For 56 years, the U.S. Virgin Islands has elected its own governor and had never elected a woman. Stacey Plaskett, the territory’s congressional delegate since 2015, won the office on November 3, 2026, taking 62.8 percent of the vote with Milton Potter as her running mate. She is also the first Black woman elected governor of any U.S. territory, and the first Black woman ever elected from one.
Plaskett has spent her time in Congress arguing that the people she represents are not a footnote. “I’ve spent my career fighting for the nearly four million Americans living in our territories,” she said. In Washington, she pressed for federal money for health care, disaster recovery and economic development, and for the territories to be represented rather than managed.
“In Congress, I fought to deliver for the Virgin Islands after Irma and Maria,” she said. “Now I’m ready to bring that same experience and determination to the Governor’s office.” In 2021, she served as a House impeachment manager, the first delegate from a U.S. territory to hold that role.
She ran on the cost of living, health care, public safety, and the water and power systems, which is the plainest list of what the islands have gone without. Plaskett is 60. She and Potter are expected to take office on January 4, 2027, succeeding Governor Albert Bryan, who has served since 2019.
