[G]ov. Phil Scott won the Republican Party nomination, but not without taking a pounding in the polls Tuesday night. The Associated Press called the race for Scott a little after 9 p.m.
Within a few minutes of announcing Scott’s win, the news service also called the Democratic primary for Christine Hallquist, making her the first transgender gubernatorial candidate in the nation.
Scott was badly bruised in the Republican primary by a little-known grocer from Springfield, Keith Stern. At 9:18, with 41 percent of precincts reporting, the incumbent governor had 9,096 votes, or 64 percent of the total. Stern at that point had 4,812 votes, or 34 percent of the ballots cast.
Stern, a supporter of gun rights and small government, was backed by activists antagonized by Scott’s enactment of new firearm restrictions.
Hallquist, the former CEO of Vermont Electric Co-op, had 10,393 votes as of 9:20, handily beating challengers Brenda Siegel, an arts administrator from Newfane who got 5,374 votes; James Ehlers, director of Lake Champlain International from Winooski, who had received 4,875 votes; and 14-year-old Ethan Sonneborn of Bristol, who got 1,869 of the ballots cast.
There were 1,419 write-in ballots cast in the Democratic gubernatorial primary. Write-in ballot results are not yet available, but it’s expected that Sen. John Rodgers, D-Orleans, would have been the principal beneficiary of a campaign by gun rights activists to support his candidacy.