ST. CROIX — The Democratic Party of the Virgin Islands added Michelle Cawthron to its list of certified aspirants and issued an updated roster of candidates after initially excluding her from certification for the 2026 primary election.
The decision comes after questions arose over Cawthron’s eligibility for the Board of Education seat she sought in the St. Thomas/St. John District. Democratic State Chair Carol Burke sent WTJX a corrected listing after our inquiry.
Cawthron was among five aspirants initially excluded from certification by the party, despite being deemed statutorily qualified by the Elections System of the Virgin Islands.
The party’s involvement in the process is a result of a mediated settlement agreement between the Democratic Party and the Elections System, under which the Elections System was required to notify the party by May 25 of Democratic aspirants who met the statutory qualifications to run for office.
The Elections System provided the party with a list of qualified Democratic candidates that included five aspirants the party later determined did not satisfy its internal requirements to run under the Democratic banner.
Cawthron, a St. John resident, was initially denied certification because there was no vacancy for the Board of Education seat she sought, Burke said.
“The one individual who was running for the Board of Education from St. John; there’s no vacancy there and that’s something that the Elections System should have flagged,” Burke said.
There is, however, a vacancy for a seat on the Board of Education in the St. Thomas/St. John District, and Cawthron is eligible to run for it, according to Supervisor of Elections Caroline Fawkes. She said the at-large board seat is not available this election cycle because it was filled in 2024, and the term runs four years.
But Cawthron told WTJX that she did not file to run for the at-large seat.
“I filed to run for the district seat because I knew that the at-large seat was filled,” she said.
Cawthron said the Democratic Party explained to her that she was not certified because the only seat a St. John resident is eligible to hold is the at-large seat.
After the Office of the Supervisor of Elections qualified her as a Democratic candidate and the party declined to certify her, Cawthron said she was planning to challenge the party’s decision. That challenge will no longer be necessary.
After WTJX contacted Burke about the discrepancy, Burke issued an updated list showing Cawthron was certified.
Although Cawthron has now been certified, the Democratic Party found four other aspirants the Elections System qualified that did not meet its requirements. They are Lorelei Monsanto, who sought to run for Senate in the St. Thomas/St. John District; Antonio Emanuel, director of the Office of Gun Violence Prevention under the Office of the Governor and a St. Croix resident seeking to run for delegate to Congress; and Joycelyn Jacobs and Preston Evans, who both sought seats on the Board of Elections in the St. Thomas/St. John District.
Burke said Monsanto and Emanuel are not qualified by the Democratic party because they failed to contact the party by email as directed by the Elections System.
Burke said Monsanto also was not in good standing with the party, making her ineligible for certification regardless of whether she had contacted the party.
Monsanto was one of three plaintiffs — along with St. Croix resident Shelley Moorhead, an independent aspirant seeking to run for delegate to Congress, and Collister Fahie, a Republican from the St. Thomas/St. John District seeking to run for Senate — who sued Fawkes and the Board of Elections in a suit filed May 1 in District Court that challenged election procedures.
Monsanto challenged the mediated settlement agreement between the Democratic Party and elections officials, which outlined a process under which the Elections System would provide the party with a list of qualified aspirants and the party would then certify candidates for placement on the primary ballot.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Timothy Savage dismissed the lawsuit without prejudice, meaning it can be refiled. In his memorandum, Savage noted that Monsanto had not alleged an actual denial of certification. He stated that she merely alleged that DPVI was capable of doing so.
Now that the Democratic Party has declined to certify her as a candidate, Monsanto said she will refile the lawsuit as soon as she receives confirmation from the party that she was not certified as a candidate.
“I am happy that they have chosen to do that, because now they have shown their injury,” Monsanto said.
Burke said Jacobs and Evans failed to timely pay their filing fees and did not satisfy other party requirements, not mentioning what those were.
“We did try to work with all the individuals who were running for boards and ultimately there was nothing more that we could do to help get them certified,” she said.
The casting of the lots for the primary election takes place at 5:30 p.m. on Friday at the Elections System’s offices on St. Thomas and St. Croix. Fawkes advises that “candidates should be present to pick their lot. If the candidate cannot appear to pick their lot, they can send a representative with a notarized letter as per 18 V.I.C. Section 419 attesting that they can pick the candidate’s lot. If that fails an authorized Elections official will pick the lot for the candidate.”
