Hometown to House

Candidate talks grief, hope on campaign trail

The last few months of Emilie Krasnow’s life have been bittersweet, heavy with looming grief like a rollercoaster ticking slowly higher, but also wonderful, like the rush of it hurtling down the track at full tilt.

A beautiful dream rimmed with unbearable sadness.

Part of the dream came true for Krasnow, 37, when she won her bid for one of South Burlington’s five House seats in the Aug. 9 primary. Just like her late father, Gerald, a representative from Charlotte from 1994-1998, Krasnow knocked on the door of nearly every residence in her Chittenden-9 district, in spite of being the only candidate for the seat on the ballot.

Should she win in the November General Election, Krasnow will head to Montpelier next year.

But at the same time her campaign has flourished, she’s been helping care for her mother who still lives in Krasnow’s childhood home in Charlotte and who, for the last few years, has been in hospice.

In July before the primary, tucked into a red booth at the Parkway Diner next to a stack of campaign flyers, Krasnow teared up, saying she wasn’t sure if her mom, Susan, would make it to the election.

“I asked her, when the seat opened up, if I should do it, and she said, ‘This is your dream. This is what your dad wanted, this is what I want,’” Krasnow recalled.

It’s not how she expected her first campaign to look.

She’s been entrenched in the political sphere, visiting the Statehouse with her father, who served as a Charlotte School Board member as well, since she was a little girl. Work on campaigns for candidates throughout the state, including former Lt. Gov. David Zuckerman, brought Krasnow into this work as an adult and helped her clarify some of the issues closest to her heart — affordability, housing and health care, to name a few.

Despite running unopposed, she’s campaigned loudly, posting yard signs, sending out flyers and gaining support from establishment Democrats around the state, including Rep. Peter Welch, Sen. Thomas Chittenden, Sen. Kesha Ram Hinsdale and Rep. Ann Pugh, whose seat Krasnow hopes to succeed and who is acting as her campaign treasurer.

Fortunately, she and her mom were able to share her primary win together, Krasnow said in a follow up interview last week.

“The campaign has kept me focused and kept me going because I know so many people are struggling right now. And if there’s anything I could do to make people’s lives better, that’s all I want to do.”

— Emilie Krasnow

“The campaign has kept me focused and kept me going because I know so many people are struggling right now. And if there’s anything I could do to make people’s lives better, that’s all I want to do,” she said.

A varied platform

Underneath the polished periwinkle blue button-down Krasnow often sports, she has a swath of ink. Tattoos on her arms and legs give a peek into who she is in her personal life — a lover of punk rock, motorcycles and independent film — and the somewhat “rebellious” teen she was growing up. Although, she noted, despite her musical leanings and ability to skateboard, she was still voted class president in eighth grade.

Krasnow describes herself as a people person — “a talker,” she said, chuckling.

It’s true: one question about what she considers to be the most important issues facing South Burlingtonians leads her to cover housing, education, social justice and inclusivity, paid family medical leave, the dog park, the library, food insecurity, reproductive rights and the pressures facing the “sandwich generation,” Gen Xers taking care of their children and aging parents.

Among other things.

Sometimes her talking points exude that politician sound, something difficult to avoid after working at the Statehouse and on other campaigns for 10 years, but it also it doesn’t hurt that she has a gift of gab and endorsements from the big names in Vermont politics.

She said she will use her range of experience, volunteering gigs and her recent campaign to achieve her No. 1 goal of bringing “more voices and ideas into the fold.”

“A decade of community organizing has people from all over the state supporting me because they know that I will not only advocate for my district, but I will advocate for my community in South Burlington and all of Vermont, just like my dad did,” she said.

Recently Krasnow’s full time job has been helping to take care of her mother — a “privilege” she doesn’t take for granted, Krasnow said.

It has opened her eyes to inequities in the health care system and made her push for paid family and medical leave a big part of her platform.

