Trump clinches win at US Virgin Islands caucus
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump got another win at a Republican caucus held Thursday in the US Virgin Islands, where officials were said to have broken several GOP party rules, including holding the assembly earlier than allowed.
The caucus is the third Republican contest held this election season with delegates at stake, with Trump receiving 73.98 percent of the votes and 26.02 percent.
“I want to thank you all. We had a tremendous victory,” Trump said in brief remarks by phone to those who gathered in St. Thomas to know the results.
Joining Trump on Thursday’s ballot were Nikki Haley, Chris Christie, Ron DeSantis, Perry Johnson and Vivek Ramaswamy, although only Trump and Haley are still in the running.
Trump already has secured two other wins in the Republican presidential race and is the only major candidate on the ballot in Nevada’s GOP caucuses on Thursday.
Republican party officials in the US Virgin Islands said they opted to hold the contest early to ensure the US territory played an important role in the nomination of a candidate.
“As the Virgin Islands, like the other territories, doesn’t get to vote for president in the general election, it was important to ensure the voice and votes of voters … were heard,” Gordon Ackley, chairman of the Republican Party in the Virgin Islands, said in a statement to The Associated Press.
“Every state and every territory should try to make itself and its voters as relevant as possible. It’s absurd that the same couple of states have a monopoly on the calendar.” GOP rules state that only Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire and South Carolina can hold primaries or caucuses before March 1.
In addition, any contest held before March 15 must award delegates proportionally, while the US Virgin Islands did so via ranked-choice voting. “The Virgin Islands didn’t break any rules,” Ackley said.
“We merely took advantage of an existing rule in the national Republican rules to award our nine delegates proportionally, except if the winning candidate wins with more than 50 percent of the vote.”
Officials in the US Virgin Islands said they plan to send nine delegates and six alternates to the upcoming that will be held in Wisconsin in July. However, the Republican National Committee has said the US Virgin Islands has four delegates.
If they insist on sending nine, they would have to appear before the conventions committee on credentials and await a report that would determine who gets seated at the entire convention.