By The Star Staff
New Progressive Party Vice President Jenniffer González Colón announced on Wednesday that she will seek to be the party’s candidate for governor of Puerto Rico in 2024.
“In the face of these challenges and listening to your continued calls, I have made the decision to step forward and assume the responsibility of earning your trust and support to, with the favor of God, become the next governor of Puerto Rico,” González Colón said in her message.
The announcement sets up a primary race between the resident commissioner and the incumbent governor, Pedro Pierluisi Urrutia.
“I want to work for you,” González Colón said in her message. “Always speaking to you with the truth about what we have and where we are going. I will work tirelessly for you and your family. For that dream that we all long for. Now more than ever that my family will be bigger, I aspire to leave them and you a better Puerto Rico than we have. I promise that I will do it. We are going to do it. With you we will do it.”
During the message, González Colón criticized the island reconstruction process, the electrical system and the performance of LUMA Energy, as well as the permitting process.
“As resident commissioner I have sought the largest amount of federal funds in the history of Puerto Rico and no one can debate that; those are the facts,” she said. “Today there is a real possibility that much of those funds could be lost because they have not even been spent. The government today enjoys great economic prosperity and yet that effect has not been reflected in your pocket, which seems to get smaller and smaller every day.”
Earlier on Wednesday, Pierluisi said he will prevail in a primary against González Colón, and he will aim to win it resoundingly.
“So I have no doubt that I will prevail not only in a primary, but also in the general election,” the governor said in response to questions from the press. “As for a primary, if it materializes, what I want is to win it decisively, because that helps me, it propels me to the election.”