Becca Balint

Balint is a frequent public speaker, for example at the 2019 climate strike demonstration in Burlington, Vermont.

At the start of her second term in January 2017, Balint was elected as the State Senate's Majority Leader, succeeding Phil Baruth, who did not seek another term in the position. At the start of the 2019 legislative session, Balint was re-elected as Majority Leader.

Balint has been a State Senator from Windham County since 2015, and Senate Majority Leader since 2017.

Balint serves on the Senate Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs Committee, to which she was appointed in 2015. She also serves on the Committee on Finance, the Senate Rules and Joint Rules Committees, and the Legislative Committee on Judicial Rules. Balint has chaired the Senate Sexual Harassment Prevention Panel since 2017. During her first term, Balint served on the Institutions Committee. During her second term, Balint served as vice chair of the Education Committee.

In 2014, Balint was a candidate for the Vermont Senate from the two-member at-large Windham County district; one incumbent, Democrat Peter Galbraith, did not run for reelection.

Balint is a 2013 graduate of The Campaign School at Yale University and a 2014 graduate of the inaugural class of Emerge Vermont.

Balint and her wife, attorney Elizabeth R. Wohl, met in 2000 at Farm & Wilderness. They live in Brattleboro with their two children, a son and a daughter.

In 1995, Balint earned a master of education degree from Harvard University, and in 2001 she received a master of arts in history from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Balint was raised in Upstate New York, and attended public schools in Peekskill. In 1994, Balint moved to Plymouth, Vermont, for a job as a rock-climbing instructor at Farm & Wilderness summer camp. She became a full-time Vermont resident in 1997.

Balint moved to Vermont in 1994 to teach rock climbing at the Farm and Wilderness Foundation in Plymouth, and became a full-time resident of Vermont in 1997. She went on to direct Saltash Mountain Camp at Farm & Wilderness in Mount Holly, a coed wilderness adventure camp for children ages 11 to 15.

Balint attended Barnard College of Columbia University for two years, and in 1990 received her bachelor of arts degree in history and women's studies from Smith College, where she graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa.

After graduating college in 1990, Balint worked minimum wage jobs in bakeries, restaurants, and cafes in Massachusetts.

Rebecca A. "Becca" Balint (born c. 1968) is a Vermont educator, writer, and politician. A Democrat, she has served in the Vermont Senate since 2015. Since 2017, she has served as the Senate Majority Leader.

Balint was born circa 1968 at the United States Army hospital in Heidelberg, a daughter of Peter G. Balint and Sandra (Couchman) Balint. At the time of her birth, her father was a U.S. Army captain based in Germany. Peter Balint immigrated to the United States as a child, after his father was killed during the Holocaust. He served in the army after graduating from Siena College, and later worked at a phone company. Balint's mother worked at a watch factory and eventually earned both a college degree and a black belt in kung fu.