Vermont State House District Franklin-5 has two listed candidates for the 2026 general election: Wayne Laroche and Lisa Hango. Both are Republicans, and both are incumbents, meaning they currently hold office.
The race is designated as contested. The general election is scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026. The current candidate list does not include a candidate with a different party affiliation; Laroche and Hango share both the Republican label and incumbent status.
No documented policy positions are on file for either candidate. There also are no listed figures for how much either candidate has raised, spent or held as cash on hand.
Wayne Laroche
Wayne Laroche is running as a Republican and is identified as an incumbent in the Franklin-5 State House race. His name will be part of the district’s contested 2026 general election.
No candidate biography is on file for Laroche. No documented positions on state policy issues are listed for him, so the race information does not identify specific proposals or priorities associated with his candidacy.
Laroche also has no campaign finance figures on file. There is no listed total for funds raised, funds spent or cash on hand. Those three financial categories therefore do not offer a documented point of comparison between Laroche and Hango at this stage of the race.
Lisa Hango
Lisa Hango is running as a Republican and is identified as an incumbent in the Franklin-5 State House race. Her name will be part of the district’s contested 2026 general election.
No candidate biography is on file for Hango. No documented positions on state policy issues are listed for her, so the race information does not identify specific proposals or priorities associated with her candidacy.
Hango also has no campaign finance figures on file. There is no listed total for funds raised, funds spent or cash on hand. Those three financial categories therefore do not offer a documented point of comparison between Hango and Laroche at this stage of the race.
What makes the race contested
Franklin-5 is listed as a contested State House race rather than a race with only one listed candidate. Laroche and Hango are the two names in the current field, and they enter the election with the same party affiliation and the same incumbent designation.
That makes candidate-specific information especially important for distinguishing between them. No documented policy positions are currently listed for either Laroche or Hango, however. The race therefore has no recorded contrast on taxes, spending, education, housing, health care, the environment or any other state issue.
Campaign finance totals also do not establish a difference between the candidates. Neither has a listed amount for fundraising, spending or cash on hand.
Election date and key distinctions
The Franklin-5 contest is part of Vermont’s 2026 general election on Nov. 3. It is a general-election race, not a primary contest.
The confirmed similarities between the candidates are clear: Laroche and Hango are both Republicans, both are incumbents, and neither has documented policy positions or campaign finance figures on file. The confirmed personal distinction is the candidate name voters will see: Wayne Laroche or Lisa Hango.
As the election approaches, the main process questions are whether candidate policy positions become documented and whether fundraising, spending or cash-on-hand totals are filed. Those developments could give voters additional ways to compare the two candidacies without changing the basic structure of the current field.
