Since the announcement of Preston Stoutt's candidacy in the British Virgin Islands, I've shared a few of his updates on my Facebook profile and subsequently received a number of emails asking me "how did you get involved with his campaign", "who the heck is he" and "what in the world is politics like in the BVI"? Well I chalk up the first question to one of my life's many Forrest Gump moments.

Following the elections of 2006, my then girlfriend (Andrea) and I took off to vacation on the island of Tortola, the main island of the BVI. We had found a house to rent online and didn't know anything about the place or anyone from there. We just blindly went to decompress from a crazy and successful election cycle. We fell in love with everything immediately. As a result, we decided on the very first day that we were there that we wanted to get married . . . that week.

Not really having a clear understanding of how to do pull this off in the BVI, I called the owner of the house and asked for assistance and if we could get married at the house. Preston was overjoyed and said he would pick us up Monday morning and take us to the appropriate government offices in order to get the paperwork filed.

Monday morning came and as we were in the car heading into Road Town, Preston asked us what kind of work we did in the U.S.  When I replied "political campaigns" he turned and gave me one of the most understated comments that I will never forget. He said: "Oh...I know politics."

At first I didn't know what to expect being that "politics" can be such a loaded conversation starter. Well as it turns out, Preston really did know politics . . .good politics too. His father, H. Lavity Stoutt had been the first and longest serving Chief Minister (now called Premier) of the BVI parliament. So yeah, he certainly knew politics.

Well from that moment on we built a familial relationship with Preston and continued to talk politics over the years. Then, in 2010 we began to discuss more seriously the idea of Preston running for office himself and laying out a vision to change how things work in the BVI. The more I heard him talk and witnessed his passion to get the BVI back on track, the more I knew his campaign was going to shake up the mold for how elections and government had been done within this small Caribbean territory.

For starters, he was the first candidate in the BVI to utilize online communication tools such as Twitter (@stouttforbvi ), Facebook and YouTube to launch his campaign.

As for Preston's policy ideas, I could go on and on about his progressive agenda but that would just make for a long-winded diary. I have provided a link to his site above, but you can also click the link below and check him out on your own time.

http://www.stouttforbvi.com/

I realize that most folks reading this will be in the U.S. but if you have some time and want to learn something new today about a place you may or may not have ever visited, please do visit his web site and follow his campaign. Andrea and I have visited there often and have not only grown in our love for the BVI, but in our appreciation for its people and their potential.

Hopefully now you will get a better sense for Preston as an emerging leader of a place that is very special to me.

Daren