Meet Peter Welch
Peter Welch has represented Vermonters in Congress since 2007. In an era of partisanship and division, he is widely recognized as a progressive leader and a skillful legislator who chooses governing over gridlock.
He was born in Springfield, Massachusetts and graduated from the College of the HolyCross. As a member of the first class of Robert F. Kennedy Fellows, he fought housing discrimination in Chicago after college and went on to earn a law degree from the University of California, Berkeley. After law school, he settled in Vermont’s Upper Valley where he worked as a public defender and then founded a small law practice.
He was elected to the Vermont Senate in 1980 and later was selected to lead the chamber, becoming the first Democrat in Vermont’s history to hold the position of Senate President Pro Tem.
After serving in the House of Representatives from 2007-2023, Peter was elected to the Senate in 2022. In the Senate, Peter has continued working to lower the costs of prescription drugs, combat climate change, expand access to rural broadband, and protect our democracy.
Peter is married to Margaret Cheney. They share a home in Norwich, Vermont.