Guam Flips Its Governor Red While the Mainland Is Still Voting, Ending Eight Years of Democrat Rule

Some of the first American votes counted in the 2026 midterms came from the far side of the Pacific, and they came in red at the top. Republican Vice Speaker Tony Ada and running mate EJ Calvo won Guam’s governorship with all 59 precincts reporting, flipping an office Democrats have held for eight years.

Guam sits 15 hours ahead of Washington, so the island finished counting while most of the mainland was still standing in line Tuesday morning. Final unofficial numbers from the Guam Election Commission, as posted by the Pacific Daily News, had Ada-Calvo at 15,945 votes, or 51.45%, to 14,925 for Democrats Therese Terlaje and Sabina Perez, at 48.15%. That is a 1,020-vote win.

Terlaje, a former speaker of the Legislature, told supporters she had called Ada to concede. At the Ada camp, Calvo popped champagne.

Down 80, then up 1,020

This was not a blowout that was obvious from the first batch. Just before midnight local time, with 21 of 59 precincts in, the Democrats led by 80 votes. By 1 a.m., with 38 precincts counted, Ada had pulled ahead by 497. When the last precinct came in about half an hour later, the lead had doubled.

That is how a count is supposed to look. Precincts reported, the numbers moved, the trailing side conceded the same night. No week of mystery ballots, no scanners that quit at breakfast.

Trump: ‘Hopefully that’s an indication’

President Trump jumped on the result on Truth Social: “Guam, which has always been considered strongly Democrat, just had an early call for a REPUBLICAN Victory in the top spot, Governor — Congratulations to Tony Ada! Also, the Republicans have the Majority in the State Senate. Wow, hopefully that’s an indication for things to come!”

He is right about the Legislature. Guam has a single 15-member body its members call senators, and Republicans took eight of the top 15 spots, a one-seat majority. Democrats had led that count earlier in the night before it reversed.

Who Tony Ada is

Ada is no overnight sensation. He is the sitting vice speaker of the Legislature and was the Republican pick for lieutenant governor in both 2018 and 2022, when Democrat Lou Leon Guerrero beat the GOP ticket twice. This year he beat Speaker Frank Blas Jr. in the Aug. 1 primary, then took the office Leon Guerrero is term-limited out of.

He will be the first Republican elected governor of Guam since Eddie Calvo won a second term in 2014. Leon Guerrero, a former bank CEO, became the first Democrat elected to the job in 20 years when she won in 2018.

In his victory speech he kept it simple: “First and foremost, we’d like to thank God. And without Him, all this would not be possible.” Then the line that will matter when the cameras leave: “We have a long road ahead of us. But when we all come together, we unify together, it makes the job that much easier.”

The part Democrats will talk about

Guam split its ticket, and honesty requires saying so. Democrat Alicia Limtiaco beat Republican Del. James Moylan for the island’s seat in Congress, 15,645 votes to 14,983, or 51% to 48.84%. The delegate can sit on committees and speak on the floor but cannot vote on final passage of bills, and Guam has no senators.

In the attorney general race, Phillip Tydingco unseated incumbent Attorney General Douglas Moylan, according to the Pacific Daily News count.

So read it for what it is. Guam voters handed Republicans the governor’s office and the Legislature, and gave Democrats a non-voting House seat. That is a better night for the GOP than the island has had in a decade, not a sweep.

Why a small island matters

Guam is one of America’s most important military outposts in the Pacific, home to Andersen Air Force Base and Naval Base Guam. The new governor will deal with Washington on everything from the military buildup to tourism and the cost of living, so who sits in the governor’s office at Adelup matters well beyond the island.

It is also the island Democratic Rep. Hank Johnson of Georgia famously worried about at a March 25, 2010, House Armed Services Committee hearing on the military buildup there: “My fear is that the whole island will become so overly populated that it will tip over and capsize.” Sixteen years later, Guam didn’t capsize. It flipped.

What happens next

These are unofficial results. The Guam Election Commission meets Nov. 19 to count off-island ballots, and the results are not final until certification. With a 1,020-vote margin and a same-night concession, nobody on either side is suggesting the governor’s race will change.

For the rest of the country, the polls are still open. Guam just gave Republicans the first win of the night.