From TV channel 12 and the Virgin Islands Consortium.

This is decision 2026, the Democratic primary debate for governor, featuring Trig insurrection, Stacey Plaskett and Donna Freda Regret.

Moderated by Marcelino Ventura Douglas and Ernest Gilbert.

The debate begins now.

Thank you for joining us for the Democratic gubernatorial debate presented by and the Virgin Islands Consortium.

I'm Marcelina Ventura Douglas, radio news reporter for the Jax News feed on FM 93.1.

In this Gilbert, publisher of the Virgin Islands Consortium.

We welcome you all watching on television on WTTG TV channel 12, and on the social media platforms of the WTTG and VI consortium.

Over the next two hours, you will hear from the three Democratic candidates seeking their party's nomination for governor of the Virgin Islands of the United States.

This program gives you an opportunity to compare the records, priorities and visions for the territory's future.

For our viewers information, this debate was prerecorded live to tape, meaning no editing of the content.

There is no studio audience.

To our candidates, we appreciate you being here with us.

We will begin with your introductions, followed by moderator led questions and answers and and with your closing statements.

During the Q&A, Ernest and I will alternate asking you specific questions drawn from information in the public sphere and from your experience as a public official or administrator.

The questions were not shared with anyone in advance.

The order of the questions rotates from round to round.

However, the order may be adjusted based on specific questions we may have of a Kennedy.

You'll have 90s for each main answer.

Certain questions will be allowed more time for a response at the sole discretion of the moderators.

We may ask a follow up question when an answer is unclear, too broad, or needs more detail.

Follow up answers are limited to 30s.

If we determine that you have directly or indirectly referenced another candidate in your answer, that candidate will receive 30s to respond.

Also, each candidate will have a maximum of three opportunities during the debate for a 32nd rebuttal, even if they were not referenced in studio cue cards.

We'll show when you have 30 and 15 seconds remaining, and this sound means time is up and we must move on.

Viewers, it's time to meet the Democratic candidates for governor.

Lieutenant Governor Roach, delegate to Congress Stacey Plaskett, and former Senator Donna Fred Gregory will begin with 32nd introductions in the other listed on the ballot.

Lieutenant Governor Roach, you have 30s to introduce yourself.

Thank you so very much for this opportunity to speak to the voters.

I am triggered, and I have been honored to have served as your senator and as your lieutenant governor over the past years.

Under my leadership, we have transformed that office, bringing you to technology information at your fingertips.

Similarly, my running mate novel, Francis, has served the public literally putting his life on the line in your service.

We believe that we are best prepared for this office due to our public service, and we would be privileged to serve as your governor and lieutenant governor.

Thank you.

Delegate Plaskett, you have 30s.

Good day everyone.

As you may know, I am Stacey Plaskett, and I'm honored to have served for the last 11 years as your delegate to Congress.

I am a problem solver who is delivered for the people of the Virgin Islands.

And there has been, through my work, unprecedented resources brought to us.

But we are not seeing it and feeling it on the ground.

Milton Potter and I are running together to make sure you have a government that works for you.

Miss Gregory, please introduce yourself.

Good afternoon.

I am Donna Fred Gregory, and I want to thank you for this opportunity, for this debate today.

I was raised here in the Virgin Islands by two blue collar workers, a mother who's an immigrant, a father who was born right here on Saint Croix, U.S.

Virgin Islands.

I have given all of my time to the people of the Virgin Islands once I graduated from college, and Rodney and I are running for governor and lieutenant governor because we care about the people of the Virgin Islands, we care about the quality of life.

We care about the future of these islands.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Candidates for introductions.

We'll begin.

Lieutenant Governor Roach, three former cabinet members in the Roach administration were convicted in federal corruption cases.

Calvert white was recorded as saying, quote, I've been doing this for a while, and I know the less evidence you have, the better you will be.

And quote Jennifer O'Neill said she did not like quote traces while accepting $17,730 lease payment and luxury gifts.

And Ray Martinez brazenly schemed with David Whitaker of monitors to plant bugs in government House itself based on their words and actions.

This may not be.

These three agency heads first rodeo in fraudulent behavior.

Why have we not heard of any investigations into these departments to see if there were any other corruption occurring?

And why have you been silent on the convictions of these three high level members of your administration?

Well, as a lawyer, I will.

Frain from having any commentary on the cases when they were being tried, and I believe that justice has been served.

All three have been convicted and in now serving their terms.

I believe the solution is looking forward.

It is looking at the agencies of our government that have to do with investigations, such as the office of the Inspector General and supporting that office with additional staff.

I also on our campaign platform will also be ethics and conflicts of interest training that are done in our departments on a regular basis, and not just one day at a time.

We should use the Office of Management and Budget, I think, more effectively in terms of managing our grants and in managing our resources.

The government cooperated with the Department of Justice in bringing these cases to trial, and we believe that the selection of persons, when we undertake platform in framing our government, the selection of persons, the head, these departments is a critical component and the wedding of them should be done more effectively.

And we should also make sure that the marching orders from the top are directed to the department heads, that there is periodic reporting, particularly at the cabinet level, to ensure compliance.

I think a quick follow up.

You said as an attorney you didn't comment, but you serve in your capacity as lieutenant governor.

Also, the convictions happened, judgment happen, and we've heard no comments from you on that matter.

You have publicly challenged Governor Brian before, including over the proposed average contracts involving his daughter's company and the salary increases for governor and lieutenant governor and the hiring of Haldane Davis.

If you're willing to speak out publicly in those instances, why did you remain silent on the three cabinet members?

Well, there's nothing to challenge.

They were charged.

Trials were held.

The government cooperated in providing whatever information was required, and they were convicted and they were sentenced.

If you believe in the rule of law, then you have to let it take its course.

And there is nothing to comment except to say that we and this is within the cabinet and with the governor, is that we have to do better, and we have to make sure that the conflicts of interest laws are clear and that they are adhered to by each department person.

But there is no commentary necessary on a criminal investigation and on a conviction.

Some would argue that hearing from the public officials condemning such actions would bolster the public's confidence when such things happen in their government.

Well, I don't think that I ever commanded them on their actions.

I think the convictions speak for themselves.

Okay.

Thank you.

Delegate Plaskett on January 29th, when 11 individuals were arrested by local authorities in connection with the Medicaid fraud investigation, you issued a statement commending law enforcement agencies involved in investigating the alleged fraud.

However, you did not issue a similar public statement following the arrests, trial, convictions or sentencing.

A former police commissioner, Ray Martinez, and former OMB Director Jennifer O'Neil or former DSP Commissioner Calvert White in their federal public corruption cases.

What message do you believe that sense to Virgin Islanders about your view of accountability?

Well, I think issuing a statement says that I, in fact do condemn it.

And the fact that these were the the conviction, the arrest of the individuals directly affected federal funding that my office was instrumental in bringing to the territory was something at the time that our office felt we should respond in, because the allegations regarding the other individuals were making their way through court, and at different times it was unclear as to which were the funding sources for that.

Our office felt at the time that it wasn't necessary to respond on that and to let the court have its course, but I think after seeing multiple conviction and multiple arrest involving corruptions, it became necessary for our office to speak up.

You have not issued a statement after the convictions, but you said you felt it necessary to issue something when the 11 were arrested, but not at the time when the three were arrested.

Why the disparity?

There's no reason for the disparity.

All corruption has is unnecessary.

In my campaign, we have talked quite frequently about the need for ethics laws here in the Virgin Islands.

And in fact, one of the first things we discussed were to bring down ethics rules so that members of an administration know the confines of the law and are allowed to be held accountable for them.

Miss Gregory, while you have been out of government service the last two years as a former senator, you have exercise oversight over the departments that were led by now convicted felons Jennifer O'Neill, Ray Martinez and Calvert White.

Yet we have heard nothing from you condemning their actions.

Corruption does foster mistrust of officials in a government that you want to lead.

As the former chair of the legislature's finance Committee.

Why are you not vocal regarding the betrayal of these government officials?

I thank you for the question.

I am vocal about those convictions and about what has happened with corruption.

And one of the things that I have done along with my running mate is we have placed in our policies as we move forward, that we will provide a forward facing corruption hotline for the people of the Virgin Islands.

If they suspect that there's any corruption in this territory, they can call.

The other thing that we are very vocal about is ensuring that the office of the Inspector General is fully funded.

When I look at the 2027 budget.

It's not funded.

It's the same funding that came down previously.

We have to ensure that the 2027, 2028 and moving forward budgets are properly funded to ensure that our people, we have to bring back hope and trust in our government and we have to bring those ethics rules forward.

But most definitely A411 system where you can call in as Virgin Islanders when you suspect that there is, in fact fraud occurring in government.

And they also must be a top down approach where the leader of this territory advises his her her leadership that corruption will not be tolerated in this territory because it takes away from our children, our seniors and our community as a whole.

All right.

You honor Swan.

Yes.

Your question about arrests further underscores why it is also essential that we follow the rule of law when people are arrested to be commenting.

That might suggest guilt in any way is inappropriate.

And also, we do have conflicts of interest laws on the books in the Virgin Islands, and they incorporated in the ethics training that is provided by the Department of Human Resources.

Thank you.

This is a general question for every candidate.

For decades, Virgin Islanders have been told that the latest whopper, repair or project would finally stabilize the system, only for another failure to follow what panel says you need.

27 repairs ended the latest Saint Thomas Saint John rotations, but days earlier described the grid as, quote, precarious outside the current administration's plan.

What would you do differently to deliver lasting reliability, not only a temporary fix?

Give your first 100 the action timeline, cost, funding, source and legal authority.

If you support the current plan, say so and tell residents when rotational outages and pervasive blackouts will actually end, starting with you on governor.

So the first 100 days we have requested on our platform forensic audit, forensic audit of Wapa, because we believe that it is essential to look at where the finances are in terms of the rank and file, or whether administrative positions that are carrying these heavy titles or overrepresented in the department.

You know, there is one whopper, and you would notice that there is a different reality for the residents of the District of Saint Croix.

