Transgender candidate wins Vermont primary

Democrats in Vermont chose the nation’s first openly transgender major party nominee for a statewide office Tuesday as four states held primaries to decide ballots for November’s midterm elections. Democrat Christine Hallquist, previously known as “David” and the former chief executive of the Vermont Electric Cooperative, defeated three other candidates in Vermont’s Democratic primary for governor. Hallquist will battle incumbent Republican Gov. Phil Scott in November. Scott won unusual favor with Democrats and angered his own party by signing gun control legislation in April.

President Donald Trump congratulated the winners of GOP primaries in a tweet Wednesday, hailing “Great Republican election results” and adding “Red Wave!” Voters in Connecticut, Minnesota, and Wisconsin also picked candidates for the general election Tuesday, leaving just 10 states that haven’t held primaries yet. In Wisconsin, Gov. Scott Walker, endorsed just this week by Trump, won the right to seek a third term. And in Minnesota, Democrats energized by their dislike for Trump cast nearly twice as many ballots in their gubernatorial primary as Republicans did in theirs. In the Republican governor’s race, former Gov. Tim Pawlenty lost to Minneapolis-area County Commissioner Jeff Johnson, who will face Democratic U.S. Rep. Tim Walz in November.