Vermont primary: Christine Hallquist makes history as transgender candidate becomes Democrat governor nominee as Bernie Sanders is also victorious
The state boasts a number of unique — many of them progressive — candidates
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Christine Hallquist has become the first transgender candidate to win a major political party's nomination for governor.
As part of the primaries in Vermont, Ms Hallquist beat three other Democrats to secure the victory.
The 62-year-old Ms Hallquist is part of a wave of LGBTQ candidates seeking higher office across the US. Ms Hallquist is being supported by The Victory Fund, a political action committee that backs LGBTQ candidates across the country. The committed labelled her a “game changer.”
Before Vermont's election, only four transgender candidates had won primaries in 2018, all for house and senate seats in state legislatures, and have a general election ahead. Seventeen have lost primary or general elections and 21 have yet to face voters
Elsewhere, Bernie Sanders has won the Democratic Senate beating Folasade Adeluola as he seeks a third term in office.
With 98 per cent of precincts reporting, Mr Sanders had 94 per cent of the vote. It was not immediately clear which Republican he will face in the general election in November, given a close race between Brooke Paige and Lawrence Zupan that had just hundreds of votes in it.
Mr Sanders' win does not come as a surprise. The self-described Democratic Socialist won re-election in 2012 with about 71 per cent of the vote. Before that, in 2006, he carried about 65 per cent of the vote.
While Mr Sanders won the Democratic nomination, he is widely expected to reject it. Doing so has become a regular move for the notably independent senator over the years.
Phil Scott, the Republican governor in the reliably Democratic state, has won the GOP primary as he seeks re-election and will face Ms Hallquist.
Ethan Sonneborn is another candidate worth mentioning. He’s a 14-year-old progressive who decided to launch his campaign after violence erupted last year during a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, North Carolina. State law allows anyone who has lived in Vermont for four years to run for governor after securing enough signatures to get on the ballot, making Mr Sonneborn legally qualified despite his age. He secured more than 4,000 votes for an eight per cent share of the ballots.
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Vermont isn’t the only state that held a primary on Tuesday — Minnesota, Wisconsin and Connecticut also had elections to determine which candidates will face off come November.
Hello and welcome to our coverage of the primary elections across the four states of Connecticut, Minnesota, Vermont and Wisconsin on Tuesday.
Ilhan Omar is a candidate to watch in Minnesota. She is running on the Democratic Socialists platform, the same as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in New York and Rashida Tlaib, who is set to be the first Muslim woman in US Congress. Ms Omar is a Somali-American and became Minnesota's first female Muslim State Representative last year.
Ethan Sonneborn is one of four Democratic candidates for governor in Vermont. He’s a 14-year-old progressive who decided to launch his campaign after violence erupted last year during a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, North Carolina. State law allows anyone who has lived in Vermont for four years to run for governor after securing enough signatures to get on the ballot, making Mr Sonneborn legally qualified despite his age.
Connecticut will host both governor and congressional races in this week's primary. Let's start with the governor race. Current Democratic Governor Dannel Malloy is standing down, leaving poor approval ratings behind him. His decision not to run again has caused a lot of both Republicans and Democrats to join the race. This is a state that has a tendency change parties in its governorship, suggesting this will be a tight race.
With what is expected to be a close race, who are the Republicans running for Connecticut governor? The main contenders are Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton and two businessmen, Bob Stefanowski and David Stemerman.
Donald Trump has just posted his endorsement for Peter Stauber who is running for Congress in Minnesota.
An who, in turn, are the Democrat candidates for Connecticut governor? Mirroring the Republican candidates, we have a mayor and someone from the world of business. Former journalist and business Ned Lamont, and Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim are running for the Democrats.
Phil Scott, Vermont's Republican governor, is running for re-election despite growing concerns from the right surrounding his stance on gun control. After passing a series of measures tightening gun restrictions in the state, guns rights groups like the Gun Owners of Vermont launched a campaign calling on voters to write-in other conservative candidates, including Keith Stern and John Rodgers.
More than eight Democrats have filed to run in Wisconsin’s gubernatorial primary to oust GOP Gov. Scott Walker. Democrat Tony Evers, the state’s public education chief, is in the lead, but polling has been scarce, and several other candidates have pulled in notable endorsements and fundraising.
Mahlon Mitchell, the president of the Professional Fire Fighters Association, has the support of California Sen. Kamala Harris, and Kelda Helen Roys, a former state Assembly member, has the backing of New York’s Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (and Wisconsin’s most famed indie band, Bon Iver). State Sen. Kathleen Vinehout (who has run in a Democratic gubernatorial primary before) and political activist Mike McCabe have also gotten progressive support.
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