And that is because in this district, almost half of the peak load is generated by solar.

And so we believe that solar and other alternative renewable sources of energy are part of the answer to the conversation.

Because synchrony has less island wide power outages, it shows that they're able to rely on the renewables and then maintain the plant at the same time.

That is necessary in the District of Saint Thomas and Saint John.

I do support some of the work that has already been done the composite pole replacement, the relief of the vital debt, which will allow the operators in Saint Thomas to use both propane and liquefied natural gas, which is the same in the same in the same quarry district.

The plan to create a third grid to have more solar in Saint Thomas and Saint John and Bordeaux, and the generators that have been purchased are on delivery for the island of Saint John will also help the residents of that island get release.

Turgut Plaskett Wapa is got to be one of the most vital and basic needs of Virgin Islanders, and for the Virgin Islands as a whole to advance.

We all know that where it is right now is not sustainable.

The first thing that I would do is twofold.

First, as has been directed or suggested by the Assistant Secretary of Energy when they came down, is to look into a state of emergency which would allow us to receive additional funding as well, while we are stabilizing the grid to have Icap, which is an energy assistance program, increased its funding, which hasn't been done since 2011, to allow our most vulnerable citizens to have support.

Then I would move to have batteries at each one of the substations so that as power goes out, they are able to switch over to the batteries to allow energy to continue.

And then finally, in long term, as has been stated, having microgrids so that there are areas of generation along with alternative energy, whether that's wind, solar, etc., be utilized for the Virgin Islands, we have an opportunity with the 4.7 billion which has been allocated by the federal government for our utility system to make sure that energy and affordability is available for each and every Virgin Islander.

Thank you, Mister Gregory.

When I think about Wapa, I think about how our seniors have suffered in the sweltering heat.

I think about my mother, who was immobile and suffered in this world to in heat.

When I listened to the responses that I've heard here today when I served in the legislature, we move legislation for an assessment of Wapa.

But today I'm hearing that the Ass will be for an audit.

I'm also hearing that we need to declare a state of emergency for Wapa.

Nothing prevents our current leaders in office from declaring a state of an emergency, and from reviewing the assessment that was already conducted.

In my first 100 days in office as governor of the Virgin Islands, I will require the Virgin Islands Authority to issue a request for qualification.

And what that means is to put in place a public relationship with a private partner.

On the revenue generation side, it is time that we move Wapa forward.

The other thing that I will do is ensure that the $4 billion that we have, that we are able to provide temporary generation for our people, that's what the federal government said that we would be able to do.

To date, that hasn't happened, and I'm not certain why any of my colleagues that standing here with me today have not done that.

They are currently in government office.

All right.

Great.

So you could you could respond.

Yes.

Yeah.

You want to respect 30s 30s.

Okay.

Cool.

You can Senator Senate governor roach yes.

That they'll get plastic go for 30s.

I just want to say that we all know that everyone is suffering and transparency is in fact necessary in Wapa, but also being very specific about what our roles are and are not at this point.

The executive branch is the ones who can declare a state of emergency.

To have Congress declare a state of emergency would require the entire body, both the House, the Senate signature by the president to do that when it takes one movement from the governor to be able to do that.

Now, I have an aging mother as well who needs medicine that needs to be medicated.

So the drama of the suffering of people, I feel it as well.

The undersecretary responsible for the electrical operation of the entire country did visit and did visit Wapa and suggested that a state of emergency.

Is that what's necessary, number one.

And that number two, they are relying on us to solve our own problems, and in fact, was encouraged by the course of action that has been taken so far with some of the actions that has been taken by Wapa.

And for the reliance on renewables.

There's a mandatory follow up for everyone here, the administration, and you just touted it tout solar as the path to cheaper power.

But Wapa has kept those savings to to service that rather than lower the bills of residents.

Yes or no?

Will you commit through PSC action legislation or Wapa board board policy to an immediate 5050 split of verified solar savings with half credited to read payers and have applied to weapons debt service?

Yes or no?

Lieutenant governor?

No.

No.

Yes or no?

If feasible, to service the debt.

There was no explanation.

Yes or no?

Yes.

Yes or no?

Yes.

Thank you very much.

Now, during Senator Hubert Fredericks economic development summit on Saint Croix, David Johnson, director of Port Hamilton, stated that the refinery has historically been able to provide power for itself and the entire island of Saint Croix.

Yes or no?

Is this a venture as governor you would be willing to explore?

Yes I would.

Yes.

Fred Gregory, thank you.

All right.

We're going to move on to the cost of living.

Virgin Islanders are being priced out of living at home.

Rent is too high.

Groceries are too expensive.

Wapa bills, both actual and inaccurate, are crushing.

Families and businesses alike.

Health insurance is out of reach.

Home insurance is on the rise.

Homes are being sold to companies instead of families who need a roof over their head, and wages still do not match the cost of living.

The legislature itself recognized that rents rose nearly 100% between 2017 and 2023, and that rising prices, plus wage stagnation, have created an affordability crisis where many families cannot meet daily needs.

Please.

Starting with you, Miss Fred Gregory, detail your plan to make life affordable for Virgin Islanders.

Thank you.

In order to make life affordable for Virgin Islanders, we have to create jobs in this territory.

We also have to ensure that the elephant in the room is addressed.

We have to be committed.

I am committed to ensuring that the cost of our energy in this territory is lowered.

That is why we are focusing on ensuring that we are able to bring into this territory immediately a relationship with outside concern, to assist with our power generation generation and lowering our costs here in the Virgin Islands.

We also have a responsibility to work with our Department of Licensing and Consumer Affairs to look at what does the food basket look like?

What what is it costing our people when food comes from the mainland all the way here to the territory and truck to the stores?

We have to remain focused on what matters to the people of the Virgin Islands.

And our plan with regards to lowering costs is also to make sure that we are providing good paying jobs to our people.

The economy on the mainland is high, so we are no different.

It trickles down to the Virgin Islands, but it's important that we provide the workforce development for our people so they can get good paying jobs in the Virgin Islands.

Darling.

Thank you.

Affordability is something that everyone is concerned with.

And here in the Virgin Islands, that affordability question is one that's even more present for us as we have, I believe everyone would state affordable and reliable energy is the first thing that needs to be done to ensure the cost of living will go down for the elders, for the working families.

That is one thing that needs to be accelerated here in the Virgin Islands, along with supporting small businesses, we need to grow revenues so that there is more support, more taxes generated to be able to support our islands.

And in the Plaskett Potter plan, we address that as well.

Housing is another issue.

That is an elephant that is going to be taking over.

As we are having more workers here.

We need to ensure that housing is affordable, particularly as we want to have young people, Virgin Islanders stay here.

We've got to keep housing affordable.

We have a Housing Acceleration Task force in our plan that talks about using government land to be able to build houses in the same way that they were done in the 70s throughout the Virgin Islands, to ensure that working families have equity, to be able to do the things that they want and their children starting businesses.

That's in the Potter plan as well.

And of course, education.

While we may not see that as cost of living, it's key as well for jobs.

Thank you.

Listen to Governor Roach.

The Road Francis team is committed to looking at lowering the cost of energy to respond to a question that on the moment of without data of saying how you would reduce it.

I'm not totally aligned with that.

But we are looking at subsidies to our residents with regard to power.

We must also look at the grocery seed structure and see whether that is a regressive tax that affects the cost of goods and services.

Were particularly looking at how it might be lowered.

In the case of small businesses, the threshold is now businesses of 114,000.

We have looked at changing that to 250.

We also want to commend this past administration, this administration, for the Virgin Islands Slice program that has assisted for some homebuyers in securing their homes with a $150,000, a bridge loan, which becomes a grant if it's not speculation.

Number one.

And number two, we have already published the rules and regs for the land bank that has been created at the office of lieutenant governor that instead of auctioning properties.

So the highest bidder will take properties off of the auction list and provide them, in words, in preference to legislation for same home buyers, veterans, seniors, disabled.

We also believe that more supports for home ownership are necessary to encourage Virgin Islanders to stay.

And as well as we have, remove fees from vocational programs to allow them to be certified when they graduate and providing free tuition to from our university.

Governor, a quick follow up.

You mentioned grocery taxes and looking to reform that.

Of course, it's tied to a lot of debt service.

I want to know how the administration intends to deal with that without impacting debt service.

And also, you mentioned data relative to Sola before making a decision on that, but you have an administration that is currently in power.

That's your administration.

If you are indeed concerned about the plight of the residents relative to Wapa, why hasn't that data collection occurred examined so that those rates could be lowered through the savings via Sola?

Well, the the the question of solar, it's still being looked at.

I mean, we're still reviewing as we with the solar project is not completed.

There's still solar farms that are being considered.

Solar equipment also has increased in price.

And the lifetime of some of these solar plants also have to be looked at in terms of where costs are located.

With regard to gross receipts, there are new revenue streams that could be looked at to support debt service as well.

They are the bell, the administration, the bells.

The administration is bragging about the savings through solar, so there is at least savings that are being seen right now.

Why?

Why not pass some of those savings on to residents?

Savings should be passed on to the residents.

The method that you have proposed is what I'm questioning.

There may be other ways of doing it.

Okay, that's that's my response.

Thank you.

We'll move on.

You want to respond?

Yes.

30s.

Absolutely.

So I'm hearing that about grocery seat taxes and revisiting grassy taxes to lower costs in the Virgin Islands.

However, the legislature pass legislation that I sponsored for the Tax Study Commission and to date.

Not one person has been sent down to the legislature for consideration for the Tax Study Commission.

That's irresponsible.

That is irresponsible if we move legislation.

And that's one of the reasons why I am running for governor, because there are too many legislators legislative work that has been done that has not been implemented in this territory.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Okay.

We're going to move on.

Health care.

The hospitals we have now are failing basic business functions, billing, collections, vendor payments, staffing and supplies.

GFL collected only 45% of expected patient revenue during part of fiscal year 2025.

