Stacey Plaskett Wins Delegate To Congress Race

Stacey Plaskett has won the Delegate to Congress race, the VI Consortium can reveal.

With over 59.46 percent all votes tallied, Plaskett holds a solid lead of 90.11 percent over her opponents, boasting a lead of over 7,697 votes.

Plaskett has come a long way from her grueling battle against Senate President, Shawn-Michael Malone, to become the Democratic nominee.

The August 2 win against Sen. Malone, a well-known and loved figure in the Virgin Islands, came as a surprise to many political analysts who had concluded that Malone would have won a stinging victory against Plaskett, basing their projections on the Senator’s popularity and his ability to raise more money. But there were many factors at play this year that hurt Malone and ultimately lead to his loss, most pointedly the “Malone Amendment” which, according to those who opposed the bill, sought to take jobs away from St. Croix’s already hurting economy, while giving unjustified tax breaks to big corporations in a time when the territory is in dire need of revenue. The problem was magnified when Governor deJongh vetoed the legislation, only to see Malone and other Senators override the veto without allowing for proper Senate hearings and other important legislative processes.

To Plaskett’s credit, her efforts were unlike any other the territory’s seen in recent times, and there’s no doubt that she worked hard for this victory — traversing the Islands, making her case to the people at every stop, selling her platform the best way she knew how, and pressing forward in the midst of many controversies that sought to quell her gains.