Sunday night in Hagatna, the campaign of Vice Speaker Tony Ada and businessman E.J. Calvo officially launched their run for governor and lieutenant governor.  More than 1,000 supporters packed the team’s campaign headquarters for the kickoff rally, as the republican ticket laid out its message and priorities ahead of the August primary.

Ada told supporters their campaign slogan — “Put Guam First” — is more than a catchphrase, calling it a standard for how government should work.  “It means family comes before politics. safety comes before excuses. accountability comes before finger pointing. Results come before talk. put guam first means the government does the basics well. When accountability, transparency, and results," he said.

Calvo echoed that message, calling this year’s election one of the most consequential in Guam’s history — and stressing that leadership requires being present in the community.  he anounced, “You can’t do this job from behind the desk. You can’t solve what you can’t see. you can’t fix what you don’t understand. to deliver results, you have to be willing to get out in the community every single day and ask how can we do it better.”

The Ada–Calvo team is running under the Republican Party of Guam, as the race for adelup continues to take shape.