Far From the U.S. Mainland, Northern Mariana Islands Hold GOP Caucus
Almost 7,500 miles from here, a few hundred of the 53,000 residents of the Northern Mariana Islands on Tuesday will choose which U.S. presidential candidate gets their nine delegates to the July convention.
A chain of 15 islands east of the Philippines, the Northern Mariana Islands is one of five territories and commonwealths that participate in the presidential nominating process even though they don’t get to vote in the Electoral College in November.
On Tuesday, the islands will award their delegates in a winner-take-all Republican caucus—emissaries that could play a key role if none of the candidates achieves the 1,237 needed to clinch the nomination and the winner is picked at the convention.
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The biggest political issue in the Northern Mariana Islands is maintaining a flow of immigrant labor to maintain a tourist industry that caters to visiting Chinese. Gov. Ralph Torres, a 36-year-old Republican who took the office in December when his predecessor died, said in a phone interview last week that he threw his support behind Donald Trump because the New Yorker promised to pay more attention to the islands.
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Mr. Trump was one of three Republican candidates to send a representative to the Northern Mariana Islands, which are about 1,600 miles east of the Philippines. The Ben Carson and Jeb Bush campaigns also sent aides to pitch their candidacies. Ted Cruz sent a representative to nearby Guam but a typhoon prevented him from making it to the Islands.
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http://www.wsj.com/articles/far-from-the-u-s-mainland-northern-mariana-islands-hold-gop-caucus-1457895334