Yet the government keeps getting asked to build the hospitals out, even if the legislature and governor give the hospitals the money they request, they still have a responsibility to collect what they are owed and manage the system properly.

As governor, what is your plan to ensure the hospitals perform basic billing functions and what are you?

What are your immediate plans to ensure our hospitals have the supplies they need to service our population?

Delegate Plaskett.

Yes.

Thank you for the question.

You're correct that our hospitals are in a very difficult period right now.

We know that both the hospitals together, or operating in a $32 million a year loss, because there's uncompensated care.

There's also issues related to rebasing and the reimbursement that they're getting from the federal government for tephra.

However, a lot of that CMS and has repeatedly told us that a change in the temporary basing will occur when the hospitals are rebuilt, and we have not seen movement on that.

I know that there has been individuals who have won the bid for that, but it's not taken places yet.

Those are basic things that will allow additional support to come in.

But you're correct as to the billing process.

Throughout the government.

We have cash management issues.

We are not managing our cash.

We are operating at a budget deficit in many places, and we need to be get a handle on that, that agencies are not speaking to each other with regard to how cash is managed and new revenue is not coming in, we need to create a state of the art hospital so that we are also not losing patients who are going elsewhere because they do not trust the hospitals that we have, and it is not able to provide those support.

We should not have individuals waiting on the floor in emergency rooms today.

Delegate Plaskett, I do want to follow up.

What are your immediate plans?

We know that the hospitals do need to be rebuilt and that those changes will eventually occur, but those are years ahead.

What is your immediate plans right now to assure that our hospitals have the supplies that they need to service the population presently?

Well, I think that this needs to be a priority rather than using money for other things such as documentaries on oneself.

We need to put the money for the people and the people.

Basic health care is one of those needs.

While we are working on other things as well, that is immediately one of the things that I would do to ensure that the legislature understands that July 21st, the CEO of the hospital has been instructed by this administration to do a workforce reduction.

We cannot have that at this time.

It's a real overstatement to say that the government has not improved its cash management practices, particularly to some very innovative work by property and procurement department.

Many more of our departments are accepting payments through various methods and the the debt collection with regard to the hospitals is something that I think can be sold as well to, to provide immediate sources of income to the hospitals.

Jeff only collected 45% of expected patient revenue during fiscal year 2025.

You see that as an improvement.

No, I wasn't saying that was an improvement.

The allegation was through the cash management practices of the government, the government in general.

And we have made a great improvement in cash management throughout this brand ministration.

And I think it's it's clear as well, in some instances, the hospitals operating independently, there's work to be done to with that regard.

Fred Gregory, we need to immediately outsource our billing practices.

We also need to ensure that we train our doctors and our staff in the hospitals on coding.

We are leaving lots of money on the table here in the Virgin Islands.

We have to get serious about what we're doing in our hospitals to ensure that we are generating the necessary revenues, so outsourcing training our employees is important as we move the hospitals forward and immediately what we need to do.

Okay, we're going to move on.

Well, actually, I do want to give Miss Fred Gregory time to complete that thought.

So immediately.

What needs to happen is we need to look at our budgets and repurpose our budgets to set the priorities within this territory based on the revenues that's being generated.

We need to focus our revenues on what matters to Virgin Islanders, and health care is definitely one of them.

Thank you so much.

You want to go ahead?

Yes, yes.

I do think that we have a cash management issue.

We know that the doctors have specifically reached out to the administration because although I was able to lower the Medicaid match to 17%, we have not reached our cap because the government is not using the 17% to its as full to unlock 83%.

So there are individuals who are not on Medicaid who could be because the government doesn't want to pay the 17% that they have to when there is $0.83 for each dollar waiting for them.

Yes, I think there should be a clarification made on Medicaid because Medicaid was also increased.

The number of persons were increased.

When we utilize the Affordable Care Act to qualify, residents even presumptively before their data was was entered, some of those residents are no longer eligible for that Medicaid.

And so to to put the two groups of people together is also erroneous and gives the wrong impression with regard to the government's actions.

Okay.

Well, we're going to move on.

Thank you so much.

30s miss Gregory, you had a rebuttal.

So, you know, a delegate talks about the 17%, but you have to first understand how government works.

The uncompensated care would be that 17%.

The government at this time, without improving its economy, cannot afford to do that.

We have to work on improving our economy here in the territory.

So it sounds swell that there's 17% now on the table that we have to pay.

But what the real issue is, is the affordability.

So what we have to do is look at our budgets and make the necessary decisions.

It's important that you understand the inner workings of government.

Thank you so much.

Now at this time, we'll take several rounds to ask the candidates individual questions.

And we're going to start with Delegate Plaskett.

In February 13th of 2020, an article published by the Virgin Islands Daily News, AJ Rao reported that you said you had, quote, no interest in running for governor and quote, I don't think that's where my skill sets are.

End quote.

You followed up by saying, quote, I think they are greater things that I can do for the people of the Virgin Islands than be governor.

End quote.

You also added that as Virgin Islanders, the highest position to us is governor.

But I don't think so.

If I wanted to be governor, I would have run a while ago.

Why should Virgin Islanders place you in a position that you yourself have stated is not where your skill sets are?

Sure, thank you for the question.

And in 2020, and indeed even more recently, it had not been my intention to run for governor.

This is not a position that I've spent my life thinking about doing.

However, I am a problem solver and one who delivers for the people and the fact that there have been so many resources, so much funding, so much opportunities sent down to the Virgin Islands that has not been utilized over these last eight years.

And the work that myself, my staff, our team has done to ensure that those opportunities are available, I cannot see another four years or eight years in the same trajectory that we are.

I'm a doer.

I'm an individual who delivers.

I believe the unrealistic can be reality, and that's why I'm running for governor.

So do you believe now that you have the skill sets?

Well, I think that the skill sets that I have gained in the six years since that time frame of speaking on there would allow me to be there.

I think that my legislative skills were absolutely necessary and supported the people of the territory.

But I do have executive level skills as well as the ability to be a team builder as well as a problem solver, which is what we have right now.

Thank you.

All right, Miss Fred Gregory, as a senator, you demanded due diligence from government officials.

Yet when Heritage Wireless approached you, you referred the company to the Department of Education without showing that you or your staff had vetted Cory Austin, whose public record already included a criminal conviction and a pending federal Medicare fraud indictment.

The Department of Education then walked back the partnership and then was later sentenced to 41 months for a $2.6 million Medicaid fraud scheme.

Why did you not apply to yourself the standard that you demanded of others?

And why should voters believe you would vet commissioners, contractors and vendors as better any better as governor?

Thank you for the question.

So I did vet Heritage Wireless.

Heritage wireless was a organization, a company that was hired by the Federal Communications Commission.

That was the vetting that we did, the project that came to the Virgin Islands that we referred to the children of the Virgin Islands was a $15 billion project that never came to this territory, because our delegate and our governor did not ensure that our children got that opportunity.

Not one single dime of this Virgin Islands money was spent for those projects, for those, for those, for those iPads.

The responsibility was for the PSC to ensure that Via and Liberty ensured that our children had that opportunity.

So when we were approached, we know that it was an FCC program.

We did our research, and the gentleman that came to the Virgin Islands to, in fact, administer the program was just just just another member of Heritage Wireless.

He was not the person that was responsible for the entire organization.

So we vetted them.

And in fact, I'm asking voters to vote for me because I understand the inner workings of government.

I understand what needs to happen.

This is an FCC program.

Not one single dime was spent.

And the children who applied and qualified through the FCC program, because there's a lot of missing disinformation going on around that.

Who applied for the FCC, put that information in, were properly vetted by the FCC.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Lieutenant Governor Roach, during the last two debates, we have watched you own the administration's success stories, but demurred when your opponents note the administration shortfalls.

Please explain to our audience how you decide when it's a Brian Roach accomplishment and when it is one governor at a time.

Yeah.

Well, the the I was also asked to grade the Brian Richard ministration and when I did, I gave a B+, which I acknowledge in giving that grade that there is still work to be done.

I'm not sure what the failures are that you refer to the allegations about the use of federal funds to advance projects further, do not include having to negotiate with Congress about the Stafford Act and rebuilding stronger, as opposed to rebuilding what's there.

It does not take into account the time period that was required to negotiate the match to the 2%, and that for the delayed projects as well.

I there's not an instance that I have been confronted with a failure of the administration that I have dismissed it or not owned up to it.

But in the context of these conversations, when the easiest thing to do for a candidate is to sum up an administration as as having failed, the absolute response is to point out the successes that have taken place, and that was the context in which that was done, not to shy away from any work that we still need to do.

They'll get Plaskett on November 18th, 2020.

Oh, you had a response.

Okay, so when I think about what I'm hearing, you know what comes to my mind?

A quote from JFK success.

Have lots of fathers and failures.

Have lots of orphans.

We have failed our people.

You have failed.

If Wapa has not been addressed, it's a failure.

Our people in this Virgin Islands, particularly in Saint Thomas, have been suffering for hours at a time.

We are not in the middle of a hurricane, but we are out of power for 15 hours.

A few weeks ago.

43 hours.

Right?

Yes.

My my response to what?

And again, I pointed out there is one whopper, and there are hundreds of Virgin Islanders who put their lives on the line each day to ensure that good work happens, and that the people of the Virgin Islands do have power.

There is a different success in the district of Saint Croix, which nobody reflects on when they're analyzing the warp story, but it needs to be looked at because those successes are what indicate that the work that needs to be done with the utility is on track.

Now, when you are pointed out with your feelings, it's easy to dismiss it, but easy to concentrate on that of others thinking.

Delegate Plaskett on November 18th, 2025, you dodge censure by a narrow vote from your House colleagues after it was revealed by the Washington Post that you were texting with Jeffrey Epstein while questioning Donald Trump's personal attorney, Michael Cohen.

The very next day, you went on CNN and rebuked Epstein, stating, quote, having a friendship with him is not something that I would deem to have.

End quote.

However, in the US Department of Justice files, your own words paint a different picture.

