This election marked the first time in Vermont's history that it elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate, the last remaining U.S. state to do so. Leahy remained the only Democrat ever elected to the Senate from Vermont until
2022, when he retired and was succeeded by
Peter Welch. The last non-Republican elected to the Senate from Vermont prior to 1974 was
Lawrence Brainerd, a
Free Soil Party member chosen in 1854 by an anti-slavery coalition of the
Vermont General Assembly to fill a brief vacancy.