Christine Hallquist, the first transgender person to run as a major-party candidate for governor conceded to incumbent Gov. Phil Scott just before 10 p.m. on Tuesday.

"I am very proud of the campaign we have run," Hallquist told the Democratic gathering at the Hilton in Burlington.

Hallquist won 110,277 votes to Scott's 151,176. The Republican incumbent swept the state with an almost 15 percent margin. But it was national politics that weighed on her following her loss.

"I’m more concerned about the future of America," Hallquist said following her concession speech.

"I didn’t like what I was seeing in the numbers in the rest of the country tonight," Hallquist continued at about 10:30 p.m. as numbers were still coming in across the country. "And if we still have a Republican majority in the House and the Senate nationally, I think people like me are in trouble."

The Democrats regained a majority in the U.S. House on Tuesday, while Republicans added to their Senate majority.

Hallquist said she had no plans at the moment to become a national advocate for transgender rights, but didn’t rule anything out.

"I’m afraid for the future of my community," Hallquist said regarding the Trump administration proposal to legally define gender only as a person's presentation of genitalia at birth with no changes allowed.

"I do feel groundbreaking, but what good does it do if we don’t change things," Hallquist said of national rather than state laws. "We have safe policies (in Vermont), but if I get my passport revoked because I’m transgender, what are you going to do?"

More:Hallquist, reluctant LGBTQ role model, raises profile of trans identities

More:Vermont's Attorney General opposes proposed federal rollback of transgender rights

Hallquist's son, Derek, and other family members were huddled in the hotel lobby Tuesday night as the party began to break up and speeches were ending.

"On a national level I was hoping for an awakening and I didn't see it. Not enough," Derek Hallquist, a documentary filmmaker, said.

He was worried about the rhetoric in the country that he saw as selfishness and an us versus them mentality.

"But Christine's speech was amazing and it's exactly what this country needs," he added.

More:How does Burlington stack up on Human Rights Campaign's LGBTQ city equity index?

More:Christine Hallquist: An inclusive candidate and a 'policy wonk'

Hallquist, 62, was CEO of Vermont Electric Cooperative in Johnson from 2005 to March 2018. Her key proposal was a rural economic development strategy focused on expanding internet access by requiring all electric utility companies to hang fiber-optic cable to every home and business in their service areas.

Vermont Speaker of the House Mitzi Johnson said that Vermont hadn't unseated an incumbent governor since 1962, so the odds were against Hallquist from the start. Her gender didn't factor into it.

"She stepped forward really bravely and put herself out there," Johnson said of Hallquist's late entry into a race.

Contact Nicole Higgins DeSmet ndesmet@freepressmedia.com or 802-660-1845. Follow her on Twitter @NicoleHDeSmet.