ST. CROIX — Former Senator Samuel Carrión picked up papers Thursday as an independent to enter the St. Croix Senate race, as aspirants continued to secure nomination petitions across both districts.
Carrión served two terms in the Legislature after being first elected in 2020, representing the St. Croix District in both the 34th and 35th Legislatures. He lost his reelection bid in 2024.
Also on St. Croix, independent Audrey Laban obtained papers Thursday for both the Board of Elections and the Board of Education.
In the St. Thomas/St. John District, Democrat Lawrence Boschulte picked up a senatorial petition Thursday. He previously lost senatorial bids in 2014, 2020, and 2022. Boschulte served as the St. Thomas administrator for 11 months under the Mapp administration. He is currently the vice chair of the Virgin Islands Board of Elections after being elected to the board in 2024. During a Board of Elections meeting on April 22, a motion to essentially remove Boschulte as vice chair failed by a vote of 2-6. Independent Gregory Smith picked up a senatorial petition Wednesday.
Democrats Barbara Petersen and Joyclyn Jacobs both collected Board of Elections papers Tuesday in the St. Thomas/St. John District. Petersen served as St. Thomas/Water Island administrator from 2007 to 2014 under the de Jongh administration, special project coordinator for delegate to Congress Stacey Plaskett, and worked with the current administration as assistant director of the Virgin Islands Territorial Emergency Management Agency from 2020 to 2023. She is the St. Thomas district chair for the Democratic Party of the Virgin Islands and the board chair of the Magens Bay Authority.
Two candidates who previously picked up petitions changed parties, requiring them to pick up new petitions. On St. Croix, former Senator James Weber III, who originally collected papers to run as a Democrat for delegate to Congress, picked up papers for that office on Tuesday as an independent. In the St. Thomas/St. John District, Sennai Habtes, who originally picked up a senatorial petition as a Democrat, got papers Thursday as an independent. Habtes works as chief of fisheries for the Department of Planning and Natural Resources and as a research assistant professor of biological oceanography at the University of the Virgin Islands.
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Picking up nomination papers does not obligate a candidate to formally file. Candidates began filing their papers on Tuesday. The filing deadline is next Tuesday.
