PAGO PAGO, American Samoa — The American Samoa Republican Party announced Saturday that all nine of the delegates it will send to the GOP national convention support John McCain.
The delegates from the U.S. territory, about 2,300 miles south of Hawaii, helped McCain move closer to clinching the GOP nomination for president, giving him a total of 976 delegates. It will take 1,191 delegates to secure the Republican nomination.
Earlier Saturday, the nine delegates from the U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands said they will be voting for McCain. The GOP on Guam is set to make its selection March 8. Although they are helping to nominate presidential candidates, residents of U.S. Pacific island territories do not vote in the general election for president.
Ana Teregeyo, vice chairwoman of the Marianas GOP, said that with McCain as president, “I feel that we will have a better chance of being heard in Washington, D.C.”
The Associated Press
