Democrats poised to pick transgender woman for Vermont governor

Former energy exec Christine Hallquist is vying to become the nation's first transgender governor.

MANCHESTER, Vt. — Christine Hallquist leaned back in her swivel chair inside a private room at the Northshire bookstore and dialed up potential donors, trash-talking the plummeting approval numbers of Vermont’s incumbent Republican governor and touting her chances against her Democratic rivals. "It's clear it's for us to lose, which I won't, 'cause I'm disciplined," she assured one prospective contributor of the upcoming primary.

Beating her fellow Democrats and then defeating a sitting Vermont governor for the first time since 1962 are only the beginning. From there, Hallquist, a first-time candidate, plans to reverse the decline of rural Vermont and maybe even solve climate change.

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