Transgender Candidate Has Uphill Battle Against Vermont Incumbent
*By Christian Smith*
Christine Hallquist, the first transgender gubernatorial candidate to be nominated by a major party, faces an uphill battle in Vermont, where she is trying to unseat the popular Republican governor.
"It's possible, but not likely, that Vermont will have the first transgender governor because the incumbent there, Phil Scott, is very popular," said Jonathan Alter, a political reporter and the host of Sirius XM's Alter Family Politics.
Hallquist, the former CEO of Vermont Electric Cooperative, won 48.3 percent in Tuesday's Democratic [primary](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/08/14/us/elections/results-vermont-primary-elections.html). She beat out three other candidates, including a 14-year-old boy who was allowed to run because the Vermont Constitution does not have an age requirement for gubernatorial candidates.
"As far as I'm concerned, these are nice breakthroughs," Alter said Wednesday in an interview on Cheddar. "But they're not ultimately nearly as important as what happens between now and November. The big question is, whether Democrats ー progressives, in particular ー people who don't always vote very much, whether they get off their duffs, turn off their cable TV, go out there, and not actually vote, but work in flippable districts in their states."
Scott, who is popular even among Democrats in Vermont, is considered the favorite to win, though his poll numbers have taken a hit in recent months. His approval rating fell 18 points to 47 percent, and his disapproval rating doubled to 42 percent, according to Morning Consult's latest [quarterly governor approval rankings](https://morningconsult.com/2018/07/25/americas-most-and-least-popular-governors-2/).
The drop came after Scott [tightened](https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/09/us/florida-gov-scott-gun-bill/index.html) gun control laws in March. Despite Vermont's reputation as a liberal state, nearly a third of its residents own guns, according to [CBS News](https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/gun-ownership-rates-by-state/20/).
For more on this story, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/do-democrats-have-what-it-takes-to-take-back-congress-in-november).
Russian forces escalated their attacks on populated urban areas Tuesday, bombarding the central square in Ukraine’s second-largest city and Kyiv’s main TV tower.
A bipartisan group of 43 representatives joined forces in a letter to President Joe Biden to remind the executive branch that it must seek the approval of Congress before authorizing a war — whether or not its in Ukraine as Russia continues its invasion. Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore. 4th District) led the effort and joined Cheddar News Wrap to explain. "It's time for Congress to get back the authority, which is vested to us in the constitution, not in the executive branch," he said. "The president. once we're at war, we speak with one voice with the commander in chief. But before that, it's up to the American people and Congress whether or not we're going to become engaged in a war."
Chris Konstantinos, Chief Investment Strategist at RiverFront Investment Group, explains why he remains encouraged about the S&P and the state of the market despite the major indexes closing mostly lower on Monday.
President Joe Biden will be delivering his first State of the Union address on Tuesday night, and with so many issues from Ukraine to inflation, everyone will be focused on what he might say. Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y. 11th District) joined Cheddar News to discuss what she thinks the president should address. "I think what he hasn't done yet is go after the gas, the oil, the minerals, the mining industries, that is incredibly important," she said. "There's still some banks there that are not sanctioned. He needs to go after all the banks, but I also think that providing the equipment that Ukraine needs to continue to protect its capital and its country are incredibly important."
As Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, one of its few big allies remaining appears to be China. Gordon Chang, Asian affairs expert and author of "The Coming Collapse of China," joined Cheddar News to discuss what might be behind China's support for Putin's current strategy. “I think China is looking at what Putin did yesterday, which is to raise his nuclear forces on a higher alert level,” Chang stated, “If they see that Putin gets away with his nuclear threats, which he's been making over the last three or four days, then I'm sure that Beijing is going to ramp up its threats as well, and it could ramp them up against any number of different countries with which it perceives it has a problem with"
Joel Rubin, president of the Washington Strategy Group and former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, joins Cheddar News to discuss the Russia-Ukraine tensions and the new sanctions President Biden placed on Russia.
