United States Virgin Islands

Stacey Plaskett (D) was reelected after running unopposed for territorial delegate. As a non-voting delegate, she cannot vote for Speaker of the House, but has expressed hesitation to support Nancy Pelosi’s bid to regain the leadership position, suggesting fellow Congressional Black Caucus Members Marcia Fudge or Karen Bass instead.

Governor Kenneth Mapp (I) lost his reelection bid to Democratic Party-endorsed candidate Albert J. Bryan, Jr in the 20 November runoff election. Bryan defeated the incumbent governor by a 3,020 vote margin, garnering 54.54% of the final vote.

Facing six opponents in the 6 November election, Governor Mapp’s path to reelection was narrow after only receiving 33.71% of the vote–second place behind Bryan’s 37.93%. The governor failed to win over US Virgin Islanders for a second term, and was criticized for mishandling the territory’s debt crisis, resulting in downgrades to the creditworthiness of the territory’s government, as well as his inability to bring about the economic promises he made in during his campaign for governor in 2014.

“I think the message that we carried tonight, as well as unity and change, is that we’re going to put the Virgin Islands back together and stop this kind of separatist dialogue,” Bryan said at an election night victory rally in St. Croix.

Bryan, who ran on a platform of free college tuition and modernization of infrastructure, will join the ranks of the other 12 new Democratic governors elected on 6 November, including 8 others who “flipped” a seat from the other party.