← Election Series · All governors races

Election Day is November 3. Governor Albert Bryan is term-limited, and five tickets — from the Elections System of the Virgin Islands' certified list — contest the open seat: the territory's longtime Delegate to Congress, now the Democratic nominee, and four independent tickets. There is no Republican ticket. No national rater rates this race, no usable polling exists, and no campaign-finance compilation was located for any ticket. This article makes no endorsement, and the reason is not indecision: the race's leading candidate is disqualified under one standing rule of this publication, and no remaining ticket earns an endorsement. Both are put in the open below — the facts in the candidate section, the rule and its application in OUR CALL. Read the research, and see exactly where the line sits.

How the Virgin Islands got here

The Democratic primary was held August 1, 2026. Per the Elections System of the Virgin Islands' official territorial summary, Stacey Plaskett and Milton E. Potter won the nomination with 4,742 votes (about 47.0%), defeating the ticket of sitting Lt. Governor Tregenza A. Roach (3,212) and the ticket of former senator Donna Frett-Gregory (2,101). (A sourcing note, in the open: Wikipedia's gubernatorial page carries a results table with materially smaller figures — evidently a single-district subtotal. The ESVI territorial figures control and are what is printed here.) All five tickets appeared at the League of Women Voters / WTJX gubernatorial forum. The winner faces the Legislature of the Virgin Islands — 15 senators, all on the November 3 ballot; two sitting senators left the body to run on these tickets for Lt. Governor.

Stacey Plaskett / Milton E. Potter (Democratic)

Service: Plaskett has been the territory's non-voting Delegate to the U.S. House since January 2015, first elected in 2014 with 90.7%. She is a former federal and territorial prosecutor (U.S. Department of Justice; VI Department of Justice) and served as a House impeachment manager in the second impeachment of President Trump in 2021. She originally filed paperwork to run for re-election as Delegate, then switched to the governor's race. Her running mate, Milton E. Potter, is a sitting territorial senator (St. Thomas–St. John) who retired from the Legislature to run for Lt. Governor.

Her program, in her own words (Elect Democratic Women endorsement release, July 16, 2026): "In Congress, I fought to deliver for the Virgin Islands after Irma and Maria, to expand health care access, and to make sure our voice was heard in rooms where territories are too often overlooked. Now I'm ready to bring that same experience and determination to the Governor's office." She is endorsed by Elect Democratic Women, a national Democratic organization.

The Epstein file — documented conduct, from the mainstream national record and the released primary documents, printed in full:

Jeffrey Epstein was convicted in 2008 in Florida of soliciting prostitution from a minor and served 13 months. He owned Little St. James and Great St. James in the Virgin Islands. Every contact below postdates that conviction by years; his status as a convicted sex offender was public record throughout.

Contact dating to 2014. Documents from Epstein's estate, released by the House Oversight Committee on November 12, 2025 (some 20,000 pages), show Plaskett in contact with Epstein dating back to 2014, with his associates scheduling meetings and calls with her — a 2017 "phone date" arranged by his assistant Lesley Groff; a 2016 exchange in which Groff reported Epstein had tried her cell, and Plaskett replied within minutes: "Thanks. Spoke with him."

She solicited his money, repeatedly. Per the released files, the Delegate routinely asked Epstein and his associates to donate to her campaign. In 2017 her campaign invited Epstein to a fundraiser headlined by Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (whether Epstein attended is unclear). In 2018, Plaskett emailed Groff directly: "If you would share this invitation with Jeffrey I'd be much appreciative. I would be grateful for his support and the support of those that he may direct to assist me." Groff replied that Jeffrey was asking for the maximum amount allowed; Plaskett responded by laying out the limits. A 2023 Business Insider investigation documented that Epstein donated large sums to Virgin Islands politicians, including Plaskett.