The DOJ dropped a batch of Epstein files in February 2026, which included a text exchange released with Epstein where you stayed.

Quote I appreciate your support and hope.

I'm not presumptuous to consider you a friend.

End quote.

To which a response quote privileged to be called a friend.

End quote.

Why did you change the nature of your relationship with Epstein?

In your interview with CNN, thank you for the question.

And let me first say that this is a very difficult chapter in Virgin Islands history being engaged, having tabbed Jeffrey Epstein here, and that I completely support the work that the victims have done to bring his crimes to light.

I have been a former prosecutor.

I am a mother.

I am no way involved or would support any of the actions of Jeffrey Epstein.

Indeed, the victims themselves, in a civil lawsuit, dismissed all claims against me and solely me of being engaged in anything nefarious that would have supported his actions.

Asking an individual to give you resources or campaign money to your campaign, and calling them a friend does not mean that you have a friendship.

In my book saying, thank you, my friends, my friends, I'm asking for your support is something that we do regularly.

Additionally, I would have to say also to the people of the Virgin Islands that the censor vote was a phenomenal one to me in the number of Republicans who came across the aisle to support me against the censure that had not been done before in any of the central votes, which are happening at nauseam and continually in the Partizan environment that we face right now in Washington.

And the fact that I was not censured with, along with Republican votes speaks to the bipartisan friendships that I have.

I'm going to follow up on that, please.

You spoke about, you know, calling someone a friend doesn't necessarily mean that you have a friendship, that you have a friendship.

You were pretty clear in what you stated.

You said, I appreciate your support, your support and hope.

I'm not presumptuous to consider you a friend.

This is different than a bypass.

A comment that you just make on the on the on the passing.

What was that relationship truly?

Were you guys were the two of you friends?

No, we were not.

So this is a can you explain this?

Yes, it is a it is a passing phrase that one uses to spank someone for a contribution or to thank an individual.

It does not mean that you have what I would consider a friendship.

I have never been, as has been alleged by many people, that I've been on the island.

This is not someone that I have a continual discussion with and texting him while I'm on the floor.

As a former prosecutor, we get information from multiple places.

We get information, in fact, and I was trying to get information because I knew that they were friends.

He and Donald Trump had a relationship to try and get information from him.

You so much, Miss Fred Gregory.

So do we say that when we speak to the people of the Virgin Islands and ask them to vote for us, is this a passing freeze?

Trust me.

Accountability and transparency.

This this conversation is very troubling.

Is passing.

This was not a passing freeze.

You traveled to New York and knocked on his door via plane or train to ask to share.

The people of the people of the Virgin Islands is information.

So you could have one up in the next election.

That's not a passing situation.

Thank you.

Lieutenant governor, you can score the public record, and you will never hear me challenging the delegate about accepting a contribution.

But I think it's really disturbing how she has characterized the relationship over time.

At first we heard he was a monster, then we heard he was a constituent.

Then we heard he was a first name basis.

Then we heard, could I call you friend?

And we also seen those same Epstein files references to assessing assisting me with your network.

So the contribution to me pales when you consider what it means and influence and access to Virgin Islands politicians.

You want to respond?

Yes, yes, I do want to respond first.

I was already in New York.

And so talking to supporters, talking to donors is something that all members of Congress do.

And 1% of the amount of funding that I, my campaign received from him is not something that I think is an extraordinary thing, to think that I would do things for this individual.

And yes, I can think that someone is a constituent.

I can also think that they're a reprehensible person, particularly when you realize and find out all the things that that person is done.

Thank you.

I'm going to move on.

Mr.

Gregory, on your website, you propose a tiered age and income based property.

Property tax relief for homeowners with full exemptions available to qualifying seniors who reside in their homes as their primary residence.

And expanded reference on your posters throughout the territory stating no property tax for seniors.

What is the impact to the Treasury of this plan?

The impact to the Treasury is very minimal because the individuals who we are referencing are seniors who are older seniors, seniors who cannot afford to pay for their medication, who cannot afford to pay their property taxes.

They're trying to balance, should I pay my property tax?

Should I pay my health insurance?

What should I pay?

We gave $300 million in tax breaks to Jeffrey Epstein.

It's time that we take care of our people who are here on the ground.

And that's why we are ensuring on our website as well, that we are going to grow this economy.

So we do not balance the budget of this Virgin Islands on the backs of our seniors in the territory.

So the amount that we are talking about is very negligible.

It's not tied to seniors who can afford it.

It's a terror approach based on age and income.

My mother retired from the University of the Virgin Islands, making $13,000 per year, and when the health insurance went up, her check coming from the government retirement system was $192.

We have to take care of our seniors.

We have the great economy.

We cannot continue to balance this budget, this government and the backs of our seniors.

It's our responsibility to do so.

I want to follow up.

Did you speak with the tax assessor about the impact, and if so, what was that cost based on?

Based on my work that I've done in the legislature.

The impact is minimal because of the age and income of the seniors.

I know you're saying minimal.

Is there an exact figure?

I don't have a hard figure, but what I do have is knowing how many of our seniors are, in fact, not able to buy their prescription.

I know how many of our seniors are unable.

What we need to do, the impact is we need to use our EDC program benefits and make the assessment so we can, in fact, provide those resources to our seniors.

If that's what needs to happen again, the flier says senior.

So now you ask her about senior and she says the senior seniors, you ask about a figure and she said it's minimal.

She has no idea what it is.

Seniors in the Virgin Islands are considered to be 60 years of age and older, and they are the bulk of the taxpayers.

The problem of our young people is that they don't have the opportunity yet to own their own homes.

That is the bulk of our taxpaying population, and it would be a tremendous impact on the property tax collection.

Delegate Placid, yes, I was going to say that I feel that this was disingenuous, that this was a way to lure people in and it was not giving accurate information.

60% of our property tax income comes from individuals who are seniors, because that's all the poster said was seniors.

And to do so is irresponsible to say that those are the that that we are going to give up that property tax while not presenting an additional one.

My running mate, Milton Potter, has legislation to provide support to seniors who have housing, and in a law that would give them part of the final.

Final response.

Miss Gregory 30s.

It's not disingenuous when you don't live here and you don't understand what's happening here.

That's why you would say it's disingenuous.

Our plan, Rodney and I are plan, is to revisit the EDC program on whatever tax benefits that we are given.

We need to provide a percentage of those tax benefits to our seniors to cover their property taxes, who fall within the policy guidelines.

All right.

Thank you, Lucina.

Governor Roach.

In a recent press conference, you have urged Virgin Islanders to come forward with information on crime.

However, when questioned by the media about the danger witnesses face, you did not acknowledge the issue as concerning.

In a territory where 25 homicides have already been reported this year, where killers remain free.

Cameras have failed.

Cases have collapsed and families are still waiting for justice.

Fear is not a rumor.

It is a rational response to a system people do not trust.

If you don't acknowledge that there is a real fear in this community and address it.

How will we ever get frightened residents to say something if they know something?

I did not respond in a way that said it was not concerning what the reporter's question was, whether those fears were real or imagined.

And at that time, with a murder having just occurred.

My sentiment was the the questions from the reporters, which were also not necessarily fact based, were in fact discouraging to the public to come forward.

I did not see that the responsibility of crime fighting is under citizens.

But if there are citizens present and they are witnesses to a particular act, how are we to ensure that claim and justice is going to be addressed?

If people don't speak up and a media that uses a word like imagined fear, whether it is real or imagined.

We have gotten better as a police force with regard to reporting.

We have gotten better with regard to usage of the anonymous tip lines.

And I felt at that moment, considering the number of killings that has taken place, that it was irresponsible for a member of the media to suggest that unimagined fear people shouldn't come forward and assist the police in providing information that could assist in people being indicted, prosecuted and convicted.

Just as we talked about with regard to the government officials who were prosecuted and convicted based on information that was also supplied by the government of the Virgin Islands.

Lieutenant governor, I do want to follow up with you.

You know, you call it somewhat of an imagined fear or it not being rooted in facts that witnesses have been murdered.

I would have to rebuff that, because I have a cousin who was a witness to a murder who was murdered, in fact, in March of 2024.

So what do you say to families like myself who have had loved ones who did come forward in attempts to help and were subsequently killed?

The word imagined was not my word.

There was a word used by the reporter, and obviously if if a person failed to harm because of their actions in trying to assist law enforcement, that is not something that we can command or advocate, but we still have to encourage our community, just as we put the requirements on police officers to maintain anonymity with regard to Tips, we still are dependent on the public and the entire community to assist in law enforcement delegate harassment.

I was going to just talk about the unfortunate killing of the individual who was a witness, and I think that not knowing that is a total break from reality of what's happening here on the ground in the Virgin Islands.

I live in Christian stead.

My office is in Fredrikstad.

People fear continually and there are not sufficient police officers.

We have not done a good job of retaining officers or recruiting officers.

We have a plan to do that because the onus is on us before it is on the citizens of this territory.

Mr.

Gregory 30s, I strongly believe that the lieutenant governor is out of touch because many witnesses have been murdered here in the Virgin Islands.

I want to reflect, back in 2009 ish, the highest murder rate in the US Virgin Islands was under your current lieutenant governor candidate.

How do we explain that?

30s to respond, governor.

I'm not sure her 2009.

Yes, but I was at the university at that time.

She said, your lieutenant governors, you're running mate, or as a police commissioner?

Yes.

I'm sorry I misunderstood.

Again, the the reference to being out of touch.

I'm not going to comment on that.

I'm just going to say none of us who lives here can be out of touch.

But my my comment remains the same.

We have to do better in protecting the witnesses, but we cannot fight crime without the involvement of our citizens so much.

Governor, Mr.

Gregory, I want to come back to you after earlier versions fail to pass in the 33rd and 34th legislatures, your bill created the Bureau of School Construction and Maintenance in the 35th.

Yet the bureau has become bloated.

The bureau's fiscal year 27 request is nearly $11 million, with almost 6 million going to salaries and benefits.

