The U.S. Virgin Islands delegation to GOP National Convention endorsed likely Republican nominee Donald Trump on Sunday.
“Virgin Islanders look forward to joining fellow Republicans from across the 50 states, the District of Columbia and the four other territories in unifying to defeat the Democrats in November,” stated the Virgin Island’s GOP Party chairman John Cantata in a press release on Sunday. “Our delegates may have supported other candidates in the Virgin Islands caucus, but we are now behind Donald Trump.”
Nine delegates will go from the Virgin Islands to Cleveland in July to vote at the Republican National Convention.
The press release states that the endorsement of Trump “is a repudiation of Holland Redfield, the Virgin Islands committeeman on the Republican National Committee, who leaked a video of him condemning Trump during a closed-door national GOP meeting.”
“As a party, we owe it to ourselves to speak up, and not let the tail wag the dog, and not let someone say, all of a sudden, ‘If you don’t play my game, then I’m running as an independent,” Redfield reportedly said at a private RNC meeting.
Although not mentioning Trump by name, Redfield added that there’s been “disrespect in many cases for ethnic minorities in the United States, but also religious factions in the United States. We have to draw the line. Because sooner or later, somebody has to pick up the pieces.”