Republican Party of American Samoa
Republican Party of American Samoa is the affiliate of the U.S. Republican Party in American Samoa. It is based in the territorial capital of Pago Pago.[2]
The party was founded by Peter Tali Coleman.[3] Coleman was in 1956 the first Samoan to be appointed Governor. He became the first popularly elected Governor in 1977 and won re-election in 1980 and 1988. In 1988, he replaced Governor Fofō Iosefa Fiti Sunia, who had resigned after being convicted of defrauding the U.S. Government.[4]
Coleman's daughter, Aumua Amata Radewagen, is a current Congresswoman and also the party's National Committee Woman.[5] She received the unanimous endorsement from the party in 2018 in order to run for Congress. She is the first woman to represent American Samoa in the U.S. House of Representatives.[6][7] She is also the first Republican representative in Congress from American Samoa. In 2018, she won reelection with 83.3 percent of the vote,[8] the highest number of votes in American Samoa history.[9][10] She has represented the party in the Republican National Committee (RNC) since 1986.
In 2008, all delegates were won by John McCain. In the 2012 Republican primary, Mitt Romney won all nine delegates from American Samoa.[11] In the 2016 American Samoa Republican caucuses, Donald Trump won all nine delegates.[12][13]
History[edit]
In the 2014 elections, Radewagen was elected as American Samoa's Delegate to Congress.[15] After having served fourteen consecutive terms in Washington, DC, Democrat Eni Faleomavaega lost his reelection bid to Republican Aumua Amata during the 2014 American Samoan general election.[16] She won reelection in 2016 with 75.4%,[17] and won reelection with 83.3% of the votes in a three-way race in 2018.[8]
In 2015, the party criticized the Democratic National Committee (DNC) as Tulsi Gabbard did not get the opportunity to participate in televised debates. Gabbard, a Democrat, represents Hawai’i in the U.S. Congress but was born in American Samoa. The Republican Party of American Samoa also planned to invite Gabbard to their next Republican primary debate.[18]