And the Department of Education still leads outside.

Still needs major new new school construction, leaving the bureau largely outside the outside.

The projects it has created to oversee.

Senator Kenneth Gittin says he has legislation to dismantle the bureau and return it under the Department of Education, while the commissioner stated that the bureau has not improved accountability.

After observing the practical implementation of this piece of legislation and the lack of success from the Bureau, do you regret championing it?

I do not regret championing it.

Our educators need to focus on academic achievement of our children.

The reason why the Bureau of School Construction is not working is because this administration did not follow the law in implementing the Bureau of School Construction.

I left $20 million on the books to address the bureau.

It requires oversight.

You don't just hire people and allow them to do whatever they want.

It requires oversight.

There was a council that should have been created with individuals from the Department of Education, with parents, etc.

none of that has been done.

There was a requirement with regards to the, the, the, the resume of the person hired to lead the Bureau of Construction.

None of that was followed.

That's why I'm running for governor, because implementation of legislation matters.

Nothing is truly new under the sun in the US Virgin Islands.

We have to respect our people and follow the law.

If we expect our citizens to follow the law, we have to hold ourselves accountable first before we expect to hold our people accountable.

This challenge that we're having with the Bureau of School Construction is implementation.

What do we want to do?

Take our people back to $1.8 million per year?

I looked at the budget this year, and there was very few dollars that came down to address the Bureau of Construction.

It says $5 million should come down to the from the government to the legislature to staff to fund the Bureau of Corrections annually.

A follow up on this leadership, Miss Fred Gregory, if underfunding is your defense, why did your law create a structure that now requires almost $6 million just for salaries and benefits before funding actual maintenance?

The law did not create that.

The administration create that our responsibility as leaders, we are supposed to manage what gets monitored gets done.

You don't just turn over a new agency.

And in any organization, whether it be business or government, wants to start up, you have to give it at least five years to work.

And if we are not doing what we're supposed to do here on the ground, then it says that we have failed.

We have failed our people.

We have failed our children.

$20 million.

And I'm seeing folks driving around in Wranglers a cost $60,000.

Thank you.

I'm lieutenant governor 30s.

Every feeling is somebody else's fault.

According to former senator, when she constructed that mechanism, the law already said it didn't require teachers and administrators to maintain schools.

They'd already said that the responsibility for the maintenance of public buildings is that the Department of Public Works, instead of funding that department in order to fit a ready conducts mandate, the senator chose to create another bureau, which is just another bureaucracy within the government of the Virgin Islands.

A responsibility could have stayed where it was with a properly funded Department of Public Works.

So much.

Delegate Plaskett, the Virgin Islands immediate federal needs, Medicaid and Medicare parity, hospital reconstruction, FEMA and disaster recovery deadlines rom cover over tax policy, banking, access, insurance and infrastructure all require action from a Trump White House and Republican controlled Washington.

You were not just a Democrat who disagreed with President Trump.

You were a House impeachment manager against him and have built a national profile criticizing him.

Given this president's record of personalizing political conflict and using federal leverage against perceived opponents, why should Virgin Islanders believe that making you governor would not put the territory's federal priorities at a disadvantage?

Thank you for that question, and I think it's an excellent question.

I'm so happy to be able to respond to this, because I hear this being touted by others as a way not to look at what's happening in our own lives right now by creating some outside individuals that will come down on us first.

Yes.

In fact, I was an impeachment manager, and I also would say to you that I do have a good relationship with members of the Republican Party.

In fact, I came to Washington as a staffer, as a Republican, and have continued to have those relationships with those individuals.

As we talked earlier about my censure vote, when many Republicans came to support me in that, in this administration, with the president there, I've been able to do work to ensure that the Virgin Islanders continue to have the resources that they need.

And at the end of the day, this president is concerned with finances, concerned with money.

Many of the major projects that we have, those donors are donors of his.

He is not trying to take their resources away from them.

And we've seen in other measures that I've been able to work with this administration.

Let's not forget that the president had the authority to take me off of the Intelligence Committee.

He did not.

While he took off members of his own party, Republicans and Democrats from that committee, and more recently, having been able to get the waiver of the entire Caribbean basin, talking with former staffers and colleagues who were in his administration as well.

Thank you so much.

I want to ask now if the Trump administration does, in fact delay or ignore the Virgin Islands because of its view of you personally, what is your contingency plan if your if elected?

Well, I don't see that happening.

First of all, let me reiterate that because this president has worked with other Democrats and has worked with me in the position that I have, as I said, with the waiver related to ports, Chinese made vessels coming into ports, along with a waiver just of farming here in the Virgin Islands.

Additionally, the funding that we do have is through Congress.

Congress has the authority, and while the president has tried to take resources away from jurisdictions, if that money had been appropriated from Congress, the courts have continually said he is not allowed to do that so much.

Delegate Plaskett miss, I am not certain how our delicate can be saying what she's saying right now.

When there was a Democratic led Congress, we were not able to get our run over.

We are not able to get our Social Security address for our people, albeit we didn't have to get everything at once.

But that fight delegate should have been a fight for our people, not a fight to impeach Trump.

We are a small fish in a big pond, and as long as I have known myself as a Virgin Islander, we have walked, walked, worked across the aisle with our people.

Thank you.

Lieutenant governor, Delegate 30s to don't play the question, but she has really put this territory in harm's way.

We have a president who has not sent FEMA into red states, states that supported him at times of natural disasters.

We have a president who just interfered in a soccer game with regard to a red card, to suggest that he will not take any negative actions towards the Virgin Islands that we would have to go and deal with is irresponsible.

The placement of the delegate in the national light in this role of impeachment puts us squarely in harm's president.

For 30s final response.

First of all, with regard to resources that I have been able to bring down, yes, I have done that repeatedly in both Republican and Democrat administrations and Republican and Democratic congresses.

And at the end of the day, we as the people of the Virgin Islands need to move forward.

We are not going to move forward with business as usual.

This president has two years, and we've seen examples of when he has massive fights with an individual, such as in the mayor of New York, that he then called to the white House.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Lieutenant Governor Roach in 2023 and again in 2024, you promoted Optimum Global Insurance as a breakthrough that would help address the territory's uninsured population.

By the end of 2025, the company had only 43 active policies covering 63 people, and ultimately withdrew from the territory.

During the USB Area Labor Federation Democratic debate, you said the individual health insurer left after your office refused its request for three consecutive 7% rate hikes, arguing they were pricing policies out of reach.

What do you say to the thousands of Virgin Islanders in a private sector with no health insurance, while we spend millions on their public sector counterparts?

First, you have to understand where that comes from.

That comes from the Virgin Islands that be included in a way to participate in a marketplace under the Affordable Care Act at the time that it passed.

That was the exodus of any companies that were here providing insurance coverage on an individual basis.

The office of the lieutenant governor, it's a regulatory agency.

It's not here to recruit banks and to recruit insurers.

We stepped out of our role to to have that employee come in.

And now I realize that what they thought was they had me over the barrel.

They asked for an increase in the policy this year, which the delegate said she would grant because she has inside information with regard to it.

But the same thing you pointed out about the 43 policies, they were here for three years.

I personally sent people to them, which I'm not supposed to do.

Who said they had no answer to their phone calls or nobody didn't get back in touch with them.

We tried everything.

But to praise the policy out of the reach of Virgin Islands is just as responsible as irresponsible.

Number one and number two, we are looking at, with consultation with the governor about a single payer, about universal insurance, because one of the things we found out is that a company that provides it in the BVA does so because it's subsidized by that government.

And our administration says it's time that we consider a universal option that would provide health insurance, not just the government employees, but to those privately employed and unemployed as well.

30s delegate basket.

Well, the lieutenant governor says he stepped out of his role to do that.

So obviously it means that he can do that.

It means that he can go and try and support that.

But I think what's more important is the discussion about Medicaid.

We I know that doctors reached out to you back in April about the fact that the Virgin Islands government was not using all of its match to support Medicaid.

While an insurance policy may be more expensive on the front end, it costs us more on the back end to have sick patients.

Miss Greg Gregory four years ago, Lieutenant Governor Roach said on this same platform, running for lieutenant governor, and said that he would use all his efforts to ensure that we have insurance for our small businesses and their employees.

Today, we have no insurance, but now we're talking about universal insurance.

What is the challenge with before the the folks left?

Why didn't we start shopping for universal insurance four years ago?

Why now?

30s to respond and we have begun shopping as well as we have been shopping throughout the course of having this one company respond.

It is not an easy market when the candidates refer to what we can and cannot do, they have to look at data.

None of them look at data with regard to companies who want to do business in any particular jurisdiction.

They're looking at the size of the market.

They're looking at the returns of them.

They're not in the market to provide charity or to not follow a business model that they can make a profit.

It's nothing as easily said as done as these these people indicate.

And so before we move on here, so what would be your plan?

Delegate Plaskett and then Miss Fred Gregory, I think the discussion about grouping individuals and having larger pools to be able to address this issue is one that we should look into.

Additionally, lobbying and supporting at the governor's level to try and do an exchange that also involved other territories.

None of the territories right now are part of the exchange.

When the Affordable Care Act was done many years ago, that is something that I think we should revisit collectively to see how we can pull resources.

We know that not having care costs us more on the back end than not having it in the beginning.

Thank you, Mr.

Gregory.

We have to give consideration to have a blanket insurance where businesses in this territory can fall under one umbrella.

Nothing prevents us from doing that.

We talk about universal insurance.

Then we moved on to universal insurance.

But there must be a blanket insurance for our businesses.

So we pool our people and provide the necessary insurance to them.

That's something that we will do immediately.

We will explore it immediately.

All right.

We're going to move on.

You have a quick response to that.

Yeah.

Go ahead quick.

Again, these vague terms there's nothing on the market called blanket insurance.

And that shows right of way right away.

Your disinformation the fact that you're uninformed about how these matters work.

There's no blanket information.

There's no company that's going to come and provide any blanket policy.

And we already delegate Plaskett, in her videos, look, linked the care to the same affordable the lack of care to the same Affordable care act that I'm talking about.

But no retrenching.

Thank you very much.

You want to respond to that quickly?

We need some.

Okay.

We're going to do need to move on.

Media access.

An effective government depends not only on decisions it makes, but also on how it communicates with those decisions to the public.

Let's turn now to the issue of accessibility, transparency and how you would communicate with the people of the Virgin Islands.

This is for everybody.

If elected, will you continue Governor Bryan's practice of holding regular scheduled press briefings where members of the media can ask unscripted questions?

And will you be accessible to questions outside of those press conferences to respond to pressing questions your communications personnel may not have answers to?

We'll start with you.

You, miss Fred Gregory, if we're going to talk about transparency and accountability, yes, we need to continue those press briefings.

We also need to allow our media to come in and have conversations with us as leadership for the territory.

It's important that when our media asked questions of governor, of lieutenant governor, governor, it is answered, is answered and clearly answer to the people.

So absolutely, yes, those press briefings are important.

It keeps our people informed in providing information, but also being very honest to our people.

And I find that while we're doing those press briefings, was still not being honest to our people.

To date, we do not know what is the reason why we are seeing all of these power outages in Saint Thomas.

You're hearing rumors.

Why are we allowing our people to hear rumors come to the people?

So I'll be at you having the press briefings.

What's important is also being being honest with our people.

It's time for honesty, transparency and accountability, not only on the side of the people of the Virgin Islands, but from the leadership.

Leadership needs to hold itself accountable before it acts to be to hold its people accountable.

Delegate Plaskett yes, I as well think that transparency is eminently important.

Giving people information and sharing with them is paramount to people feeling that they can trust government.

Sharing that information on a regular basis is one that a Plaskett Potter administration would do.

One of the other things that I think would be important for us to do is, like I have done here in my time, and my role as delegate to Congress is having regular town halls, not waiting for crisis to occurs, but having them on a regular basis on each of our islands so that people can ask general questions, as well as having town halls that are on specific issues, not solely in a crisis mode, and additionally having regular meetings with groups.

Affiliated groups here in the Virgin Islands is important for a governor to hear from the people about what is dear to their heart, whether that's having regular meetings with the faith based community, with the unions as with our youth, with multiple groups, to ensure that we are hearing directly from the people.

But yes, definitely having regular discussions with the media and being able to take those tough questions is necessary as a governor to do.

Thank you, Mr.. Governor.

Novell, Francis and I have discussed that very same topic, and we believe that we should create focus groups in our community as well on specific issues of interest.

But definitely I will keep the practice.

I am a journalist myself, and I think I have conducted myself in a way that respects the media, responding to inquiries, in fact extending the press briefings when they when I've given them on the governor's behalf to ensure that any questions, even through bad connections or remote challenges, are to be to be accessible to the media.

I the town meetings as well, I think are an important issue to continue to speak to the community and to hear from the community as well, their concerns.

So definitely, there's a practice that I believe contributes to the transparency, and the regularity of them could also be increased when there is a need to do that, depending on the specific issue.

Delegate Plaskett yes, that may be true, but in practice that has not happened because as acting governor, Lieutenant Governor Roach waited several days before he spoke to the people about a multi-day power outage on Saint Thomas.

And then it was only after inquiry from the media, and the purpose of the press conference was not even about the outage that people were facing.

It was about playing a new airline coming to the territory, which I agree is important, but the ability to speak to the people regularly is important.

30s final response.

The press conference also focused on the distribution of battery items to assist the senior population.

With regard to that usage.

Delegate plus Kit is very good at press releases when it comes to whatever issue is playing in the community.

What I did was take the time to visit the water and power to have conversations with the executives about what was taking place and to share some of that information later on, Mr.

Gregory, she wanted.

Okay, Lieutenant governor, are you fully well known that when I said blanket insurance, I meant insurance that covers the businesses that they could be pulled in one business?

But what I will say, you came on an that press conference and you talked about the batteries.

And I still have seniors calling me because it was spoke about once and not another word about how the people can actually get the batteries.

We have seniors on oxygen tanks that are still asking, how can we get these batteries?

Thank you.

We're going to need to move on.

We're going to talk about the economy.

Now, this question is going to be for all of you, what is one way you have planned to generate new revenue in the territory that does not come in the form of a new tax or is tied to the restart of the refinery.

So look at Plaskett.

We'll begin with you.

Well, I'm happy to say that I have found new revenue for the people of the Virgin Islands.

When on Ways and means, I had the law change to allow a permanent reimbursement of the Earned Income Tax Credit and the child Tax credit.

I'm grateful that the governor, as well as the legislature, earmarked that money to be used in certain ways, but that is clearly new revenue that's coming at a minimum of $20 million a year to be used for the people of the territory.

I would work on multiple things.

I think the Virgin Islands, should.

I always say there is a reason that seven nations have owned us, and it's not solely for our beaches.

We need to work on increasing our agriculture in supporting small businesses to create new revenue as well as there is an opportunity now in the digital space for us to be involved in banking and be involved in commerce that's occurring in Africa and the rest of the Caribbean.

I will leverage the relationships I have with those individuals, nations and in prime ministers or presidents to ensure that we're at the forefront of that.

And my running mate, Milton Potter, has legislation to create a stablecoin for us to be able to operate with the $1.8 billion projection of trade and revenues that are going to be occurring between the Caribbean and Africa.

There is opportunity for us.

We've got to move faster and get it done.

Mr.

Gregory, we need to focus on our blue economy.

We are surrounded by water and we have not taken advantage of the fact that the blue economy is here and it's in fact a sleeping giant.

That Saint Croix in particular is in fact a sleeping giant.

We must make the Island District of Saint Croix the transcript hub of the Caribbean.

We need to go out, utilize our EDA program to, in fact, have the conversations put out.

RFPs for public partnership, public private partnership with individuals so we can get our point moving forward.

We are exempt from the Jones Act.

After all.

We need to use those opportunities to our advantage.

We need to develop shipyards.

We need public private partnerships with shipyard companies that they can come here that will create jobs for the Virgin Islands, jobs for the Saint Croix economy.

It's time that we focus on what matters.

And what matters is building an economy.

We have all these lofty ideas, but in order for us to move these ideas forward, the economy of the United States Virgin Islands, particularly on the island district of Saint Croix, has to be rebuilt.

And in rebuilding that economy, we have to focus on our economy.

We have to focus on our transshipment points here in the territory.

The fact that our social zone and I heard the lieutenant governor referenced the fact that his lieutenant governor candidate passed the bill.

But that bill has been sitting for four years.

We've had so many opportunities with funding to utilize those funds for the purpose of developing the shelter zone.

None of that has happened.

Thank you very much, Miss Gregory.

Tenant.

Governor Roach, I was about to say that the foundation of some of that work on this so sure is being laid.

There was there was, in fact, a conference last year that brought many investors to the territory, and a lot of them are interested in coming.

But that idea is contained in the legislation which they have built upon.

With that, we need to complete the cannabis industry and the banking issue is almost solved.

That is one that has plagued quite a few across the country and the blue economy.

We are already in conversations with the British Virgin Islands as to how we could make this charter industry work better for each of us.

We had made progress in our discussions.

They came to the territory, we went up to their territory, and then the federal government was involved, was brought in by delegate plus gets press release again.

And so those discussions have stalled.

But we have this pristine economy that shared between the British and the United States Virgin Islands, and it can be maximized to generate more for us.

And I would also point out, EDA, we need them to specifically look at how we might support small businesses because they are the engine of our economy as well.

I was mentioned, yes.

30s, I know that the lieutenant governor has said before that the conversations were occurring with the British Virgin Islands.

And then because I did a press release that was stopped, when in actuality the administration became involved in this because there was no activity being done by your administration and because the marine industry themselves and their lobbyists went to the president, went to the State Department because they were not seeing any movement in the Brian Roach administration.

And that is across the board.

There's a lot of discussion and no action.

Mr.

Gregory 30s, the BVI spent billions of dollars developing the nanny key.

They are not going to let us eat their lunch.

We have to figure out how do we develop our own blue economy here in the Virgin Islands.

And when we talk about small businesses, when the lieutenant governor talks about small businesses and the Catalyst Fund, we've already passed those legislations.

We have not been taking care of our people.

We have catalyst.

Fonda's.

Before I left the legislature as a chair of the finance committee, we passed $10 million that has yet to be released for small businesses in this territory.

Thank you, miss Pat Gregory.

Yeah.

Follow up.

Yeah.

I got a quick follow up.

Would you speak about, you know, developing our own blue economy?

What are your ideas for that?

So our ideas around the blue economy is in fact developing, going out and working with private concern, public private partnerships with shipyards, bringing shipyards to the territory.

So when the yachts come to the territory provide provisioning, we are able to to provide meals for our people.

We are able to to provide workforce development opportunities where people will be trained to take care of the ships and the like.

So that's some of what we look at when we talk about the blue economy.

Thank you very much, Mr.

Greg Gregory.

Now we're going to move on to the state of homelessness and mental health in the territory.

Too often they go hand in hand and there has been no visible solutions for either one.

We have unhoused people on all three islands, people one paycheck away from being unhoused, and a mental health crisis where we see afflicted adults abusing their parents, who sometimes suffer in silence, and prison being the only solution.

What is your plan to address homelessness and the mental health crisis in the Virgin Islands?

We'll begin with you, Lieutenant Governor Roach, thank you for the question.

We we do have an issue with homelessness.

There is a reality that's occurring where people are coming from the mainland and becoming a part of the homeless population here.

So that's an area that is a difficult area to control.

One of the unveiling we had as a part of this administration was a transitional home that was unveiled at the John Bell Correctional Center, where it provides a transition for people coming out of prison to.

Transitioning into regular life.

And the discussion has been heard about how those modules may serve a greater purpose of addressing homelessness as well.

Our plan in the novel Road Francis administration would be to also look at caregivers.