Live coaching during a congressional hearing — February 27, 2019. During Michael Cohen's televised testimony to the House Oversight Committee, Epstein texted Plaskett in real time, and his cues shaped her questioning; the Washington Post matched the texts (name redacted in the release) against the hearing video. The documented exchange: Epstein — "Cohen brought up RONA – keeper of the secrets" (Rhona Graff, a longtime Trump assistant). Plaskett — "RONA?? Quick I'm up next is that an acronym." Epstein — "Thats his assistant." Minutes later, questioning Cohen, Plaskett asked about Graff and other Trump associates Epstein had flagged. Epstein afterward: "Good work." The texts also included Epstein complimenting her outfit, answered amicably.

Her response, printed in full, as the standard requires. Her office confirmed to CNN that she received texts from Epstein during the hearing, stating: "During the hearing, Congresswoman Plaskett received texts from staff, constituents and the public at large offering advice, support and in some cases partisan vitriol, including from Epstein. As a former prosecutor she welcomes information that helps her get at the truth and took on the GOP that was trying to bury the truth. The congresswoman has previously made clear her long record combating sexual assault and human trafficking, her disgust over Epstein's deviant behavior and her support for his victims." She characterizes Epstein as a constituent and a former campaign donor.

The aftermath. Months after the hearing — and after Epstein's July 2019 federal arrest on sex-trafficking charges — Plaskett redirected his campaign donations to charity. In November 2025, after the texts were published, a Republican-led effort to censure her over them failed in the House, 209–214.

What this file is and is not — stated as plainly as the file itself. There is no allegation in any source located that Plaskett participated in or knew of Epstein's crimes, and this page prints that limit with the same weight as everything above. What is documented — by her own office's confirmation and the released primary documents — is a years-long, post-conviction relationship in which she solicited his donations, accepted his fundraising help, and took live direction from him during an official proceeding, defended afterward as constituent contact.

Pros: A decade as the territory's voice in Congress, a prosecutor's background, impeachment-manager national standing, and a primary win at about 47% over the sitting Lt. Governor in a three-way race. A program statement in her own words: hurricane-recovery delivery, health care, the territorial voice.

Cons: The Epstein file, above, in full. The donations went to charity only after his arrest made the association untenable.

The flaw, plainly: On the documented record, the heaviest personal-conduct file in this series: a convicted pedophile — convicted in 2008, notoriously — courted for donations from at least 2014 through 2018 in her own words, and accepted as a live adviser, by text, during a congressional hearing in February 2019, months before his federal sex-trafficking arrest. What that record does to this race under this publication's stated rule is taken up in OUR CALL, openly.

The four independent tickets

Shorter form is correct here, and we say why: beyond the League of Women Voters forum, no documented 2026 program statements were located for the Benta, Donastorg, or James tickets in this pass. Their sections rest on verified service records only. We do not pad records that are not there.

Oakland Benta / Merwin Potter (Independent). Benta is a former St. Croix police chief and a Virgin Islands senator from the St. Croix district (2019–2021) — public-safety executive experience plus a legislative term. His running mate, Merwin Potter, is a former director of the Virgin Islands Fire Service (2004–2006). (A note for readers: two unrelated Potters hold the second slots on the two leading tickets — Milton E. Potter with Plaskett, Merwin Potter with Benta. Do not conflate them.) Out of office since 2021; no flaw proven in this pass — a thin record, watch posture.

Adlah "Foncie" Donastorg Jr. / Positive Nelson (Independent). Donastorg was a Virgin Islands senator from the St. Thomas–St. John district from 1995 to 2011 — sixteen years, the longest legislative résumé in this race. His running mate, Positive Nelson, is a former senator from the St. Croix district. He has been out of office fifteen years. No flaw proven in this pass — unproven at the executive level.

Gustav James / Randolph Bennett (Independent). James was Commissioner of the Virgin Islands Department of Public Works, 2014–2017; Bennett was Commissioner of the Department of Property and Procurement, 2015–2017. The ticket is two former cabinet commissioners from the same administration — administration-experienced, appointed rather than elected. No flaw proven in this pass — unproven as elected executives.

