VOTE FERNANDEZ FOR STATE HOUSE!

Michael Fernandez is an Independent, common-sense community leader with a record of bringing people together, delivering results, and fighting for working families, local farms, small towns, and the future of Bennington County.

Why I’m Running:

To Build the Institutions Our Communities Need

No one is coming to save us, so we have to save ourselves.

For too long, our local representatives have been more concerned with appeasing Burlington and their party caucus than representing the people of Bennington 4. Their voting history shows it time and time again. If elected my focus will be on working tirelessly to improve the lives of the people who live and work and die here, not the special interests who want to turn our state into a playground for the rich. Vermonters have been offered two different versions of the same failed politics: centralized reform from the top down, dressed up in different party colors. Democrats have pushed dangerous land use reform that shifts power away from towns and working communities and into appointed boards, has systematically eroded grand lists, built unaccountable administrative systems, and shifted all power to quasi-judicial state-level planning structures that are disconnected from the land and unanswerable to the public. Republicans have answered the education crisis with their own version of consolidation: bigger districts, fewer local decision-makers, and a retreat from the promise that every town deserves a real voice in the future of its schools. Both approaches accept the demographic, economic, and cultural collapse of Vermont. Both treat local democracy as an obstacle. Both lack the imagination, courage, and leadership needed for the years ahead.

I am running because we need a different path: an independent, policy-driven coalition campaign that doesn't shy away from complexity and works to build strong local institutions, working-class power, and communities capable of withstanding what is coming. That means establishing a public bank to finance relief from predatory debt, build and refurbish housing, repair and build critical infrastructure, diversify and strengthen the working landscape, create real opportunities for small businesses, develop decentralized community energy independence, and revitalize our education system where the current system leaves our futures in the hands of Wall Street and K Street. It means a locally led land use revolution that puts towns, conservation districts, watershed communities, and working people back at the center of planning. It means an education policy that protects local control while cutting costs through shared services, statewide public employee health care pools, smarter administration, and a broader revenue base through growth: instead of forcing towns into austerity or consolidation. Vermont does not need more slogans. It needs institutions that help people build, grow, stay, and take care of one another.

Send me to Montpelier, and together we will fight for this vision every day. I will work with the People of Bennington 4 to develop policies that will materially improve their lives. We will fight to establish a Public Bank that lays out a path for security and propserity. We will fight for a Land Use Revolution that returns power to the people who live on and work the land. We will fight for education reform that doesn't treat democracy as a problem, but a solution. If this fight is your fight, join us.

Building Power for Working People and Working Lands

As District Manager of the Bennington County Conservation District, a Regional Conservation Commissioner, the operator of a working farm, and a leader in the development of the Bennington Veteran Incubator Farm, Michael understands that land is not an abstraction — it is housing, food, labor, water, infrastructure, climate resilience, and survival.

He has helped bring millions of dollars into the local economy by connecting farmers, landowners, towns, and community partners with funding, equipment, technical assistance, and practical support. That work is not about enpty rhetoric. It is about getting resources into the hands of the people doing the work, building real projects on the ground, and making sure working lands remain productive, accessible, and locally rooted.

From grant applications and public meetings to site visits, equipment programs, and muddy fields, Michael brings the same approach: show up, listen, build kitchen table partnerships, and deliver. His record is built on practical results — real funding, real infrastructure, and real community work that helps keep rural communities viable.

Food Security, Local Economy, and Community Resilience

As Co-Chair of the Bennington County Food Security Council, Michael has worked to build a stronger, more resilient regional food system rooted in local production, local institutions, and local needs. Through projects like the Bennington Veteran Incubator Farm, he has helped advance a vision for food security that connects land and capital access, veteran opportunity, institutional food purchasing, composting, workforce development, and local production.

Michael’s work is not abstract. It is about building the actual systems communities need to feed themselves: farms with access to land and support, institutions that buy local food, public resources that reach the ground, and partnerships that turn good ideas into working infrastructure. He believes food security is not charity — it is economic justice, local power, and the foundation of a community that can take care of its own.

Fighting for Local Control and the Right to Build a Future

Michael has successfully advocated for revisions to Act 181 and Act 59, fought for the right to grow food as a fundamental right, and pushed back against top-down land use systems that make Vermont a less affordable, less democratic, and harder to live. From the committee room to the sugar shack, Michael brings the same approach: show up, listen, build partnerships, and get things done.

He knows how to navigate complex systems to the benefit of families and communities in need, and he knows that it shouldn't require a PhD in Public Policy to own a business in this state, or a trust fund to buy a house.

He has built a record of being a minority voice successfully fighting for Bennington County in the rooms where decisions get made. His work has secured the fairer distribution of state and federal resources in a region long neglected by the powers that be in Montpelier. His record is not built on buzzwords; it is built on hands in the dirt community work that improves the lives of working families.

Volunteer!

Help Build a Working Class Movement in Bennington 4

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse