Ackley to Resign as V.I. GOP Chairman to Help Care for Father

Virgin Islands Republican Chairman Gordon Ackley will resign effective the election and qualification of a successor at a special meeting of the party’s State Committee on May 3, according to a news release from the party’s executive director, Dennis Lennox, on Monday.

Ackley announced his resignation to party faithful in an email Friday, citing the need to leave the territory to care for his father.

The special meeting to elect a new chairman is scheduled for noon on May 3 at The Westin, Frenchman’s Reef on St. Thomas. Any interested Republican who meets eligibility requirements under party rules is eligible to be nominated and elected by the State Committee, the release stated, before going on to deliver a statement from Ackley, who touted the “unprecedented attention” the territory received from GOP presidential candidates this year, among other achievements.

“I have spent the last eight years fighting the good fight to rebuild the Republican Party and create the alternative political party that our fellow Virgin Islanders deserve,” said Ackley, who often pressed the candidates or their surrogates who stumped in the territory on their dedication to appointing conservative justices to federal judgeships.