Donna M. Christensen (left) along with running mate Basil C. Ottley won yesterday’s August 2, 2014 Democratic Primary in the United States Virgin Islands and will go on to face their Republican counterparts in November in the Gubernatorial elections. Photo: Facebook

Moleto A. Smith Jr. (at podium) and running mate Hubert L. Frederick (seated) suffered defeat at yesterday's Democratic Primary. Of the six pairs of candidates they came last. Photo: VINO/File

The two defeated the pairings of Lt. Gov. Gregory Francis and Patrick Simeon Sprauve, Gerard Luz James II and Winston Brathwaite, Adlah "Foncie" Donastorg and Angel "Gito" Torres, Marvin Pickering and Calford Martin and Moleto A. Smith Jr. and Hubert L. Frederick.

Christensen and Ottley will come up against Independent Candidate Kenneth E. Mapp and running mate Osbert Potter in the November elections. If she wins in November she will make history as the first woman Governor of the US Overseas Territory.

Speaking to Virgin Islands News Online in an exclusive interview last night August 2, 2014, Christensen said that she and Ottley now have to change their strategy in order to take on the November Gubernatorial elections and win it.

“It will be a very different campaign than the Primary and so we are going to reorganize around our core group that has gotten me this far to develop a strategy for the campaign which lies ahead,” she said.

“We are going to fine tune our platform and make sure that it is something that is clear and meets what we feel are the needs of the Territory. And we are just going to go out and campaign…we are going to go out and campaign, meet the people, talk to the people wherever we have the opportunity to do that and just take our campaign to the people. That’s what we did in the primary and I think they appreciated it,” she said.

As to what she credits for the victory at the Primary, she said, “we showed our fellow democrats that we were a team that in many ways put ourselves apart from our fellow candidates from our long history of public service, nothing to do with elections.”

Christensen said that both she and Basil have records of accomplishments and achievements in the public service, “and this shows the people of the Territory that we are capable of accomplishing things on their behalf.”

She said that the relationships that they have forged are going to be key in order to turn the economy around and meet their energy challenges, meet their retirement and also their education challenges.

“His (Ottley’s) work in the Federal Government, my work in the Congress and in the White House, and the organisations and corporations that we have worked with over the years, no one else could bring what we could bring to the table and we will continue to do that,” said Christensen.

“We talk about building a Virgin Islands that is sustainable and resilient, that is socially equitable with fairness and opportunity for everyone, that will become once again a centre for culture, commerce and innovation for our region and that will offer everyone who lives here a high quality of life,” said Christensen.

“And to do that we know that we will have to rebuild our economy and create jobs, we have to lower the cost of our energy and make that self-sufficient, we have to make sure that every child has an adequate education and address our health care system. However under all of that our key objectives and key things that we could bring to the table to make those objectives a reality, those are the things that we are going to talk with people about,” said Christensen.

Asked about the court challenge to her running mate’s residency qualifications to run in the Primary by Moleto A. Smith Jr., Christensen said that while that challenge did not take away from the momentum of their campaign, it certainly was a distraction.

“I think, you know, if it did anything it may have helped us more than hurt us, because it was so without basis that it may have brought us some other support,” she said of the court challenge to Ottley’s right to contest the Primary.