There are lots of caregivers in our homes that are taking care of mental as well as Alzheimer's as well as seniors.

The more resources need to be committed to that program, and we also need to look at behavioral supports that are also legislatively mandated, as well as facilities that need to be constructed.

And we foresee some of those in our plans.

Unfortunately, some people, before we move to.

Okay, before we move to David Plaskett, I'm going to want to follow up on this quickly with you.

You know, of course, more scrutiny for your administration because you've been in office for for eight years.

Yet still the homelessness issue persists, you know, has the efforts been aggressive enough to solve that issue?

Well, there have been some has been some progress.

And it particularly, I think, depends on some public private partnerships.

There are some nonprofits that have come forward Lutheran Social Services, Catholic Charities, etc., with government support has they have also made an impact on homelessness and on addressing the issues with the mentally ill as well.

Delegate Russell, I think this is a very timely and important issue and one that people are facing all over.

But in a small community that we have, we feel it more acutely.

This is an area where I have spent a lot of support and a lot of time trying to address, whether it's in terms of mental health, the many nonprofits that I've been able to get community funding to that support behavioral health issues, as well as housing through tiny homes and other projects as well.

But I think also we need to think of in public safety and how we engage in that also by having individuals going out, because not often homeless people do not want to come in who have mental health issues.

Mr.

Gregory, we need to engage in public, private partner relationships with companies that can provide behavioral health services to our people.

Most recently, before I left the legislature, we appropriated $18 million for a behavioral health facility in Saint Croix.

That $18 million was spent to pay bills.

We cannot continue to great a blank check to leadership that does whatever it wants to do.

We need to ensure that the shelter rent facility, that wing was damaged, two wings were damaged.

One has been repaired since 2017.

To date, the other wing has not been repaired.

Funds were set aside for that purpose and to date it must become a priority.

We will make behavioral health a priority in the US Virgin Islands, and when individuals are leaving prison, they'll be they're becoming homeless because they have nowhere to go.

So we need to ensure that we are providing the wraparound services for inmates leaving our prison system.

This administration has not given homelessness behavioral health a priority in the US Virgin Islands.

There was there was an announcement about the homeless facility or mental health facility here in Saint Croix.

It had a fire.

To date, we have not seen any resources going towards rebuilding that facility.

It's time we will ensure that behavioral health facilities in this US Virgin Islands are made available to people that live here.

Okay, we'll move on to disaster recovery.

We'll start with Delegate Plaskett.

Nearly nine years after Hurricane Irma and Maria, disaster recovery is still too slow.

Billions have been obligated, but only a fraction has actually been spent.

Deadlines are getting closer, construction costs keep rising, and agencies are now scaling back designs, meaning Virgin Islanders may not get the schools, hospitals, roads and public facilities they were promised.

As governor, what will you do in year one to break bureaucracy, speed up spending and stop recovery projects from being reduced into cheaper, smaller versions of what the public was sold?

Thank you for that.

I think that we have a tremendous opportunity right now and unprecedented amount of resources for us to rebuild.

Before leaving office, President Biden allowed the cost share waiver for the Virgin Islands, and that cost share waiver came with a timeline, because they were also concerned that we are not moving fast enough.

And so they changed our local match from 10% to 2% for critical public infrastructure.

And they gave us a ten year frame because they also felt that this administration was not moving quick enough.

We have seen throughout the territory what that means.

You and I all know someone who is in the envision program, while yet there have been some rules that have been done, countless others are still with blue tarps waiting to ensure that their homes are secure in the next hurricane season.

We have seen people die waiting for that to happen.

We have got to move faster.

One of the things that we want to do is looking at best practices and seeing what's been done in the past, and I think it's important for the head of leadership to be engaged in having regular meetings with all of the stakeholders on that.

Rebuild construction Developers Agency heads to determine what are the snags that are ensuring that they are not moving fast enough.

We have nine years left before that cost share bumps back up to 10%.

We've got to move quickly.

Thank you, Miss Fred Gregory.

I would start by reviewing what's available with the hot dollars.

That's a urban development program, dollars that came to this territory for the governor to determine how it will be used.

Currently, our contractors in this territory have not received their match to date, so we have to start there.

We need to assess it, assess that program and determine whether or not we need to ask for a revision of the federal government with regards to the HUD program.

In addition to that, the governor of the Virgin Islands need to be at the table to determine and have the conversations with its leadership about what needs to happen, what's happening and what's not happening.

We need to monitor what's happening when it comes to the development, to the to the infrastructure, to the work that should be done for our people.

It's been eight and a half years on seven and a half years, and we have not seen one hospital or school built in the territory.

Rodney and I will focus on ensuring that our hospitals and our schools will be fast tracked and built.

We will remove the see when we look at our Department of Property and Procurement instruments.

Miraculously, we have 25 steps to get things done.

We have to be forward facing and face what's happening to us.

We are the ones creating the issues for ourselves, and I agree that we see way too many blue roofs here in the US Virgin Islands.

We have to take care of our people.

Our commitment is that we will, in fact focus on the people of the Virgin Islands.

Lieutenant governor, thank you.

The one of the things that I would do differently, really, would be to address bonding support for local contractors.

We have held the Industry Day forums, where we have brought hundreds of local contractors to meet with some of these contractors who have been awarded these projects.

The first school is coming online.

The MCC building at the hospital is completed.

Head starts have been completed.

Numerous projects have been completed under this administration.

And that is why I gave the administration a B in my assessment.

The housing program on the invasion has improved.

Know that some of the responsibilities have gone to the Office of Disaster Recovery, and many more homes have been completed under the guidance of that of that office.

The challenge of making sure that the construction dollars do impact our economy in a greater way as possible is still one that I think we need to do additional work on, and that is where I think helping local contractors, which some of which did not qualify for some of the larger projects, would be good to have them were projects could be subcontracted to them and those monies would come out into the economy.

We have done better with our building codes.

We have improved.

If you look at the structures that were lost over the last hurricane, you could see that those who followed the changes made in the building code have had a greater chance of surviving, and we can do more with regard to that.

We don't.

We're going to have to we're going to have to move on to a final round.

Final round of questioning.

On the issue of public safety, the territory has recorded more than 20 homicides so far this year.

We'd like to now examine your plans to address the persistent high levels of crime we have seen over the years.

Lieutenant Governor Roach, beginning with you, your platform promises to expand recruitment and retention efforts within the police department.

Nearly every administration has made the same promise.

What specific incentive or policy would your administration implement that previous administrations have not?

And how quickly should residents expect to see an increase in staffing?

So the a shortfall in police officers, that is a nationwide issue.

It's not just a Virgin Islands issue, but what has happened in our departments is that the police department has brought in cadets, has trained them, and they have gone to other agencies like the Port Authority, the Licensing and Consumer Division, etc., the courts, the legislature.

And one of the items on our platform would be in times of crisis such as these, to bring all of those peace officers under the control of the Department of Public Safety, the Police Department, and to have them address crimes within the territory.

Police officers are living with a lot of stress.

I mean, they are the ones who go out there, the first responders, they're the ones who witness the the onslaught of crime.

They see the bodies underground.

We need more support for them.

We need to address the salaries that they work for.

We would do a salary increases in that regard as a new government.

We also planning to look at housing incentives for those members of the police force who do not have their own home and other ways to support them.

More training, more professional development, more behavioral supports to address the their stress needs.

But we and we've started police academies in our schools, just as we have done with educators to encourage young people to go into both of those careers.

Thank you so much, Governor Roach.

Delegate Plaskett, your platform also commits funding additional law enforcement officers, giving the territories fiscal challenges.

Where would that funding come from and what would be your first public safety budget priority?

I think that we have a budget in place now.

Yes, prioritizing public safety needs to be paramount in this.

Earlier I talked about housing, and I think in terms of recruitment, one of the things that we need to do is look at housing, as has been done in many other jurisdictions, to attract police officers, nurses, teachers into professions.

We call it practice in Paradise to support them coming into those professions, while at the same time ensuring that we are giving retention support to police officers who are on the street so that they stay there in the same way.

We have talked about retention, support for classroom teachers, not going to the administration.

Both Milton and I are children of police officers.

My grandfather was an assistant commissioner of police here in the Virgin Islands.

We understand this issue.

It's incredibly important to us paying our police officers and ensuring their where they are supposed to be is a noble thing.

We want to treat them as such in a plastic potter administration.

Now, Miss Fred Gregory, within your public safety plan is a focus on preventing crime before it happens rather than responding after the fact.

Give voters one example of a proactive strategy that your administration would implement in its first year, and explain how would they would how they would know that it's working in our first year, what we're going to do is look at our federal dollars that go down to our schools and ensure that the students that need it most are receiving those federal funds in those classrooms.

We need to look at our classrooms.

We need to ensure that if our students require wraparound services, that those services are provided in our educational system and our children are provided with support.

The other thing that needs to happen is we've closed our community centers.

It's time that we open our community centers are non-profits.

We need to fund them.

We need to ensure that we allow them to be part of this process.

We have a number of nonprofit organizations in this territory.

Our nonprofits need to support our government.

Government can't do everything, but what can happen is we open these centers for our young people so they could have academic sports and whatever else they're interested in in doing.

But it's time that we focus on our young people to prevent crime in this territory and provide the necessary wraparound services.

In addition to that, we have to ensure that our young people who have dropped out of school, that we are actually going to them and offering them the programs that's tied to workforce development, meeting them where they're at under the time and tree saying, listen, we have this program that's available to you.

We want you to come down to the Department of Labor and sign up so you can not only have a job, but you can have a career.

Our young people cannot continue to be dejected in this community.

Thank you.

The 2025 Kids County was a book painted a sovereign picture of childhood in the Virgin Islands, and reported that the territory has lost half of its child population over the past two decades.

1 in 3 children live lives in poverty.

Academic achievement remains uneven.

Workforce participation among young people has declined, and many families continue to struggle with housing, healthcare and economic opportunity.

The report concludes that these challenges require coordinated action rather than isolated programs.