Warren Mosler / Colin Robertson (Independent). Mosler is the founder of the Modern Monetary Theory school of economics ("Soft Currency Economics," 1993) and the founder/manager of Illinois Income Investors and AVM, L.P. — his campaign biography records that III was rated #1 in risk-adjusted returns globally by Managed Account Reports with over $3 billion in assets when he handed management to his partners at the end of 1997; the New York Times profiled him at length in 2013 as MMT's originating practitioner. He relocated his business to St. Croix in 2003. Prior runs: U.S. Senate in Connecticut (2010); USVI Delegate (negligible result); Governor of the Virgin Islands in 2018, winning 1,199 votes (4.70%) — that figure rests on a secondary compilation and is flagged as such. His program, in his own long-stated terms: MMT applied to the territory — deficit-financed public investment to address unemployment and infrastructure, job creation, tax relief, and rejection of balanced-budget constraints as the binding limit on territorial policy. The program is his own, published, and unchanged across three decades; a 2026-specific platform statement was not located in this pass. Pros: a fully published, intellectually serious program argued in the open for 30 years; genuine financial expertise at the highest level; donor independence that is structural in his history. Cons: never held office; 4.70% in his one prior governor's run. The flaw species: a candidate's own program — its math and its fit are priced where this race's call is decided, not before.

OUR CALL

LiberalMind makes NO endorsement in this race.

This publication's standing rule — set by its owner, and applied this cycle in Texas's 15th District, where it settled the race against Bobby Pulido — is this: an unproven accusation alone never disqualifies anyone; but knowingly associating with and defending a convicted pedophile is immediately disqualifying.

Stacey Plaskett's documented record meets that rule, and we state the meeting exactly. Note first what kind of record it is: not an accusation. The contact from 2014, six years after Epstein's conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor; the donation solicitations in her own words through 2018; the contribution limits laid out when he asked for the maximum; the live text coaching during the February 27, 2019 Cohen hearing that demonstrably shaped her questions; the association defended afterward, by her office's own confirmation, as constituent contact; the donations redirected to charity only after his July 2019 arrest. A years-long association, begun long after the conviction was public record, solicited by her, sustained by her, and defended by her office when exposed — that is the Pulido pattern, and the disqualification reaches her.

And the limit, printed with equal weight, because the rule's honesty depends on it: no source alleges she participated in or knew of Epstein's crimes. The disqualification does not rest on any such allegation. It rests on the knowing, solicited, defended association itself — which is what the rule, as written and as applied before, covers.

The boundary, stated as plainly as the rule: mere contact does not reach it. Neither does an accusation, a photograph, a shared donor list, or an association a candidate did not choose and did not defend. What reaches it is this: a candidate who, knowing a man is a convicted pedophile, courts him for money over years, takes his direction in an official proceeding, and defends the relationship afterward as ordinary business. That is where the line sits, and Plaskett's own documented record stands on the far side of it.

Disqualification settles her — it does not manufacture an endorsement for anyone else, because an endorsement here is earned, not defaulted. None of the four independent tickets earns one. Warren Mosler's program is his own and fully published — and it is program-socialist in substance: Modern Monetary Theory holds that a government's spending is constrained by neither revenue nor balanced budgets, and financing the territory's government on that doctrine is a program this publication cannot certify, whatever its author's expertise. The Benta, Donastorg, and James tickets carry verified service records and, in this pass, no documented 2026 program at all; a service record alone, however honorable, is not a case for an endorsement, and we do not issue one on a résumé. Virgin Islands voters who share our values will weigh those tickets for themselves. Our call is the one the rule and the records compel: no endorsement.

For the complete Election 2026 breakdown — every race, claim by claim — see the full coverage on our website.

Vote early. Research your candidates. Choose the best moderates, whatever their party — no extremism from either side. And encourage your friends and family to do the same.

Sources

Election result — November 4, 2026

Result pending. No verified call (Associated Press or official) as of November 4, 2026. This page will be updated when the race is called or certified. The original article above is unchanged.

AI-assisted article — but the sources are human, and the facts are very real.

← Back to the Election Series