On Tuesday, Vermont Democrats made history by being the first major party to nominate a transgender American for governor.
Politics
Christine Hallquist, the former head of Vermont Electric Cooperative and the first CEO to transition publicly while leading one of the state’s largest utilities, is now the Vermont Democratic gubernatorial candidate. She built her campaign around her 13-year energy company executive experience, where she successfully addressed climate change without raising costs.
Her historic milestone was noted by the Victory Fund, a political action committee “dedicated to electing openly LGBTQ people,” particularly those in the trans community, who have long been shut out of the highest levels of elected office.
“My path to being my authentic self was certainly not easy,” Hallquist said. “However, it’s always been important to me to live openly and honestly. I chose to transition in a very public way because I felt I owed it to those at Vermont Electric Cooperative who put their trust in me.”
The stage is now set for a November general election between Hallquist, who has never held statewide elected office, and incumbent Gov. Phil Scott, a former construction company owner seeking a second term.
“I’m going to tell you why we’re going to win in November,” Hallquist told a cheering crowd of supporters at the Skinny Pancake restaurant in Burlington. “Because nothing is impossible when you’re on the side of justice.”
Hallquist has pitched a plan to connect every Vermont home and business with high-speed internet access by relying on electric utilities to string fiber optic cable.
“It’s going to take a lot of work to get to every town in Vermont,” Hallquist continued, “and it’s going to take twice the amount of work to knock on every door in Vermont — because there’s a lot of areas of Vermont that we don’t have internet to.”
Although her historic campaign attracted star-making attention and nationwide support, Hallquist faces an uphill battle to defeat a sitting Vermont governor for the first time in more than half a century.
“People like myself and who normally wouldn’t be in politics are rising up all over (in response to Trump’s election) and I think that’s what healthy democracy looks like,” Hallquist said. “I’m hoping that years from now we can look back and say, ‘Isn’t American democracy wonderful: we survived a death spot.'”
I don’t mean to insult anybody but that frumpy look doesn’t seem like a winner to me.