Delegate Stacey Plaskett (D) won the governorship of the US Virgin Islands on November 3, 2026, becoming the first woman to lead the territory and the first Black woman elected governor of any United States state or territory, according to the VI Consortium, which cited research from Rutgers University’s Center for American Women and Politics. Plaskett and her running mate, US Virgin Islands Senate President Milton Potter (D), received 11,865 votes, or 62.8%, in unofficial results from the Election System of the US Virgin Islands.
On the same ballots, former Senator Janelle Sarauw (D) won the seat in the US House that Plaskett is leaving. Sarauw received 13,029 votes, or 76.9%, to 3,586, or 21.2%, for Shelley Moorhead (I), the VI Consortium reported. She will be the first openly LGBTQ+ person to represent the US Virgin Islands in Congress.
A first that national outlets missed
The same night, Georgia voters elected former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms (D), who will be the first Black woman elected governor of a state. Plaskett’s term, however, begins first: she and Potter are scheduled to take office on January 4, 2027, the first Monday of January under the Revised Organic Act. Under Georgia law, a new governor is inaugurated during the first week of the General Assembly’s session, which by default begins on the second Monday in January, January 11, 2027.
Several national outlets nonetheless presented Bottoms’ win as the country’s first without mentioning Plaskett. NBC News reported that Bottoms “is also the first Black female governor in the country’s history.” Axios reported that she became “the first Black woman governor in U.S. history,” and its roundup of the night’s historic firsts said she “became the first Black woman elected governor in U.S. history” without mentioning Plaskett or Sarauw. NPR’s headline read “Georgia elects the nation’s first Black female governor,” and a separate NPR list of 10 governor candidates who made history said Bottoms “is the first Black woman elected governor” and did not include Plaskett. CBS News reported that Bottoms will be “the first Black woman in the U.S. to ever hold the office,” and a second CBS story said “Americans elected their first Black woman into a gubernatorial role.” The 19th called Bottoms “the nation’s first Black woman governor.”
The Associated Press, by contrast, described Bottoms as the first Black woman elected governor of Georgia.
On November 4, Maryland Governor Wes Moore (D) said on CNN, “I am the only Black governor in this country.” Governor Albert Bryan Jr. (D) of the US Virgin Islands is also Black.
Brian Louden, editor in chief of VI Update, an independent news site on St. Croix, made the same point in a video he posted on Facebook on November 4. “Last night, two Black women were elected governor. Most of the headlines only counted one,” he wrote in its caption.
Plaskett’s agenda
Plaskett has represented the territory in the US House since 2015 and won the Democratic primary on August 1 with 47%. She succeeds Bryan, who is term-limited. With 62.8%, her ticket cleared the majority needed to avoid a runoff. Former Senator Adlah “Foncie” Donastorg (I) and Positive Nelson (I) finished second with 2,507 votes, or 13.3%. Oakland Benta (I) and Merwin Potter (I) received 2,273, or 12.0%; Warren Mosler (I) and Colin Robertson (I) received 1,293, or 6.8%; and Gustav James (I) and Randolph Bennett (I) received 637, or 3.4%.
On election night, Plaskett told the St. Thomas Source that her first 100 days would include seeking emergency federal assistance for the US Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority (WAPA), introducing a government ethics package, and repairing relationships with federal agencies overseeing disaster recovery money, including the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). In July, HUD suspended the US Virgin Islands Housing Finance Authority from future federal funding transactions. Asked about a Wall Street Journal opinion piece proposing a federal financial oversight board for the territory, like the one Congress created for Puerto Rico, Plaskett rejected the idea. “What the Virgin Islands needs is a Marshall Plan, not an oversight board,” she said.
Bryan congratulated the winners. “Government is perpetual, and each of us entrusted to serve has a responsibility to leave our islands stronger than we found them,” he said.
A new delegate
Sarauw served three terms in the Legislature of the US Virgin Islands as an independent, from 2017 until January 2023, and ran for lieutenant governor in 2022 on an independent ticket with Senator Kurt Vialet (D), losing to Bryan, according to the VI Consortium. She joined the Democratic Party in February 2026 and won its August 1 primary with about 52.9%. Her term begins January 3, 2027. She was also the territory’s first openly LGBTQ senator, TheGrio reported.
“I am your representative, too. There is no separate Virgin Islands for those who voted for me and those who did not,” Sarauw said in a statement after her win.
Like Plaskett before her, Sarauw will be able to vote in committee but not on final passage of bills in the US House.
A Democratic base, with a shake-up in the Legislature
The results matched the territory’s partisan lean. In Pasquines’ October 2026 Elections Territorial Poll, nearly 80% of US Virgin Islands respondents said they were affiliated with the Democratic Party, and the territory was the only one where the Democratic Party had a net favorable rating. Plaskett and Sarauw both ran well ahead of their poll numbers, which had Plaskett and Potter at 43.7% and Sarauw at 55.3%.
That base carried into the Legislature of the US Virgin Islands, where Democrats won six of St. Croix’s seven seats and four of St. Thomas–St. John’s seven, the St. Thomas Source reported, for 10 of the 15 seats in all. But voters also ousted four incumbents, three of them Democrats, and elected four candidates from TheFuture, an emerging political movement whose winners ran as both Democrats and independents.
The clearest defeat came in the territory-wide at-large race, where TheFuture co-founder Hadiya Sewer (I) unseated Senator Angel Bolques Jr. (D), 9,809 votes to 6,204.
In the St. Thomas–St. John District, newcomer Imani Daniel (I) finished first with 4,516 votes, 56 ahead of Senator Alma Francis Heyliger (I). Senator Avery Lewis (D), Senator Marvin Blyden (D), Rudel Hodge Jr. (D), Sennai Habtes (I), and Senator Carla Joseph (D) took the remaining seats. Daniel, Hodge, and Habtes ran with TheFuture. Senators Dwayne DeGraff (I) and Ray “PuPa” Fonseca (D) lost their seats, and Shenelle Fina Francis (D) finished eighth, 186 votes short of the last seat.
In the St. Croix District, Vialet led with 6,494 votes, the most of any district candidate in the territory. US Virgin Islands Senate Vice President Kenneth “Kenny” Gittens (D), Franklin Johnson (I), Clifford Joseph (D), Lisa Charles (D), Nemmy Williams-Jackson (D), and Jose “Besse” Gonzalez (D) won the other seats. Senator Hubert Frederick (D) finished ninth.
Of the 20,047 ballots cast, 12,242, or 61.1%, came during early voting, according to the unofficial count.
Boards of Education and Elections
On St. Croix, Vincent Gordon Jr. and Lucy Jackson won the district’s two seats on the US Virgin Islands Board of Education, with Jackson finishing 74 votes ahead of Terrence Joseph, and on St. Thomas and St. John, Judy Gomez and Arah Lockhart won over Bruce Flamon.
For the US Virgin Islands Board of Elections, Shamari Haynes, Mary “Peggy” Moorhead, and Kareem Francis won the three St. Croix seats, as incumbent Franz Christian Jr. finished fourth. Barbara Petersen and Kevin Rodriguez won the two St. Thomas seats over incumbent Harriet Mercer, and Raven Phillips, who is affiliated with TheFuture, won on St. John over Preston Evans.
The Election System of the US Virgin Islands plans to certify the results on November 13. Updated results will appear on the Pasquines elections center.
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