For the first time, Republicans in the Virgin Islands will hold a vote to select delegates to their party's national convention this summer.
Beginning on Thursday, the Republicans on the territory will meet and, by ranked-choice voting, choose nine national convention delegates.
"This is the first time there will be an actual vote for presidential candidates who are on the ballot," Dennis Lennox, executive director of the Virgin Islands Republican Party, told Newsmax, recalling how there was normally a party caucus held in April with Republicans voting for delegates by name rather than presidential candidates.
This delegate selection process usually "went unnoticed," Lennox added.
This is not the case in 2024. Both Donald Trump and Nikki Haley have held rallies through zoom calls in the Virgin Islands and have sent surrogate speakers to campaign on their behalf — Trump being represented by Texas Rep. Wesley Hunt and Haley by South Carolina Rep. Ralph Norman.
There is one issue that has surfaced in the contest and it actually surrounds the most notorious of all Virgin Islanders — the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Local Republicans are pressing Trump and Haley to fill key law enforcement officials positions — U.S. attorney, U.S. marshal, and a federal judge for the island — to make sure there is pursuit and prosecution of future Epsteins.
The voting will take place at the Morningstar Buoy House Beach Resort and, as Lennox put it, "it will be fair and level."
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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