Aida Nielsen, a registered nurse and the wife of Brandon and Forest Dale’s current state representative Todd Nielsen, announced in a Facebook post on May 9 that she will run as the Republican candidate to replace her husband at the State House, following his decision to step down after one term. She joins Democratic candidate Jeff Haylon in the race.
“I am running because I care deeply about strengthening our community and ensuring that Vermont remains a great place to live and work,” Nielsen said in a press release announcing her candidacy. The release named affordability, economic growth, and energy independence as key issues she hopes to address, in part by cutting spending and lowering taxes.
Her positions echo those that swept her husband to a surprise victory in 2024.
“My goals are the same [as his],” she said in an interview with the Neshobe Current. “To do what you can for affordability.”
It’s more than a talking point. Nielsen grew up in Lithuania and taught briefly at a college there before moving to Miami to study English. She met her husband and the couple settled in Long Island, where she earned a nursing degree from Suffolk County Community College while raising their two sons. When the boys attended a summer camp in Wallingford, the family fell in love with Vermont, and in 2010 moved to Brandon because it was close to potential jobs in both Rutland and Middlebury.
Since then, Nielsen has worked as a registered nurse at Helen Porter Health and Rehabilitation Center in Middlebury. She and her husband, a carpenter, restored their 1880s home, “worked very hard to pay [it] off,” and have been able to live a comfortable life, she said.
But the story has been different for her younger son, a mechanic with Naylor & Breen who currently lives at home and is expecting a baby with his partner.
“Compared to some classmates, he’s doing okay, but he cannot afford [a house],” she said.
She acknowledged that “there is no easy fix” to the problem of affordability, but named excessive regulation and permitting requirements as major causes.
“Maybe we need to get rid of some regulations that are not so important. You need regulations, but I think there might be too much,” she said, citing those related to electric vehicle infrastructure as an example. She also supports school reform to lower taxes.
During her husband’s time in Montpelier, however, she has witnessed the difficulty of achieving change as a member of the minority party, since controversial votes typically follow party lines.
“He personally couldn’t do anything,” she said. “He did vote against [increased spending], but does it really matter?“
Especially after COVID, she said, it has been difficult to trim spending on programs that people have grown accustomed to. That leads to tax increases when federal funds dry up, but she worries that those increases are causing people to flee the state, and even causing some elderly people with limited incomes to lose their houses when they can’t pay the property taxes.
“You need to go through every program and see if it’s really effective, if it’s really needed,” she said.
As for her goal of regional energy independence, Nielsen is a proponent of small-scale nuclear plants, which she views as safe and no more environmentally problematic than other forms of energy.
“We don’t have coal; we don’t have gas or oil, so what can Vermont do? Probably this is the only way besides solar and wind, but they are not enough to make us independent,” she said.
She also discussed her concerns with Vermont’s education system and said she would advocate for a greater focus on basic skills.
“What worries me is that kids in fourth grade are not sufficient in reading,” she said. “It worries me that high school students [say they] do everything on computers and school doesn’t teach them critical thinking.”
The election for state representative will take place on Nov. 3.
