Congressional candidate Vaitinasa Salu Hunkin-Finau says she was “very surprised with the outcome” of the race, which incumbent Congresswoman Aumua Amata won in a “landslide” victory.

Aumua received an overwhelming number of votes at 8,923 or 75.4% of the total 11,834 ballots counted for the Congressional race, according to unofficial results released Tuesday night by the Election Office.

During a news conference she called last Wednesday afternoon, Vaitinasa used the opportunity to “delivery my congratulatory remarks to the incumbent for a well orchestrated campaign, for knowing the strategies that would get and convince and influence the thoughts of the members of the community” to vote for Aumua.

“And I wish her well,” Vaitinasa said adding the Republican Party has again taken control of the new Congress come next January as well as a new GOP president-elect Donald Trump.  “So, this should open the door, many doors, for [Aumua] to get assistance [for American Samoa].”

She said Republicans do not believe in entitlements for the working class. She said Republicans believe in “you have to work for it.” However, she said American Samoa is “one of the poorest, if not the poorest territory of the United States in terms of income compared to the rest of the US.”

As to the outcome of the Congressional race coming in on Election Day, Vaitinasa said “I think our entire committee was surprised, very surprised at the outcome. At the very beginning when the absentee vote came in that took a remarkable climb, I think, it was there that I looked at it, and thought calmly to myself ‘that was going to be a challenge to try and to climb up to where the absentee vote came in’.”

As previously reported by Samoa News Aumua had a big lead in the absentee ballots with 1,077 and the also won at all five polling stations in the Manu’a islands - and these are the first results to come in.

Vaitinasa told reporters that as the results continued to come in, the incumbent continued to lead in each village and each district and even lead by three, four or five times, than what was expected.

“So I think half-way, with this absentee vote, I noticed it was a landslide. But we kept just for our information, where the people [voted] and especially the villages, looking at the villages where I walked,” she said. “I personally took time to go out to the villages, and each of the villages that I walked, [Aumua] still took the lead, even in my own village, and the village of my ancestors of my genealogical connection, she led across. So it was a very surprising result, in terms of her taking the lead.”

After the election results were out, Vaitinasa said her committee sat down and analyzed the tally as “where, in term of campaign strategy did we fault? Where did we not do so well? Was it the ads that we didn’t do enough; did we not hit key villages and districts; just where did we fall short in terms of doing our work as campaign — maybe we started too late, maybe we were competing against a pot of resources that there is no way we can match, in terms of financial support?”

“So all of those factors we looked at. We really didn’t look at comparing the incumbent and myself — we didn’t discuss that,” she explained. “We discussed in terms of our method and campaigning strategy that we might have fallen short. We also discussed our finances.”

“But I can say this, with much confidence, as small as our committee was, we had an excellent committee and we did our very best. But you don’t know the results until it’s over,” she said and recalled walking the villages, knocking on doors, starting from the East heading towards the West.

She said of the villages where she walked, the “reception was very positive, but I did not sit there figuring ‘oh I got it in the [bag]’. As I met with the people, they were very cordial. I don’t think I met anybody as I walked in the village where anybody said to me ‘well, forget it… I’m not voting for you’. Each and every person I shook hands with and had a face-to-face discussion or short chat, was very positive.”

“Our culture, it’s very hard when it comes to fa’aaloalo — respect — making it difficult for someone to say outright — ‘I’m sorry, but our family is voting for someone else’ — she said and noted that the culture is very strong when it comes to showing respect and people responded by saying “thank you for visiting and the family will discuss it. And let God be first.”

She also shared that a handful of people in the villages would tell her, “You’re the first to walk here, no one has walked here. So that was very interesting to me.”

However, she said she continued to keep in mind that, “You won’t know until the end” and “don’t sit there and think you got it all.”

“I didn’t have an expectation that we are going to take this on a landslide” and although the feedback was good, voters chose otherwise, she said and noted this is the second time she has ran for public office, the first was in 2012 as candidate for governor.

Asked if there are any areas of weakness during the campaign that her committee and she herself could have improved on, Vaitinasa first shared that political experts who have done research have found an “incumbent has an advantage no matter what... he/she has an upper hand” over the challengers.

Secondly, she said that Samoans show “alofagia”, or “sympathy”, for someone who tries. For example, the incumbent had tried 10 terms or 20 years while former Congressman Faleomavaega Eni was in office all these years.

“She [Aumua] has tried every election to unseat him” and was able to do so in 2014 election because Faleomavaega was ill, Vaitinasa said and noted Aumua is “alofagia” by the public. She added that she describes “alofagia as sympathy.”

According to the former DOE director, Aumua has completed the first term in office, and she “capitalized” on “sympathy” from the public to give her another chance.

“So we were battling the fact that she is incumbent and that she tried, and tried,” Vaitinasa says, adding, “that is my analysis, but I’m not a politician, I’m an educator.”

Additionally, it’s important to have designated and dedicated committee members — even if its just four or five — in every village. “We didn’t have committees in every village. We had committee members in most of the villages. We have supporters from every village. That’s one area we fell short,” she said.

She said the Congressional race took second seat to the gubernatorial race with many people focusing on electing the governor and lieutenant governor, with gubernatorial committees taking a lot of people.

Responding to questions from the media, Vaitinasa said, “I have not seen any clear platforms from the incumbent.  And our committee worked very hard to put together our education platform, health care platform, economy and infrastructure plan.”

She said these are the issues — as part of her platform — that she got from local leaders, in which American Samoa needed assistance from the Delegate to Congress.

“I met with the health people to hear their concerns and the needs from [Washington]. I met of course with the education people and also people dealing with economy and infrastructure,” she said. “I met with the leaders, I listened to what they were telling [me].”

“So we shared with the public these issues that need to be addressed. I did not see that from the incumbent as to what she is prepared to bring to American Samoa in areas of education, health and local economy,” she said and noted, “I’m not trying to be negative but this is reality, now we’re talking ‘post-election’.”

Vaitinasa said the people have spoken through their vote and “hopefully… we work together with the governor and the Congresswoman and offer what I can do to help the government” especially ASDOE who’s budget is 80% funded by the federal government.

She is also hopeful the incumbent will speak out for American Samoa if there are any plans to cut funding for ASDOE. “Every major program at DOE is grant funded,” she said.

With the election over, Vaitinasa says she will be working on her book and cutting her CD — she declined to reveal any details of her book and CD.

Asked if she would take a government post, Vaitinasa responded, “If offered and it’s something that I think I could improve, I would accept it, in any way I can help.”