Plaskett Wins Historic Governor’s Race as Voters Oust Incumbents, Lift Newcomers

Virgin Islanders elected their first female governor Tuesday, delivering a decisive victory to Delegate to Congress Stacey Plaskett and her running mate, Senate President Milton Potter, while reshaping the Legislature in an election that saw several incumbents defeated and candidates associated with the emerging political movement TheFuture make significant gains.

Plaskett, a Democrat, received 11,865 votes, according to unofficial territorial results released by the Elections System of the Virgin Islands at 9 p.m. Tuesday. Her closest challenger, former Sen. Adlah “Foncie” Donastorg, finished with 2,507 votes, followed by Oakland Benta with 2,273, Warren Mosler with 1,293 and Gustav James with 637.

The victory marks a historic transition for the territory, with Plaskett set to become the first woman to serve as governor of the U.S. Virgin Islands. Her election also comes on a historic night nationally, with former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms winning Georgia’s gubernatorial race to become the first Black woman elected governor of a U.S. state.

Although Plaskett is not the nation’s first Black governor, a distinction dating to P.B.S. Pinchback’s brief tenure as Louisiana governor in 1872, her election breaks a barrier in the Virgin Islands, where no woman has previously held the territory’s highest office.