“If I’m elected, I will advocate for it the minute I’m there,” she said, adding that “being a caretaker is not easy” and that there should be more support for caregivers in the health care system.

She also volunteers at various places, including the South Burlington Food Shelf every Thursday, the Infinite Youth Center, and she is a member of the South Burlington Democrats, the Library Aspire Campaign, Rotary and the city’s housing trust fund committee, among others.

“The last couple of years I’ve been caretaking for my mother and volunteering, and I recognize that I have the privilege to do that and not everyone does. But my mom wanted me to be there and as she faces her final time, I don’t want to look back and not be there,” she said.

Krasnow has also been studying at night with a program through the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza School of Business, and she’s also a graduate of Vermont’s Emerge program, which trains and supports Democratic women candidates for office. Some of her fellow graduates over the years include Shelburne Rep. Jessica Brumsted, Lt. Gov. Molly Gray, and Vermont Senate Pro Tem and Democratic nominee for the U.S. House of Representatives, Becca Balint.

To outgoing South Burlington representative Maida Townsend, who has known Krasnow since she was knee-high and used to work at Winooski High School with her father, Krasnow’s dogged campaign is one example of her true commitment.

“I think it’s really, really important to show people how much the process means to you, how much they mean to you. How are our folks supposed to know unless you come knocking at the door?” Townsend said.

When Krasnow was working as an aide at the Statehouse, the pair would often carpool together: “So I got to hear her about what she was doing and how it was for her to have to be a silent observer in this committee room or that committee room. To do that takes great stamina,” Townsend said. She later got to hear as they carpooled together about Krasnow’s constituent work for the lieutenant governor when Zuckerman was in office.

“I was always really impressed with how she had this very deep, almost cellular understanding of the importance of connecting Vermonters who aren’t directly part of the legislative process with whoever their representative might be, so that their voices were heard, their issues were heard, that real life experience was transferred,” Townsend said. “She was invaluable for that. It was clear to me that she said she understood quite profoundly that it wasn’t a superficial kind of thing. It meant a great deal to her.”

In the Statehouse

Gerald Krasnow, a teacher in the Winooski School District and active participant in local and state politics, died just two weeks after his election in 1998, when Krasnow was just 13.

His impression on her early life has been a huge influence on the last couple decades of Emilie Krasnow’s life, and his commitment to public service is part of what inspired her to follow in his footsteps and run for the Legislature, Krasnow said.

“I pretty much grew up (in the Statehouse),” she said, recalling hanging out with her dad and listening to books-on-tape when he was in session.

Her sister, Alysia Krasnow Butler, was appointed to serve the remainder of their father’s seat when she was just 26. Butler lives in Massachusetts and chats with her sister on the phone at least once a day. She’s incredibly proud of the campaign Krasnow has run so far.

“Sometimes I feel like in the political world, women have to work twice as hard to be taken seriously,” she said, noting how hard Krasnow has worked to prove herself even though she’s running unopposed.

“My mom is her biggest champion and cheerleader. She perks up the most when we talk about Emilie and her campaign. No one could be prouder of her right now,” she added. “She’ll take everything our dad taught her and bring it to her term.”

While Butler can’t vote in Vermont elections, one of Krasnow’s constituents, Peter “Pedro” Carmolli can — and did, casting his vote in the primary for Krasnow on Aug. 9. Carmolli, the director of the South Burlington Food Shelf where Krasnow volunteers every week, said that when he met her nine years ago, he “instantly liked her.”

“At the end of that first day I said to her, ‘I know you’re going to run for office one of these days. When you do, you call me and I’ll write you a check’,” he said.

“She is what she seems to be by the way,” Carmolli added. “She’s kind and bright and her heart is absolutely in the right place. She wants to do this not for her own self but to be of service.”

Krasnow has one more election Nov. 8 to determine if she will head to Montpelier to represent South Burlington in the House.

Also running for South Burlington House seats are Kate Nugent, Brain Minier, Martin LaLonde and Noah Hyman, all unopposed.