The results of the election in Puerto Rico are now in, with changes in both island-wide elected positions and statehood once again emerging as the top choice among voters as an alternative to Puerto Rico’s current status as a U.S. territory.
Jenniffer Gonzalez-Colon is the next Governor
Resident Commissioner Jenniffer Gonzalez-Colon received 39% of the votes in a five-way race. This puts her comfortably ahead of the second-place challenger, Juan Dalmau of La Alianza. Gonzalez-Colon currently serves as Puerto Rico’s single representative in Congress. As Resident Commissioner, she can serve on and vote in committees, but her vote is not counted on the floor of Congress.
The current Governor of Puerto Rico, Pedro Pierluisi, was also the Resident Commissioner before being elected as governor.
Gonzalez-Colon is a Republican and a member of the statehood party in Puerto Rico.
Pablo José Hernández will be the next Resident Commissioner
Pablo José Hernández of the Popular Democratic (“commonwealth”) party will be Puerto Rico’s next Resident Commissioner. An attorney, the 33-year old is the grandson of the former Puerto Rico Governor Rafael Hernández Colón. The running mate of Gonzalez-Colon, William Villafañe, came in second place.
Statehood won the status vote again
The election also included a vote on Puerto Rico’s political status. The options were statehood, independence, and free association. Statehood received 57% of the votes, a clear majority. Independence gained a record-setting 11%, far more than in any previous status vote, and the new “free association” option, which has been compared to the “enhanced commonwealth” option that used to be popular on the island, garnered 31% of the vote.
This is the fourth status vote in this century, and statehood has won in every case. There were three votes in the 20th century, with two wins for “commonwealth” and one for “none of the above.”
Independence has never previously gotten much more than 5% of the votes in any referendum. The most recent results are inconsistent with past votes and a conclusion in 2011 Presidential Task Force on Puerto Rico Status that made it abundantly clear how much U.S. citizenship is prized in Puerto Rico:
“U.S. citizenship is an extraordinarily important issue for the people of Puerto Rico,” the White House report observed. “Although there are strong advocates for Independence who do not wish for continued ties to the United States, the Task Force’s engagement with Puerto Ricans demonstrated that most of them value their U.S. citizenship enormously. Any status option that could conceivably result in the loss of U.S. citizenship by current U.S. citizen residents of Puerto Rico would, it seems, be viewed with hostility by the vast majority of Puerto Ricans.”
It is unclear if the most recent vote reflects decreased interest in keeping U.S. citizenship or a lack of awareness of its vulnerability.
Symbolic presidential vote chooses Harris
Puerto Rico also held a symbolic vote for president, as Guam has done for many years. Kamala Harris took 73% of that vote. Puerto Rico has no electoral votes, so this vote will not affect the presidential election.
In light of changes when the votes were certified, Puerto Rico Report has updated this information.
39% for a Gov. is not very impressive.
57% for statehood is not enough. Need AT LEAST 67 1/2% to get anybodies attention.
Wheather you are a Democrat, a Republican or an Independent is not important. What is important is the future of Puerto Rico.
That is : STATEHOO OR INDEPENDENCE.NOT REPUBLICAN, NOT DEMOCRAT AND NOT INDEPENDENT.
The 2024 election results should be a wakeup call for the Democrats.
THEY TOTALLY MISSED THE BOAT ON WHAT THE PEOPLE WANTED !!!!
With all due respect to Harris, she was hung out to dry by Biden not resigning much earlier and her c campaign not listening to the people.
She should have spent more time on what the public wanted and LESS TIME on bailing out students debts. Remember, no one forced those students to go to that college. There are plenty of colleges with lower tuitions.
I did not go to college be cause I did not have the money or desire.
It is not surprising 31% vote for Independence given that the popularis have always been a nationalist independence lite party catering to nationalists who do not want to give up US citizenship and statehood supporters who did not want to pay federal income taxes. So the “popular Democratic Party” (ppd/pdp) is a parasitic party siphoning votes from statehood and Independence to maintain the territorial status quo.
When it comes time for a final statehood versus independence vote you are going to get 70 to 75% for statehood and you going anywhere from 25 to 30% for Independence. But if Congress ever passes a law to Grant statehood to Puerto Rico, a small percentage of those separatists are people who have given up on statehood and they will come back around and statehood will be ratified. This is why the opponents of statehood talk out of both sides of their mouths. On the one and they tell Puerto Rican Islanders America is too racist to ever offer statehood while on the other hand they’re always racing to Washington DC to Lobby against statehood. Why the hell would you go Lobby against statehood if you’re so convinced America will never offer it? Why do you oppose Puerto Ricans choosing in a federal referendum if you’re so convinced Puerto Ricans will ultimately vote no? Because the statehood opponents are all leftists and leftists dont believe in referendums they cannot win.