WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Virgin Islands Gov. Albert Bryan wants Democrats to know that there are people from the Caribbean diaspora who live on the United States mainland and can help President Biden win reelection this November.
Bryan, who came to Washington, D.C. for the National Governors Association winter meeting, told NABJ Black News & Views that he wants to team up with Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, a fellow Democrat and fellow Black governor, to mobilize 13 million voters of Caribbean descent who are eligible to vote in the White House race.
“It’s so important that we participate as a people of West Indian backgrounds,” Bryan said. “If you think about that, we’re into the third and fourth generation of people now.”
Bryan and Moore are both Democrats and support the Biden administration. St. Thomas, St. John and St. Croix make up the U.S. Virgin Islands, which is a U.S. territory. Almost 87 percent of the residents are non-white.
Connor Lounsbury, a senior adviser to the Moore campaign, said that the Maryland governor, the first Black governor to represent the state, is looking forward to working with Bryan, though he did not offer specifics.
“What Gov. Moore knows to be true is the leadership Gov. Moore and Vice President (Kamala) Harris have demonstrated and the partnership they have led with have resulted in historic wins for Black communities across our country — working towards closing the racial wealth gap, investing in Black communities after decades of disinvestment, and fighting for communities where every American can feel safe regardless of their skin color,” Lounsbury said. “The results speak for themselves, and it’s why Gov. Moore will continue to work hard alongside Gov. Bryan to mobilize voters and reelect President Biden and Vice President Harris.”
The U.S. Virgin Islands are part of a cluster of places in the Caribbean Sea that are either independent, like Grenada or Trinidad, or have been ruled by the United States or countries in Europe at some point in their history. People who have immigrated to the United States are eligible to vote in November’s general election as are people from the U.S.V.I., which is a U.S. territory.
Whatever the case, Bryan said that such people still have those roots.
“You want to make sure that you help the people in the Caribbean because we’re people of color and we want to make sure that the agenda of those people of color are put forth not only in the U.S. but also in the other countries in the Caribbean,” the governor told NABJ Black News & Views.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment, but Vice President Kamala Harris met with voting rights leaders in Washington Tuesday, telling them the administration is mobilizing to engage voters for November and attack alleged voting rights irregularities around the country.
Jeffrey Epstein case
Bryan also reported on movement forward in another area: the September 2023 settlement of the Virgin Islands case against JPMorgan Chase, which the territory accused of enabling late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein to pay off his victims. Epstein had an estate in the USVI, and some of the offenses took place there. JPMorgan Chase agreed to pay $75 million to the territory, $55 million of which would go to helping people who are domestic abuse and trafficking victims.
The territory has signed an executive order and launched a commission to explore the issue of trafficking throughout the USVI, Bryan said. The governor also introduced new legislation and initiatives last July to combat human trafficking throughout the Virgin Islands. Bryan said that the Epstein case put a light on what’s going on in America, adding that his focus is on the Black and brown people “that are trafficked through the Caribbean on a daily basis or annual basis.”
“Whether you’re coming from South America, from Haiti, from the Dominican Republic or Central America, we’re starting to see trafficking come from as far as Africa,” he said. “We’re doing things in our community to try to bring awareness around that and make people know when to call somebody because as a local government, we’re really not responsible for trafficking.”
On another note, Bryan reported the country was one of the places to remain open to travel during the COVID-19 pandemic and it experienced a lot of tourism during that period, which boosted the country’s tourism sector, both land- and cruise-based. Bryan said that the country’s primary tourists came from the Northeast, more specifically the D.C. area.
The amount of boats registered in the U.S. Virgin Islands increased by 100% within 90 days during that time, which helped out the territory’s charter yacht industry, according to Bryan.
“We want to continue to have those kinds of experiences because it expands our hotel product when you have” thousands of “boats registered,” Bryan said. “People are not only staying on-land and up-land and hotels and Airbnbs, but they can stay in the water and we have beautiful waters.”
One of things that is being worked on in the Caribbean, according to Bryan, is bringing affordable energy and housing. The U.S. Virgin Islands is experiencing a labor shortage and last year, their unemployment rate was over 3%, according to the territory’s Department of Labor.
Bryan said that countries and territories “can’t have a thriving tourist economy” if those who make the beds, cook the food, and give the tours can’t afford to live in their economy, adding that the territory is going through a $15 billion recovery.
“We have a situation where our public sector is on fire and our economy is on fire,” he said. “So sustainability to us is bringing that sustainability to our people and making tourism make sense for them as an economic driver in your particular country or territory.”
Sustainability
Three years ago, Bryan instituted the “Vision 2040” plan to generate economic growth and foster business development and capital investment. Bryan also has focused on food production and altering it so that people in the U.S. Virgin Islands are living off of what they grow. Right now, most of the food eaten in the territory comes from outside of it, including the United States mainland. .
“We want to try to move that into a situation where we’re not only not bringing in as much food but we start to reinvest in eating what we grew up eating: the mangos, the papayas, the soursop, the sugar apple,” Bryan said. “Those things become more a part of our main diet, making us better in terms of not only health but economically, keeping that money inside the territory.”
