Wednesday, November 7, 2018

First transgender nominee for governor loses bid to unseat Republican incumbent in Vermont





Christine Hallquist, a former energy CEO, lost her bid on Tuesday to make history as America's first transgender governor


  • Christine Hallquist, 62, was defeated in Vermont's gubernatorial race Tuesday
  • Hallquist was the first transgender major party nominee for a governorship
  • Republican incumbent Phil Scott won with a comfortable 15-point margin
Christine Hallquist, a former energy CEO, lost her bid on Tuesday to make history as America's first transgender governor with Vermont voters re-electing the Republican incumbent, according to projections after polls closed.


The 62-year-old Democrat was projected to have lost to Phil Scott, a comparatively popular and moderate Republican who has only been the bucolic northeastern state's top executive for two years.
With 98 per cent of precincts reporting, Scott maintained a 15-point lead on Hallquist, who conceded defeat. 


Cancer survivor Hallquist had jumped into politics with the idea of helping to lead a 'blue wave' against President Donald Trump.

Scott distanced himself from Trump in the mostly left-leaning state, whose most famous politician is Senator Bernie Sanders, a self-described Democratic Socialist re-elected as an independent earlier on Tuesday.


Hallquist had defied death threats to run, hoping that Democrats and independents would flock to the polls to put her over the line.


Having made history as becoming the first transgender person to win a major party nomination for governor, Hallquist already considered herself a role model and her candidacy as expanding America's moral compass.

She told AFP in an interview in September her gender status was 'not an issue for Vermont,' and that it rarely came up with voters.


Before running, she was best known in Vermont for leading the charge toward renewable energy and as a pioneering American CEO who transitioned on the job and who until 2015 was officially Dave.
Had Scott been defeated, he would have become Vermont's first incumbent governor ousted since 1962.

SOURCE


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