Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan took the oath of office for the 118th Congress in January 2023, beginning his eighth term in the U.S. Congress as the representative of the CNMI people.
“THE time has come to pass this responsibility to a new representative,” U.S. Congressman Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan said on Thursday.
The CNMI’s first delegate to the U.S. Congress, Kilili, 68, said he will not seek a ninth term in November.
In an open letter to the public, Kilili said: “Thanks to you, the people of the Northern Mariana Islands, I have had the extraordinary opportunity and most humbling responsibility over almost 16 years to be your voice and to represent your interests in the U.S. Congress.”
“My love for the Marianas remains strong. But the time has come to pass this responsibility to a new representative the people will elect this November,” Kilili added.
He said he made the decision after “deep personal examination and consultation” with his wife Andrea, their loved ones and supporters.
“And it is not because I have accomplished everything I wanted for the people of our islands. The work is far from done,” he said.
“But I will leave Congress believing I have been able to establish the Northern Mariana Islands as a respected member of the American political family,” Kilili said.
“When as a young man I stood in the U.S. Capitol in 1986 and promised myself, if the Marianas ever had a place in the institution, I would strive to be elected. I never imagined I would be our first representative or be able to serve so long. The people of the Marianas gave me this singular honor. I believe I have served you well. And I will be forever grateful,” he added.
A former CNMI House member and election commission executive director, Kilili was elected delegate in 2008 as an independent candidate. He was re-elected in 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018, 2020 and 2022, and ran unopposed in 2016, 2020 and 2022. Since 2009, he has been caucusing with the U.S. Democrats, but it was only in 2022 that he ran as a Democrat.
Variety earlier reported that House Floor Leader Edwin Propst of Precinct 1, Saipan freelance business consultant and grants writer John Oliver Bolis Gonzales and former Commonwealth Ports Authority Board Chair Kimberlyn King-Hinds of Tinian may run for delegate.
