Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis opened the new Arthur’s Town airport terminal building on Cat Island on May 1, eight days before Bahamians vote in the May 12 general election. Davis, who is also Member of Parliament for Cat Island, Rum Cay and San Salvador, framed the project as a long-term investment in Family Island prosperity. Makers Air will begin direct flights from Florida to Arthur’s Town on May 12, the same day as the election.
Deputy Prime Minister Chester Cooper, who holds the tourism, investments and aviation portfolio, described the project as part of the country’s “most aggressive and historic airport development drive.” Works and Family Island Affairs Minister Clay Sweeting said the project represents a shift in how Family Island infrastructure is delivered, framing it as building infrastructure that “works for” residents rather than around them.
The campaign’s closing days have been complicated by federal disclosures showing the Davis government has retained two American conservative operatives as foreign agents. Coreco “CJ” Pearson, a MAGA-aligned influencer, is set to collect US$20,000 per month under a Foreign Agents Registration Act filing; Roger Stone, a longtime Donald Trump ally, has filed paperwork showing a six-figure monthly retainer. Both engagements are described as work to “build stronger relations” between Nassau and Washington. The lobbying push has drawn opposition criticism centred on transparency, sovereignty, and a separate dispute over Chinese financing for an estimated US$285 million hospital project in Nassau. United States Ambassador Herschel Walker has publicly questioned the decision to advance the hospital financing under Chinese law.
The mid-year fiscal picture remains mixed. Davis’s mid-year budget statement reported real GDP growth of 3.4 percent in 2024 and IMF projections of 2.8 percent for 2025 and 2.2 percent for 2026 as stayover tourism stagnates relative to cruise. Unemployment is projected to ease slightly to 9.1 percent in 2026. Inflation through May 2025 ran at a contained 0.4 percent year-on-year, with gasoline and diesel prices down 7.3 and 7.8 percent respectively.
US officials have said they plan to send observers to the May 12 vote. The Bahamas heads to the polls on Tuesday, May 12.
What it means: An incumbent prime minister opening a new Family Island airport in his own constituency eight days before a general election he called early is exactly the campaign signal the timing was designed to send. The lobbying disclosures complicate the picture by raising sovereignty questions in the closing stretch.