By Kolby LaMarche

Former Councilor Ali Dieng and Democrat Jeffrey Peterson emerged from Tuesday’s Democratic primary as two of the new faces headed toward the Vermont House from Burlington. 

Dieng, the former independent Ward 7 city councilor, advanced in the two-seat Chittenden-18 Democratic primary alongside longtime incumbent Carol Ode. 

The district covers portions of the New North End, a traditionally more conservative part of the Queen City, once represented by the last recently elected Republican, Kurt Wright.

Ode, a former teacher and Cornell Law graduate, has served on the House Ways and Means Committee, the Ethics Panel, and as a University of Vermont trustee. She is seeking her sixth term.

Dieng’s path was more jagged. He first won a 2017 special election as a Democrat-Progressive fusion candidate, defeating a Republican former councilor by a wide margin and becoming one of the few New Americans on the council at the time. 

He built support among immigrant and working-class residents in the New North End by focusing on childcare, housing, and neighborhood engagement, but his tenure produced repeated friction on the council.

In December 2018, after a resolution he co-sponsored to increase support for Neighborhood Planning Assemblies failed on a 6-6 tie, Dieng publicly accused colleagues of opposing the measure in part because he was the only Black councilor. 

The charge drew immediate rebuttals from other members who said the vote reflected process concerns and opposition from some neighborhood groups rather than race. 

Policing votes further defined his service in 2020. Then, when the council approved a resolution to reduce the police department by 30 percent through attrition, Dieng voted against it. He argued that structural changes required longer, more deliberate planning and community input rather than rapid cuts. 

But he would later back a police-oversight ballot measure that voters rejected, with many saying the changes felt too quick or too far reaching. 

On foreign-policy symbolism he was equally active. In 2021 he introduced a nonbinding resolution addressing Israeli actions in Gaza and the West Bank; facing heavy constituent pressure, he moved to withdraw it rather than force a recorded vote. 

Critics, including several rabbis and others in the Jewish community, explicitly objected that it was introduced during the Jewish High Holy Days, the period between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Mayor Miro Weinberger, who is Jewish, made a similar point in a pre-meeting statement.

Also in 2021, Dieng ran for mayor as an independent and finished third. In 2022 he held his council seat by two votes over a Democratic challenger after a recount confirmed the result. 

By 2026 he had left the council and was working as a regional manager for Building Bright Futures while serving on the Community Health Center of Burlington board. 

A London School of Economics graduate, Jeffery Peterson, advanced in the Chittenden-16 primary for the two seats covering parts of downtown and the Old North End. 

He ran with the support of Green Mountain Democratic Socialist of America and the endorsement of outgoing Rep. Kate Logan, a Progressive/Democrat.

His platform centered on universal healthcare, permanently affordable social housing, stronger public transit, and higher taxes on wealth. 

While Peterson will be campaigning for himself, he will also be working to elect newly-minted Democratic governor nominee Amanda Janoo, where Peterson currently serves as communications director for the gubernatorial campaign. As of today, the Janoo campaign has paid Peterson just under $20,000 since June of this year. 

His employment history shows a steady progression in, out, and around government. From January ‘23 to January ‘24 he was Senior Government Affairs Manager at First Mode Holdings Inc, a multinational decarbonization company. 

Earlier he worked as a staffer for Senate President Pro Tempore Patrick Leahy from June 2021 to January 2022 and as a Staff Assistant in Leahy’s office from January to June 2021. 

He also served as a Government Affairs Associate at Active Policy Solutions LLC from October 2020 to January 2021 and interned for Leahy in 2017. No Republican candidates filed in Chittenden-16, leaving the Democratic nominees heavily favored in November.