Robert Plunkett (Vermont politician)

Robert Plunkett was born in Troy, New York on 1 December 1975, a son of Robert W. Plunkett and Eileen (Kinney) Plunkett.^[2][3][4] He was raised and educated in Bennington, Vermont and is a 1993 graduate of Mount Anthony Union High School.^[4] Plunkett received his Bachelor of Arts in political science from Amherst College in 1998, then spent a year in California working for a private investigation firm.^[5] He then returned to Bennington, where he worked for several years as a computer programmer at Global-Z International.^[5] In 2003, he began attendance at Brooklyn Law School, from which he received his JD in 2006.^[5]

After attaining admission to the bar, Plunkett returned to Vermont, where in March 2007 he was appointed a deputy state's attorney for Bennington County.^[5] In July 2009, he joined Bennington's Jacobs, McClintock & Palmer-Ellis law firm, but he left in December to resume working as a deputy state's attorney.^[5][6]

In May 2024, incumbent Brian Campion indicated that he would not run for reelection to the Vermont Senate.^[7] In June 2024, Dick Sears, the incumbent in the Bennington district's other seat, died following a long illness.^[8] Seth Bongartz, a former state senator, was a successful candidate for one of the two Democratic nominations.^[9] Because Sears's name was already on the ballot, Plunkett ran as a write-in candidate for the other nomination, which he received.^[10][11] Bongartz and Plunkett won the November general election and assumed office in January 2025.^[12][13]