Diane Lanpher, left, and Mike McCarthy. Photos by Glenn Russell/VTDiggerUpdated at 12:21 p.m.The Democratic chairs of two House committees were unseated Tuesday by Republican challengers — as was an assistant majority leader of the party — ensuring major changes to the chamber when lawmakers return to Montpelier in January.Their losses came as Republicans appeared to pick up multiple seats in the Vermont Senate. Rep. Diane Lanpher, D-Vergennes, who chairs the House Appropriations Committee, came in third in a four-way race for two seats in the Addison-3 district, according to unofficial results from the Secretary of State’s Office. Republican Rob North finished first with 24.67% of the vote. Lanpher’s fellow incumbent, Rep. Matt Birong, D-Vergennes, finished second with 21.86%. Lanpher picked up 21.7%, finishing just 17 votes behind Birong. Republican Joseph Baker took 20.63%.Lanpher’s leadership position on the powerful money committee is among the most coveted posts in the House and helps guide state spending. She was first elected in 2008, led the House Transportation Committee and took over the appropriations panel in 2023. Rep. Mike McCarthy of St. Albans, the chair of the House Government Operations and Military Affairs Committee, lost his reelection bid to Republican Joe Luneau in the single-member Franklin-3 district. Luneau won 52.53% to McCarthy’s 44.43%.In the Rutland-7 House district, Rep. William Notte, one of the Democrats’ assistant majority leaders, was also defeated. Republican Chris Keyser won 55.9% of the vote to Notte’s 40.43%.Other House Democratic incumbents ousted Tuesday included:Rep. Josie Leavitt in the Grand Isle-Chittenden district Rep. Dennis Labounty in the Caledonia-3 district Rep. Robin Chestnut-Tangerman in the Bennington-Rutland district Rep. Jim Carroll in the Bennington-5 districtVermont Republican Party Chair Paul Dame said the Republican successes in legislative races will force Democrats to work with Republican Gov. Phil Scott, who cruised to reelection Tuesday.“I don’t think we’ve had a night this good in 10 years,” Dame said. “Tonight, voters have weighed in on how to solve that stalemate. They said, ‘You should have been listening to the governor in (the) last two years.'”Jim Dandeneau, executive director of the Vermont Democratic Party, said in an interview around 11:15 p.m. at the party’s election night gathering in South Burlington that the state GOP’s — and particularly Scott’s — messaging over property taxes proved to be more effective on the campaign trail than what he called Democrats’ ‘herculean work’ knocking on doors and engaging with voters on the ground.Scott and the GOP, Dandeneau said, “overwhelmed people’s concerns about the future of our democracy with concerns about the future of their own pocketbooks.”“We were fighting this fight one person at a time, one household at a time,” he added, holding several boxes of uneaten finger foods from the party’s hors d’oeuvres spread as workers began to break down the event space. “He was blanketing the airwaves with his messaging about cutting taxes. That ended up being not great for us.”VTDigger will publish full results of Vermont House races on Wednesday. Shaun Robinson and Sarah Mearhoff contributed to this story.Read the story on VTDigger here: Vermont GOP knocks off two Democratic House chairs.