“The Future is here,” declared many on Tuesday, after Imani Daniel, Hadiya Sewer, Sennai Habtes, and Raven Phillips’ success at November 3rd polls.
The four are members of The Future, self-described as a “community-rooted, ethics-first movement” that fielded a slate of independent candidates for the recent general election. The Future, which is neither structured nor registered as a political party, was formed in April 2025 and quickly won the support of enough Virgin Islanders to secure territorial leadership positions for most of its members.
On Friday, The Virgin Islands Consortium sat down with Imani Daniel, Dr. Sennai Habtes, and Raven Phillips to discuss how The Future was so successful on its first showing, and how these freshman senators and board members will approach their critical duties.
Ms. Daniel is one of the movement’s co-founders and secured the most votes in the St. Thomas/St. John district’s race for the Legislature. She suggested that their platform appealed to frustrated Virgin Islanders.
Ms. Daniel referenced the unstable electric grid, “moldy” schools, and “terrible” numeracy and literacy scores. “Our healthcare infrastructure is crumbling. There's sewage in the streets. There's garbage everywhere. The basic everyday maintenance of our government has completely collapsed, and people are genuinely suffering because of that,” she emphasized.
According to Ms. Daniel, The Future told voters, “If you like how things are going, no need to support us.” She believes that “we offered something so different to what we have all become so accustomed to” and that the movement offered Virgin Islanders an opportunity to “feel seen.” “I don't think people have felt seen, let alone loved and cared for and included in their government in the last eight to twelve years,” Ms. Daniel insisted.
During the campaign season, The Future championed reliable and affordable power, affordable housing, education reform, economic dignity, improved healthcare access, and climate resilience.
When questioned on priorities on Friday, Ms. Daniel added engagement with seniors, as well as “modernizing the VI Code and really pushing the constitution.” She ventured that doing so will “bring a lot of structural reform that will free up so many resources for time and labor and money for people in the Virgin Islands.” Ms. Daniel was also particularly interested in “holding the executive branch accountable to carrying out the plans that they promise to improve WAPA, healthcare, and education.”
Mr. Habtes will also join the 37th Legislature, representing the St. Thomas/St.John district. He currently serves as the Bureau Chief of Fisheries at the Department of Planning and Natural Resources and is a university professor.
He told the Consortium that “structural reform within the government, to address all of those issues, has to be a high priority from the Legislature.” He argued that the Legislature must be involved in “creating structures that allow the government to be fiscally transparent.” Mr. Habtes believes that “we haven't seen enough questioning” related to how government departments were addressing the Territory’s priorities.
With a background in fisheries, Dr. Habtes is also keen on “restructuring the conservation code so that we can protect those resources for the benefit and use of our people.”
Ms. Daniel and Mr. Habtes are among six new legislators who will take up their new role in January 2027. They’ll join experienced lawmakers like Marvin Blyden, Kurt Vialet, Alma Francis Heyliger, and Kenneth Gittens.
For Ms. Daniel, despite the novelty of the role, both she and Mr. Habtes have maintained relationships with the current senators who plan on “showing us the ropes or helping us get acclimated.” “There's not really this newness that I think we should be wary of,” she said. Mr. Habtes was equally eager to work with the returning senators. “I think all of us, including the existing senators, want to make things better for the people of the Virgin Islands,” he told The Consortium.
Several of the outgoing senators chaired Legislative committees, including Senator Novelle Francis’s Budget Committee, Senator Ray Fonseca’s Health Committee, and Senator Hubert Frederick’s Economic Development Committee. Five committees will require new chairpersons, and the role of President of the Senate must also be filled to preside over both the Committee of the Whole and Legislative Sessions.
Mr. Habtes said he is “very excited at the opportunity to chair a committee and move legislation forward.” Members of The Future don’t yet know whether they’ll chair any committees in the 37th Legislature. In the 36th Legislature, no committees are chaired by independent senators who also form the minority in the Legislature. Still, Mr. Habtes noted that several members of The Future have “experience from working in our own sectors; in organizing and advancing administrative priorities.”
Whether they’ll chair a committee or not, both Ms. Daniel and Mr. Habtes will participate in arguably the Legislature’s most significant responsibility: approving the budget for each fiscal year.
“What I'm hoping The Future brings is just a new level of scrutiny,” Ms. Daniel shared. “I do want to see a Legislature that takes that role seriously and is not just rubber stamp.” She referenced members’ experience in “managing multi-million dollar budgets.”
So did Mr. Habtes, who expressed confidence in his “ability to review and identify the required needs of the Territory and make sure that the executive branch is providing a budget that aligns with them.” According to Mr. Habtes, the Legislature must identify how the executive branch intends to advance the priorities identified in their budgets. “It cannot simply be that you are asking for money associated with the budget, but have no plan for implementation and executing those actions,” he warned.
For Ms. Daniel, The Future “has changed Virgin Islands politics forever, and that is a huge something to sit with.” Their presence in the Legislature will provide an injection of younger people to the Territory’s lawmaking chambers.
Raven Phillips, who was elected to represent St. John on the Board of Elections, is the youngest member of the movement.. She told the Consortium that The Future is “operating as a bridge” for increased political participation by youth.
“I think that we have come into positions that many people of our age groups never really saw themselves in or couldn't really see themselves in,” she said. “I always champion the idea that if there's any value, any skill set, any position or role that you want the youth to take on, they need to be able to see themselves within it.”
