Pedro Pierluisi, the governor of Puerto Rico, unexpectedly loses the primaries

The governor of Puerto Rico, Pedro Pierluisi, suffered an unexpected setback on Sunday when he lost the New Progressive Party primaries, which disqualifies him from re-election. The non-voting representative of Puerto Rico in the United States Congress, Jenniffer González-Colón, obtained 136,838 votes, 56.06% of the total, compared to 107,271, 43.94%, for Pierluisi.

The result destroyed all the predictions, which showed a wide advantage for Pierluisi over his opponent. This was recognized by the governor in a press conference: “It hurts me a lot and I didn’t expect it,” he admitted, while congratulating the winner, whom he asked to continue the reconstruction of Puerto Rico launched after the devastation of the hurricane. María in 2017. On the island, voices criticizing the management have increased and small parties have emerged such as the Citizen Victory Movement, which advocates for the end of colonialism.

Pierluisi’s defeat was also surprising because it is the first that a governor has scored in a primary election on the island. Pierluisi and González-Colón ran together in the same candidacy four years ago, despite the fact that their affiliation is Democratic in the case of the governor and Republican in that of his rival.

The resident commissioner, the name adopted by the island’s representative in Washington, celebrated that voters were betting on a change and was confident that in the November elections her party would obtain the majority in the House of Representatives and the Senate, which currently has the Popular Democratic Party (PPD). González-Colón is the first woman to hold the position of representative in the United States Congress and, if she were to win the November elections, she would become the third female governor of Puerto Rico.

Jesús Manuel Ortiz, president of the PPD and legislator, also won the elections for the opposition party, winning 62% of the votes over former Secretary of the Treasury Juan Zaragoza. The PDP supports the island’s current status as a United States territory.

On the contrary, the New Progressive Party supports Puerto Rico becoming the 51st State of the nation. At the press conference, Pierluisi wished González-Colón “to continue the fight for equality because that is the underlying evil, the status we have and that we have to change.”