MONTPELIER – Christine Hallquist, a former energy executive, has been picked as the first transgender governor nominee in a US state.
The 62-year-old defeated Ethan Sonneborn, 14, a schoolboy who was allowed to stand because the state’s constitution has no age requirement for the governor’s job. She also beat a Navy veteran and the executive director of a dance festival to win the Democratic Party nomination on Tuesday.
“Tonight, we made history,” Hallquist said as she addressed supporters in Burlington. She went on to say that she had received notes of support from all over the world that brought her to tears. “That’s the kind of thing that keeps me going every day.”
https://twitter.com/christineforvt/status/1029555986770657280
Hallquist was previously the CEO of Vermont Electric Cooperative for 12 years and publicly transitioned from male to female in 2015, becoming the first American CEO to do so while on the job, according to the Victory Fund, a political action committee focused on electing LGBTQ people to office.
She will face off Phil Scott, the incumbent Republican governor, on Nov. 6.
https://twitter.com/BernieSanders/status/1029561881017675776
Hallquist’s nomination comes in an election year already marked by record numbers of lesbian, gay and transgender candidates.
This year, 43 transgender candidates have run for political office at all levels in the US. But Hallquist is the first transgender person to win a major party nomination for state governor.
“I think Vermont is a beacon of hope for the rest of the country,” she told Reuters news agency after the result was announced.
“This is what I call expanding our moral compass and that is what I think it represents.”
Meanwhile, a former Somali refugee won her race to become one of the first female Muslim members of Congress in Minnesota, as did a celebrated teacher in Connecticut who could now become the state’s first black Democrat in Congress.
https://en.dailypakistan.com.pk/headline/meet-rashida-tlaib-first-muslim-woman-to-enter-us-congress/