What policies would your administration create to revolutionize education, to stimulate and not stagnate the brilliant minds of young Virgin Islands, starting with you?

Lieutenant Governor Roach, I think we have a missed opportunity in our university, and one of the pieces envisioned in our platform is the inclusion of the university from childhood education through to secondary education.

They are the group that feeds into the university.

We've had successes such as that with regard to a program such as junior university, where we brought in young boys who were in danger of repeating the seventh grade and had them tutored in mathematics and reading and writing.

A key element is including the university.

We also have to look at supporting our teaching and administrative forces.

We we have met with the teachers union at three times in this administration with regard to their contracts, and we have increased the salaries of teachers locally.

The supports need to be there.

We also need to provide what we are calling in our platform, more opportunities for adult learning, because there are families who need the support of government and off the education department to support their children in their endeavors as well.

And the research does show that where you have informed parents, parents who can assist their children, the outcomes are better.

We also, as we will do in telemedicine with regard to helping our hospitals, we should take opportunity of virtual learning and we have equipped our young population with the devices, and we should tie into virtual opportunities as well.

Delegate Plaskett.

Yes.

Could you repeat the question?

Yes.

The 2025 kids count USVI did a book painted a sobering picture of childhood in the US Virgin Islands, and reported that the territory has lost half of its child population over the past two decades.

1 in 3 children lives in poverty.

Academic achievement remains uneven.

Workforce development.

Participation among young people has declined, and many families continue to struggle with housing, healthcare and economic development.

The report concludes that these challenges require coordinated action rather than isolated programs.

What policies would your administration create to revolutionize education, to stimulate and not stagnate the brilliant minds of young Virgin Islands?

This is a great question.

And before we were talking about public safety, we're talking about health care.

We're talking about housing.

All of those are intertwined, just in the same way that education is.

And a Plaskett Potter administration understands that we are.

So I don't think it's an achievement when we talk about the number of students that we graduate, knowing that those students are not at the grade level in reading and math that they're supposed to be, as evidenced by the Kids Count report.

But so many of our children are living in poverty.

They need our assistance and a plastic potter administration.

We will work on early intervention to make sure that we're not losing our children later on in middle school, because they didn't get the support early on and have gone through the cracks.

So from K to third grade, there will be intervention.

We will support the teachers and having retention and retention money for teachers to stay in the classroom, because we know that two often teachers go into the administration because they're not making the salary that they need, as well as providing additional support and hard to fill subject areas for our young people.

Creating a Virgin Islands teacher court where we are recruiting teachers to be in the classrooms after school and summer programs, and yes, our career and technical to ensure that our students meet the challenges of the 21st century is what will happen in a plastic Potter administration.

I think they'll get Miss Fred Gregory.

We have to start by building our economy, building an economy so parents can get good paying jobs.

We need to utilize our federal funds that we are receiving for education to focus on career and technical education.

We need to focus those dollars on our kindergarten, pre-kindergarten through third or fourth graders.

So if our children need wraparound service, we are in fact able to provide those services.

We need to encourage our children to be great.

We have not done that.

What we've done over the years is we have ignored the needs of our children.

It's time that we focus on our our economic development program that we have here in the territory is not focused on ensuring that parents families are, in fact, able to start up new businesses to provide catalyst funding for those businesses.

These are the things that we have to do to prop up families in our territory.

We have to provide housing incentives and incentives to teachers in the territory.

We've had a program on the Have, but it's not focused on our teachers.

It's not focused on our police officers.

It's time that we provide incentives to the people in the Virgin Islands, those workers who are in fact, doing it every day, going out and and supporting the future of this territory.

Thank you.

We have time for one final question to each candidate.

Yes.

So where is Delegate Plaskett?

We'll begin with you.

My question to you both you and Miss Fred Gregory is the same.

If you pass the primary and prevail in the general election, what would it mean to you to be the first female governor of the Virgin Islands?

And what legacy do you hope to leave behind for women, girls and girl dads?

Delegate who begin with you?

Well, throughout this campaign, I have not focused on the fact that I am a woman as someone to qualify, and I think that being the first woman then allows that to come off of the table so that every girl sees herself as an equal to the other men, to the men who are here in the territory.

I want to level the playing field and show that we are all the same, and we can all perform.

That is something that I've done in every job.

I've been a first in so many places that I have been.

And the thing that I do most is to work harder than everyone else, to work smarter, and to make sure that I am making proud the people of the Virgin Islands in my family in any position.

And that is a legacy that I would want to leave our children.

That during a Plaskett Potter administration, things got done that affected the life of every Virgin Islander.

Mr.

Fred Gregory, same question.

I have not considered being the first female governor of the Virgin Islands.

What I've considered is being the governor of the Virgin Islands.

That cause created a legacy for the people of the Virgin Islands to be proud of a legacy that ensured that our young people, that our professionals are able to move this territory forward.

Now, young people have an opportunity here.

When we pass the mantle that this virgin, they would know that we were here because what we did is we created an environment that Virgin Islands are proud of, an environment where quality of life is addressed, where we are able to address our healthcare challenges, where we will work hard to make sure that our seniors are taking care of, where we will work hard to make sure that we have libraries in the territory, that that's what we want our legacy to be.

My legacy don't need to be the first woman, but being the first woman of the Virgin Islands would be a good thing.

However, that cannot be the focus.

The focus has to be on what are we going to do for the people of the United States Virgin Islands?

Women are leading throughout the country.

Women are leading in Africa.

We have to show our people that we in this US Virgin Islands, are prepared and mature enough to elect a woman, a woman that understands the inner workings of government at a time when we have challenges with our funds.

Someone who understands accounting and government finance, that's what we need.

So that's what I want my legacy to be a legacy of greatness for our people.

Thank you, thank you.

Lieutenant governor, if you pass the primary and prevail in the general election, you would be the first naturalized citizen as a governor of the Virgin Islands.

What would that mean to you and people who have migrated to the territory and called Virgin Islands their home?

Well, it would say more about the people of the Virgin Islands, I believe, than it would say about me.

It would say that we are an inclusive community, that we have welcomed people here from every nation, from every island, and that we have made a better place because of the contributions of each one of those persons.

When I came to the Virgin Islands, I was a child who was excluded from public school attendance, and my parents had to make the sacrifice of putting me through private school.

The Virgin Islands has changed.

The people of the Virgin Islands have elected me as their senator.

They have elected me multiple times as their senator, reelected me as their lieutenant governor.

And I think it just suggests that we are a place where people can thrive and where people can achieve their best dreams, can achieve their hopes.

I think it says more about the territory than than it says about me.

I came here in 1968.

It's many more years and many people have been alive.

And I have decided from that time on that I had a responsibility to this place as an immigrant, and that I should live my life in a way that improves the territory.

And if that is the case of them selecting me, I just hope, wish and aspire to providing good public service to the people of the territory in a dignified way that suggests a strength of character.

When I look at my running mate, I say the same and we are prepared to lead on day one as I thank you.

Can you now have 60s each for a closing statement?

We begin with Miss Fred Gregory.

Thank you.

Thank you for this opportunity today.

Again, my name is Donna Fred Gregory, and I'm asking to be your tent elected governor of the United States Virgin Islands.

I've given of myself for the past 35 years to the people of the Virgin Islands.

I've served in the executive branch.

I've served in the legislative branch.

I've served on the Board of Education as a board member.

I've served in nonprofit.

But most importantly, what I've done is I've given of myself.

Most importantly, I've taken care of my children.

I've raised my children here.

And it's time that we elect a leader.

Rodney and I are focused on taking care of the needs of the people of the United States Virgin Islands, because we care.

We want to know that we see a Virgin Islands for future Virgin Islanders that they can be proud of.

We're proud of.

We are asking you to support us because we are boots on the ground.

We will dig our heels in and say what we are going to do, what we say that we are going to do.

We are both hard workers.

Thank you very much, Lieutenant Governor Roach, you have 60s.

Thank you.

I want to say thank you to the WTTG and to the consortium for hosting us this evening and this thought provoking discussion.

I said to the people of the Virgin Islands, my public service, the public service of my running mate, Noble Francis.

It speaks to people who are ready to serve this government.

The day that we set foot in office, the decades of public service, the reference made about the numbers of murders, a running mate who has put his life underlying each day for what, 30 years?

And serving the people of this territory?

We want to continue.

We want to bring integrity and character to to our administration, our public service in every branch of government.

I myself have served in the executive, the legislative and the judicial and the perfect attendance that my Senator has given references of me to good work with people who show up every day, and we want to continue to show up for the people of the Virgin Islands very much.

The governor, Delegate Plaskett know you have 60s for closing argument.

Thank you.

Thank you very much for the opportunity to be here.

And I want to thank the people of the Virgin Islands for giving me the greatest honor of representing you in the United States Congress these many years.

It is the greatest honor of my life to have done that, and to wake up every day fighting for you, delivering for you.

And I have taken us places and bring resources that people said were not possible.

We're not imaginable.

But I know that in the heart of every Virgin Islander is hard work and the ability to get things done.

Milton and I believe that we should not just be aspirational about the basics.

And right now, the basics are not what we are experiencing.

We want to move beyond that, to make the unrealistic reality in the life of every Virgin Islander.

That's the Milton Potter and Stacey Plaskett that I see.

Ones who believe for each and every one of us, for the children, the elders.

We are asking for your support.

Thank you very much.

That is all the time we have for our Democratic gubernatorial debate.

Our deepest thanks to tenant Governor Zero, delegate to Congress Stacey Plaskett and Miss Donna Fred Gregory for participating.

Join us Tuesday, July 21st at 8 p.m.

for our Democratic Delegate to Congress debate on TV channel 12 and streaming on the social media platforms of and the Virgin Islands Consortium.

And if you missed any part of this series, all three debates will air back to back on television in an encore presentation on Sunday, July 26th, beginning at 3 p.m.. I'm Marcelina Ventura Douglas and I'm Ernest Gilbert.

Thank you for watching.