President Bill Clinton To Campaign For Hillary Clinton In U.S. Virgin Islands

ST. CROIX — Former President Bill Clinton will campaign for his wife on this island on May 16, according to a press release the Hillary Clinton Campaign issued to The Consortium late Tuesday.

According to the release, Mr. Clinton will attend a public event in St. Croix where he will discuss why his wife, the Democratic front-runner, is the best candidate to “break down all the barriers holding families back.” The event’s location has not been announced.

Mr. Clinton has been an ardent supporter of his wife and her chief surrogate on the campaign trail, traveling the country speaking on her behalf as she seeks to defeat Bernie Sanders in the primary battle, and Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, in the general election.

The former president could expect a receptive audience in the Virgin Islands, a territory that is overwhelming Democratic. The party has maintained a stronghold in the Senate and, until recently, in Government House (Governor Kenneth Mapp won Government House as an independent).

But Mr. Clinton should also expect Virgin Islanders to voice their concerns on many issues, including the status of native residents, who are U.S. citizens, but are unable to vote for the president of the United States. And he may also face questions relative to the Affordable Care Act, often called Obamacare, and why Virgin Islanders have been cut out of the most beneficial portions of the program.

And while Mrs. Clinton will more than likely win the Democratic nomination with her almost insurmountable delegate lead, she continues to struggle in putting away Mr. Sanders, who only on Tuesday won West Virginia, a state that Mrs. Clinton handily defeated Obama in 2008.

The West Virginia loss follows misguided comments that Mrs. Clinton made regarding the state’s coal industry: “We’re gonna put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business.” But the coal mining industry in West Virginia employs thousands, and the state has already suffered high unemployment with the decline of the industry. Mrs. Clinton apologized for the gaffe, but the damage was done.

The release concluded by stating that additional information about the U.S.V.I. trip will be released soon.