Republicans and Democrats have proposed few policies that seem likely to directly affect this territory, but both parties have taken differing stances on a number of issues affecting the wider Caribbean, including the United States Virgin Islands.

USVI Republican and Democratic delegates both pushed for US territory citizens to have the same rights and privileges as those who reside in the 50 states — such as the right to vote in the presidential elections and to receive the same Medicare, Medicaid and Veterans Administration benefits. Only the Democrats appeared to make any headway.

In fact, leading up to the Republican National Convention, Grand Old Party officials tried to restrict the territories so they couldn’t even have a say in naming the party’s nominee.

At a July 14 rules committee meeting, RNC member Bruce Ash made a motion to amend the party’s rules so that jurisdictions would be awarded one delegate for every 50,000 votes cast there in the primaries. This would effectively strip smaller territories like Guam, American Samoa, and the USVI — which currently sends nine delegates to the RNC — of having any say in who their party nominates.

Luckily for those territories, the amendment was defeated during a rules committee meeting at the RNC on July 19.

“I am grateful to my fellow committee members for defeating the amendment, which would have ended the equal voice of the territories in the selection of the Republican presidential nominee,” said USVI Republican delegate Robert Max Schanfarber, who called the proposed amendment “beyond unfortunate.”

Despite the fact that the Republican Party didn’t declare its support for US territories to vote in presidential elections, USVI Republican Party Executive Director Dennis Lennox said he is happy with how the GOP’s platform turned out.

Specifically, he said he was pleased with a provision in the platform that calls for the establishment of a commonwealth and territories advisory committee that would be comprised of representatives from all five US territories, and a White House-appointed official that would liaise with the representatives.

Mr. Lennox said this system would replace the current territorial oversight by the US Interior Department, which he criticised for not being responsive to the territories’ needs.

Democrats

The Democratic Party, for its part, did not originally state its support for US territories to vote in presidential elections, but it did so at the insistence of territorial delegates.

USVI Democratic delegate Donna Christensen said that when the first draft of the Democratic Party platform came out, it only had one sentence about the “right to self determination” of US territories.

“We were not happy about that,” she said.

Delegates from overseas territories expressed their displeasure to other platform committee members, Ms. Christensen said, and the platform was expanded to include the party’s support for territorial residents to vote in US presidential elections and to receive “fair and equitable treatment under federal programmes.”

The USVI delegate said she thinks the fact that those planks were inserted in the Democratic platform “speaks to the inclusive nature of our party.”

“I know [Democratic presidential candidate] Hillary [Clinton] and I respect her, and she always had outreach in the Caribbean,” Ms. Christensen said.

Criticism

But some Caribbean citizens have criticised Ms. Clinton’s presence in the region.

Standing outside the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia on Monday were a group of Haitian protesters, who alleged that her non-profit group, the Clinton Foundation, siphoned hundreds of millions of dollars meant to help rebuild the country from a devastating earthquake in 2010. (In a June 13 article, the Washington Post fact-checked the allegations that the Clinton Foundation misused money intended for Haiti’s earthquake recovery efforts: While some of the Clinton Foundation-supported projects have been delayed, the Post found no evidence of illegal activity.)

“We think [Republican presidential nominee Donald] Trump is a racist, but we say, ‘Put the two of them together, and Trump is an altar boy next to Hillary,’” said Haitian Dahoud Andre, the organiser of the protest. “So we’re telling our people, if you’re looking for the lesser of two evils, take Trump.”

Cuban situation

Perhaps the largest divergence between the two parties has to do with America’s relationship with Cuba.

The Democratic Party platform states that Ms. Clinton would build on the ties US President Barack Obama began to form with Cuba last year when the two countries formally resumed diplomatic relations.

“We will build on President Obama’s historic opening and end the travel ban and embargo,” the platform states.

The Republican Party, on the other hand, called Mr. Obama’s “opening to Cuba a shameful accommodation to the demands of its tyrants.”

Though the platform did not say Republicans would end the diplomatic relations with Cuba that started last year, it did state that the GOP would only end the US embargo on the island nation if it meets a number of conditions, including the legalisation of political parties, an independent media, and free and fair internationally supervised elections.

This article originally appeared in the July 28, 2016 edition.

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