Former Lieutenant Governor Peter Plympton Smith won the Republican nomination against David Gates.

State Representative Paul N. Poirier won the Democratic nomination against Peter Welch, James A.

[11] On April 8, 1987, Paul N. Poirier, the Majority Leader of the Vermont House of Representatives, announced that he would seek the Democratic nomination for congressional election.

[21] Jim Hedbor announced that he would run in the election with the Libertarian nomination on February 25, 1988, at a press conference in Montpelier, Vermont.

[23] Peter Diamondstone, who had unsuccessfully ran for a seat in the United States House of Representatives five times, announced on June 3, 1988, that he would run in the election with the nomination of the Liberty Union Party.

During the campaign he accused his opponents of excluding the candidates of smaller parties from debates and forums.

[10] Morris Earle, who had unsuccessfully ran in five elections including for Vermont's at-large congressional district in 1986, announced that he would run and appeared on the Small Is Beautiful ballot line.

[37] Smith's victory was the last time that a member of the Republican Party was elected to the United States House of Representatives from Vermont.