in 1984, when he was elected as a senator to the 16th Legislature of the Virgin Islands. He won the most votes in the senate race on Saint Croix. Hodge's colleagues in the legislature elected him President of the Virgin Islands Legislature during his freshman term in office, from 1985 to 1986. In 1986, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Alexander Farrelly persuaded Hodge to leave the Senate and become his running mate for lieutenant governor in the election. Farrelly and Hodge defeated the Republican Julio Brady and won the election in November 1986. They were sworn in as governor and lieutenant governor of the U.S. Virgin Islands on January 5, 1987. Both were re-elected to a second term in 1990, defeating former Virgin Islands Governor Juan Francisco Luis. Lt. Governor Hodge and former delegate Ron de Lugo collaborated to obtain $20 million in federal funding for Henry E. Rohlsen Airport on Saint Croix. According to Governor John de Jongh, Hodge also worked to restore a good bond rating for the U.S. Virgin Islands government, which allowed $230 million in bonds to become available for the Virgin Islands' Capital Improvement Program. Hodge is also remembered for lobbying for federal emergency funds to rebuild after Hurricane Hugo struck Saint Croix in 1989, devastating the island's buildings and infrastructure. Governor Farrelly was term limited in 1994 and could not seek a consecutive third term. Lt. Governor Derek Hodge announced his candidacy for governor in 1994 with the full endorsement of the Democratic Party and chose Alfred O. Heath as his running mate for lieutenant governor. Hodge was defeated in a special gubernatorial runoff election held on November 22, 1994, by the independent ticket of Roy Schneider, and his running mate, Kenneth Mapp. Hodge left office on January 2, 1995, when Schneider and Mapp were sworn in as governor and lieutenant governor. Later life Hodge and his cousin, Kathleen Mackay, opened a private law firm after he left office in 1995. In 2002, Hodge delivered the eulogy for former Governor Alexander Farrelly in Washington D.C. Derek Michael Hodge died of cancer on May 31, 2011, at the age of 69. He was survived by his first wife, Jessica Margaret Austin Hodge, his second wife, Beatrice Emmy Nieves Hodge, and the last wife, Monique Sibilly-Hodge; two children, Marisol Cohen and Jonathan Hodge; his sister, Coleen Hodge; and three grandchildren, Olivia, Malachi and Hadassah. He was preceded in