do admire his positions on a lot of things,” Peacock said in an interview. “But I also believe that there’s a time for the next generation to pick up the torch and carry on.”
As most party candidates are in the final push of their campaigns before the Aug. 14 Vermont primaries, Peacock is prepping to kick his campaign into high gear and get his name out there.
Peacock, who as an independent candidate is not contesting any primary races, is setting up a listening tour around the state. He’s increasingly doing “pop up” campaign events, which involve going to towns around the state and pounding the pavement to introduce himself to pedestrians and local business owners.
Sanders is following his longtime practice of running in the Democratic primary, then, should he win, he will decline the nomination and run as an independent in November.
In the next few weeks, Peacock plans to issue a challenge to his opponents: a limit on the amount of money each candidate can spend.
Peacock noted that campaign finance reform is a major concern for both him and Sanders. Agreeing to a spending cap would set the stage for a fair race, he said.
“Sen. Sanders and I have a really great opportunity to run a clean, issues-focused campaign,” Peacock said.
A spending limit may take a step toward leveling the playing field for Peacock against Sanders, who, as of the last reporting deadline had a total of $7.6 million in his campaign coffers — well ahead of any other Vermont politician.
Still, Peacock faces a massive challenge to get his name out there as an alternative to Sanders, who consistently ranks as the country’s most popular senator among his home-state constituency.
A recent Morning Consult poll found that Sanders had a 63 percent approval rating. Approval does not necessarily equate to a desire to vote for someone, Peacock said.
The message he says he hears from voters: “We approve of what he’s doing, but we feel it’s time for someone new. It’s time to pass the torch.”
Peacock is a native Vermonter, born and raised in Shaftsbury. Growing up, his family struggled with money, sometimes relying on food stamps.
Peacock enlisted in the U.S. Air Force at age 18, attracted in part because it would give him an avenue to pay for higher education.
However, he recalled that once in the service, he “quickly” realized that he was gay. At the time, the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy was in place, barring openly homosexual people from serving in the military.
Peacock confided in a therapist about his sexuality, which, he said, led to his discharge from the military. In an interview, Peacock said what followed was a difficult period in his life as he grappled with coming out. Eventually he got a job working on the farm in Shaftsbury, which he said was a turning point for him.
Peacock enrolled at the University of Vermont. Then he left Vermont and briefly lived in Virginia. Eventually, he ended up back at the same Shaftsbury farm that had hired him when he was just out of the military. He continues to work there today.
Peacock has never held public office before, though he has contemplated a run for some time. His experience testifying before state legislators when lawmakers were considering a bill to legalize same-sex marriage “planted the seed”
The watershed moment for Peacock came after Donald Trump’s victory in the 2016 presidential election.
“I think the election of 2016 shook many people to their core, and that would definitely include me,” he said.
The election left him fearful for the future for gay rights, women’s rights and other protections, he said, which led him to consider running for office. When Trump announced his plans to ban trans people from serving in the military, Peacock said his mind was made up.
“That seed started to germinate and I said, we can’t sit idly by anymore. We have to take action, we have to fight for what we think is right and just,” he said.
Peacock cited his background as a farmer as a strong factor in informing his policy stances. He is the process of developing a rural economic development plan, with a focus on boosting small farms, he said. Alleviating financial pressures on dairy farmers and developing a “fairer system” for farmers is one of his major priorities, he said.
He also wants to take on student debt. He said that while he is interested in the proposal of making all public colleges tuition free, he sees an opportunity to start by making community and technical colleges more accessible, perhaps by offering very low interest rate loans. He also listed taking on environmental and climate change issues as a major policy priority.
Peacock opted to run as an independent rather than with a party because he did not feel he aligns with the national Democratic Party. He feels he can restore a sense of respect in Congress’s upper chamber that he says has lapsed.
“At least at one point in time,” he said, “these were the role models of our lives.”
