Galvin Sablan Deleon Guerrero
Independent Candidate for CNMI Delegate to US Congress
June 19, 2025
Good Evening, Buenas Noches, Olomwaay, and Mabuhay.
Thank you all very much for being here. Seeing all of you–family, friends, loved ones–means so much to me, Velma, and our kids. Thank you for your time, your blessing, and your belief in me and in something greater than us—something worth fighting for.
You see, 50 years ago on June 17, 1975, I had just turned two years old. Yes, I was born in the 1900s and now I’m 52.
But something else happened on that day–something extraordinary. Just over 5,000 people from 14 small islands in the Western Pacific made a bold choice.
After centuries of colonization and the devastation of war, our people voted to become a Commonwealth in political union with the United States of America.
Think about that. 14 tiny islands—8,000 miles away from Washington, DC—negotiated with the most powerful nation on Earth and forged a Covenant built on the promise of local self-government and economic prosperity.
That moment didn’t just change our political status—it became a part of the great American story: of a people united by faith and their God-given right to improve their lives, secure their liberties, and pursue happiness through hard work.
When I think about what happened 50 years ago, I think about the leaders who fought to launch a future they might never see, to create opportunities for generations to come, and to instill hope among a people who had suffered so much.
Our ancestors who braved vast distances and turbulent waters in their mighty proas.
My great-grandfather, Gregorio “Kilili” San Nicolas Sablan, the first mayor of Saipan, who survived house arrest during the war, searched for survivors in caves up north after the war, and then helped rebuild our island after liberation from Camp Susupe.
And the visionaries of the Marianas Political Status Commission—Edward Pangelinan, Vicente Santos, Benjamin Manglona, Bernard Hofschneider, Dr. Francisco Palacios, Manny Sablan, Pete A. Tenorio, to name just a few—who negotiated our Covenant with clarity, courage, and conviction, believing that the people of the Marianas deserved the right to shape their own destiny.
They fought to lay the foundation for everything we have today.
They didn’t fight for fame. They didn’t fight for comfort. They fought for us.
And today, 50 years after that pivotal plebiscite vote, that fighting spirit of sacrifice and determination must guide us again. Because while the challenges look different, the stakes are just as high.
We face a struggling economy, shrinking federal support, and labor shortages. Our utility rates are unbearable. Medicaid, food assistance, and student aid are all under threat. The climate crisis is damaging our farms, our shorelines, our waters–our very way of life. And the military build-up continues to expand across our islands, without benefiting all our islands.
Despite all of this, across our Commonwealth, good, hard working people are still fighting—fighting to put food on the table, pay for their CUC bill, afford healthcare, earn a livable income, and make the most out of so much less for their families.
And so, after deep reflection, conversations with family and friends, and prayers for guidance, it is with great humility that I announce my candidacy to serve as the next CNMI Delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives.
We need a Delegate who listens, not lectures.
Who brings people together, instead of tearing them apart.
Who speaks up for us, rather than talk down to us.
We need a Delegate who fights for us, not against us.
That’s why I stand here today—to take a stand and take up the fight.
To fight for working families. To fight for fairness across all our islands. To fight for our educational institutions that are under attack. To fight for small businesses, our veterans, our youth, our environment, and our future.
Because when I say I’m “Fighting for Us,” it’s not a slogan. It’s a promise. It’s a commitment to the people of the CNMI—and to the generations who are still counting on us to rise to this moment, just as our people did fifty years ago.
Now, when I say “fighting for us,” I’m not saying I’m gonna argue with everyone, step into the octagon, or throw down in the Joeten parking lot.
For me, “fighting for us” means standing up—day in and day out—for the people and the places we love. It means showing up when it’s hard. It means not only having the courage to speak truth to power, but also the humility to listen deeply to all our people and work with them.
Most importantly, fighting for us means advocating for our students, our workers, our public servants, our veterans, our law enforcement, our families, our man’amko, our manhoben–for all of us.
Today, I stand before you as someone ready to fight and who has always been willing to listen, to learn, and to lead.
Before I go any further, though, I must admit that the thought of leaving Northern Marianas College pains me, just as it pained me to leave Mount Carmel School. And, if I’m being honest, I still miss the Home of the Knights. Likewise, if given the humbling privilege of representing our people in Washington DC, believe me: I will miss the Home of the Proas.
But if it’s one thing I have learned as NMC president, it is that decisions made in Washington have an undeniable impact on the College, the Commonwealth, and all of us. And lately, those decisions have caused far too much uncertainty and suffering.
We deserve better than that.
That is why I’m running, because I believe the CNMI deserves more than just a seat in Congress.
We deserve a voice that won’t back down. We deserve a fighter—fighting for us.
We deserve a fighter like Congressman Kilili who, for 16 years, fought for us in the halls of Congress and secured legislative wins by collaborating with both sides of the aisle. He did that by working hard even when the odds were stacked against us. He introduced and successfully passed signature legislation for the CNMI in a Republican Congress with a Republican President to protect our workforce and our business community, even when others said it was impossible. And, alongside Democrats, he fought to increase food assistance and Medicaid benefits for families that need it the most. He taught me how to fight effectively, and I intend to fight just as effectively as he did for our people in Congress.
We deserve a fighter like my dad, Vicente “Ben Rai” Cabrera Deleon Guerrero. He was a scrappy, little fighter, who served in the US Army for two years before returning home to serve as a Representative in the Third Commonwealth Legislature, and then as the first Special Assistant for Veterans Affairs where he completed the Veterans’ Memorial Park in Kilili Beach. A veteran himself, he fought for veterans—working with the VA to ensure that our veterans get the care they need. He taught me how to fight with tenacity, and I intend to fight with as much tenacity as my dad had for our veterans and our people.
We deserve a fighter like my mom, Jessica “Kilili” Sablan Deleon Guerrero. She has fought her whole life by working hard her whole life: at a travel agency, PSS, the CNMI Department of Labor, at American Memorial Park. Now, in her retirement, she still works, as a full-time grandma and as a volunteer at Kristo Rai. In all of this, she has been tough as nails, especially after my dad passed away. Even then, as a widowed, single mother, she continued to work for me, my brother Norman, and my sister Jen in a house she paid for all by herself. She taught me how to fight by working hard, and I plan on fighting and working hard in Congress, just like my mom.
And we deserve a fighter like my wife, Velma. When I met her, she too was a widowed, single mother, who worked full time, went to college full time, and raised our daughter full time. Through the years, no matter what hits her–health issues, horrible bosses, tragic losses–she hits back harder, because she fights tooth and nail for me and our kids. She has taught me how to fight for family, and I plan on fighting in Congress for our Commonwealth family, just as my wife fights for me, Victoria, William, and Mary Shelley.
“Fighting for us” means carrying the legacy of those who came before—those who sacrificed, who built, who dreamed—and ensuring their fight was not in vain. It means building a Marianas where opportunity is not just a promise, but an expectation. Where our young people don’t have to leave to succeed, but can stay home and build their lives right here with their families.
So tonight, as we reflect on the 50 years since our people made that bold choice to join the United States, I ask everyone here and around the Marianas to imagine what we can accomplish in the next 50—if we work together, believe together, and fight together. Because the future of the Marianas deserves nothing less than our very best in Washington.
That is why I humbly ask you to choose me to be your Delegate, because I pledge to give nothing but my best, always fighting for us.
Thank you. May God bless all of you, may God bless the United States of America, and may God bless the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.