The state of the Delaware 2024 race
It's time for the players to emerge.
After my unplanned hiatus, I’m back. Thanks for the input on next time.
There have probably been more than a few definitions of the “Delaware Way” over the years, but the meaning I attach to the term is that of politicians working their way up the ladder and then, in an effort to stay where the beggars and hangers-on still say your name, they cycle through the offices on the ballot. Once upon a time a Democrat and Republican literally traded jobs - one (Tom Carper, the Democrat) became governor and the other (Mike Castle, who was term limited in the governor’s office) took the Congressional chair that was kept warm for him. Carper stayed on the merry-go-round long enough to latch on to a waiting U.S. Senate seat that he’s finally retiring from after 24 years - more on that in a bit. Castle, on the other hand, wasn’t so fortunate, falling short in his bid to snag a vacant Senate seat in 2010. (That was the Christine O’Donnell TEA Party election, and how we got stuck with Chris Coons, who’s not up until 2026.)
(Just as an aside, I’m borrowing a feature I often use on The Knothole, that of placing player names in bold for emphasis. Since we’ve made politics into a blood sport, I thought why not?)
So because there are not one, not two, not three, but FOUR vacancies at the top of the statewide ticket this coming year, it promises to be a wild scramble among Democrats who are looking to move up the ladder. John Carney, the current governor who did his own version of the Delaware Way (LG, Congress, Governor, with just a two-year break after losing his first time for governor) is term-limited, so he’s out* and LG Bethany Hall-Long is itching to move up. (She looks like she has an itch, too.) Of course, that means the LG job will open up because you can’t have both seats, so, just as I was certain there will be a batch of Democrats pining for that seat, I was proved correct: from Democrat Party leadership came Debbie Harrington, from the State Senate came Kyle Evans Gay, and from the House came Sherry Dorsey Walker. (And from the cabal of unconnected perennial candidates emerged David Lamar Williams, Jr., who had the audacity to primary Carney in 2020.)
I mentioned Hall-Long a moment ago, as she tries to blaze the same trail her recent predecessor Ruth Ann Minner did and jump right from LG to G. But there is another wishing to give her the detour, that being New Castle County Executive Matt Meyer. They’ve sucked the air out of the field so far, but I imagine at least one other Democrat will try; to me it would most likely be a minority candidate.
On the federal side, the same open seat math is true because old Tom Carper finally decided to call it a career. But in this case, the Dems have managed to broom the field for curent Congresscritter LBR, so the interesting part comes from the House seat she’s vacating. It’s a contest that features a couple opponents now for the splashy entrant Tim Sarah McBride, including State Treasurer Colleen Davis, who is running from cover since her re-election isn’t until 2026. The minority part of the quotient is also covered by Eugene Young, who is the Director of the Delaware State Housing Authority.
In all this, I haven’t made a peep about a Republican aside from the passing reference to the 2010 Senate race. There are two things Republicans don’t have in Delaware: a deep bench and campaign money.
I’ve been covering Delaware races more or less regularly since 2016, and in almost every case the statewide election has been the steep learning curve of some Republican who didn’t hold electoral office at the time.
In 2016, the one exception to the rule was Colin Bonini for governor, but he was flanked by political neophytes La Mar Gunn for LG and Hans Reigle for Congress.
2018 brought the Senate campaign of Delaware’s Trump campaign director Rob Arlett, who at least had a little bit of an idea about statewide campaigning, but it also brought the embarassment of perennial candidate R. Scott Walker, who must have spun the wheel that year and it landed on running as a Republican for the House. The sad thing is that, in that primary, he beat the GOP aspirant for the 2020 and 2022 House elections, Lee Murphy. (At least Lee has statewide experience, but no victories to show for it.)
Add in candidates like 2020 GOP Senate nominee Lauren Witzke and gubernatorial hopeful Julianne Murray (who now chairs the state party, after running for Attorney General in 2022) and you get the picture. Great people in general, but no real experience in playing the game or cutting through the clutter to get a convincing conservative message out. (I know how that goes.)
And that brings me to the latest in that line, Bill Taylor, who’s running (presumably against LBR) for Senate. From what I’ve seen of him, Taylor appears to be solidly conservative, stating on his campaign site, “I proudly identify as a hardcore constitutionalist, firmly believing that the best government is one that governs the least.
Are you tired of out-of-touch politicians dictating your career, hobbies, and life choices? Join me in the movement for a better Delaware.”
I also read through a longer message from Taylor, one which I essentially agree with except for one quibble. Instead of writing about the Democrats by name, they really deserve to be called “the other side.” For example, read one of the sentences this way (with a little additional editing): “They are your children, not the teacher’s or the government’s, and the core lesson of indoctrination should not be taught. The other side believes they are the parents for everyone, but we believe you control your own destiny.”
The reason I bring this up is simple. We all know that the Democrats are guilty of all these things. Yet the Democrats are also something like 47% of the Delaware electorate, and while there is a number who will vote for the D even if he’s found in bed with a dead girl or a live boy, there are also those who can be convinced to vote for a Republican because they agree the party’s gone too far. But no one likes to be called stupid, and blaming all Democrats for these problems that are brought on by one segment of the party is counterproductive.
So my advice to Taylor - or any other Delaware Republicans - is to work on honing a message that can appeal across the aisle by pointing out how far the Left has gone, and - just as importantly - learn to smile and dial to get the funding to put the message out.
In the eyes of the two parties, I’m an independent voter since I belong to neither. (Yet I vote in May and November.) But the amount of enthusiasm I have for candidates depends on how much I think they believe in the concept of Constitutional, limited government. There’s not much of that to go around in Delaware but part of that is having a population that’s used to an overreaching government, and that’s what has to change.
* It looks like Carney can’t get enough: he’s “seriously considering” running for mayor in Wilmington as current mayor, 78-year-old Mike Purzycki, declined to run for a third term next year. I guess he’s looking to keep his reverse Midas touch going.