The state of the Delaware 2024 race: Governor

Back in September, I said it was time for the players to emerge. Since then, a few have and my third in-depth look is at the race for Governor.

While most of these fine folks were interested in the 2020 Presidential race, they also voted for Delaware’s Governor.

In previous editions, I talked about the Senate race…

and the House race.

In this case, though, all the action may be in the Democrat primary. At this point the Democrats have three aspirants I’m aware of, including one who made it official last week. I’ll handle them in alphabetical order, which means I start with the lieutenant governor who’s trying to be the first to step right into a promotion since Ruth Ann Minner back in 2000.

Bethany Hall-Long defers to her experience when talking about issues, threading her stances into other descriptive text. One example is right on her front page, “As Governor, Bethany will continue her tireless fight to build an economy that works for everyone, ensure every Delaware child has the opportunity to succeed, and protect the rights of everyone in the First State.” (Well, I’m guessing gun rights don’t count, nor does the right to life or liberty.)

Later, on her “Meet Bethany” page, she notes, “And for the last six years, Bethany has served boldly as the 26th Lieutenant Governor of Delaware, championing investments in public education, paid family leave, affordable health care, and small businesses…As Governor, Bethany will fight tirelessly to make Delaware the best place to live, work and raise a family, from expanding access to health care, to fighting for early childhood education, to growing an economy that works for everyone.

It’s nice and purposely vague platitudes, but without much of a record to back them up. It turns out her last partial term in the State Senate coincided with the beginning of my Delaware Accountability Project, where she scored just 16% correct on her votes. (Admittedly, that would be centrist for a Democrat in the latter-day General Assembly.)

Another experienced player in the race is the current New Castle County executive, Matt Meyer. While he’s wrapping up a second term in the job, the interesting thing for me is that he has more about so-called “accomplishments” and not much about ideas. In his “Meet Matt” section, he notes that, “As County Executive, Matt has a successful track record of tackling housing insecurity, fighting climate change, protecting public health, improving public safety, promoting diversity & inclusion, and creating better futures for kids.”

But as “accomplishments,” all we get is a “greener” New Castle County, Safer Communities, and Smarter Government.

Not sure just how that would translate to the state level, but I suppose it’s possible to extrapolate because New Castle County has over half of Delaware’s population. Yet I’m not sure how there could be a better future for kids under a government that’s “smarter” but not more limited to its essential tasks.

And then you have an outsider of sorts in Collin O’Mara, who made it official last week. While Collin was in state government for a few years under former governor Jack Markell (he ran DNREC from 2009-14), most recently he was the CEO of the National Wildlife Federation.

I will say that Collin has his priorities, which are (in order) Fix our Public Schools, Build an Inclusive 21st Century Economy, Support Working Families and Older Delawareans, Lead on Climate and Environmental Justice, and Protect Fundamental Rights through Constitutional Amendments.

But his bromides are the same old liberalism that’s been tried and failed to move the needle.

• For schools, it’s universal pre-K and two squares a day to go along with “wrap-around services.” (Parents, anyone?) Oh, and of course, more teacher pay.

• For the economy, it’s infrastructure we don’t need (like “multi-modal transportation” and “clean energy”) performed by union labor (naturally) by using our federal deficit spending to help “black and brown communities.” Pander much?

• Supporting Working Families and Older Delawareans = spending more money on targeted areas. Of course, that money will come from working families and older Delawareans (along with the rest of us) but he doesn’t tell you that.

• His climate goals are 100% clean energy and achieving net-zero, which will be easier to do with the rolling blackouts we’ll have to endure with the intermittent power of wind and solar. Dude, get real. Then again, by conserving more open space no one will be able to afford housing here anyway.

The part about Constitutional Amendments is most interesting because it’s easy to achieve if he has a supermajority in the General Assembly. This is a direct quote from his site as to the amendments he wants:

• Prohibit discrimination based upon sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability.

• Eliminate cash bail to decriminalize poverty and ensure that mental health and substance abuse challenges are addressed through treatment, not incarceration.

• Enshrine voting rights, including early voting, mail-in voting, same-day registration, and permanent no-excuse absentee voting.

• Adopt a Green Amendment to codify every Delawarean's right to clean water, healthy air, and safe soils.

• Ensure that all Delawareans and visitors have the right to access comprehensive healthcare services without fear of criminalization or invasion of privacy.

The results he will get if all those pass will be more reinforcement of the social contagion that is LGBTQ+WXYZ, more petty crime making business operations difficult, perpetual Democrat power as votes are granted to non-citizens and anyone else bold enough to send in a handful of votes, the demise of agriculture in the state from the Green Amendment, and abortion tourism from those truly progressive states which protect the rights of our most vulnerable population.

If you want all that for Delaware, vote for Collin. However, you’ll get pastel versions of that from the other Democrats as well - they’re just less open about it.

So, if you’re wondering if there are any Republicans in the race, there is. Jerry Price was a former NYPD officer who retired to Delaware, only to come out of retirement to take a position with the Rehoboth Beach police. Now he’s running as the sole Republican so far - however, if history is any guide, we will have more by the time I revisit this when the filing deadline passes.

His priorities include Insurance Reform, Nursing Home Financial Fairness, Drug Crimes and Rehabilitation, Strengthening Law Enforcement, Education and Career Readiness, and Social Issues. (The latter stating, “I stand for traditional values. I firmly believe in recognizing only two genders and maintaining the integrity of women’s sports. I am committed to keeping small businesses open and resisting the push towards an exclusive reliance on electric cars.”)

To be perfectly honest, I didn’t know about these priorities until I finally saw his website when I wrote this. He’s been in the race since he announced in June of 2022 (!), but presumably didn’t have the financial backing to build a website and introduce himself until last month. Again, that’s a feature of Delaware Republican politics as candidates have to endure a learning curve over and over again.

Perhaps the best hope for this state is that the three Democrat contenders take turns beating each others’ brains in politically, allowing the Republican to emerge in triumph. But the electorate in this state protects its own, so for the rest of us who really make the state work, it will be BOHICA.

I think I’ll begin looking at the other state officers once the filing deadline has passed, since we rarely have many contenders for them except maybe LG. We don’t have a primary until September so no rush.

In the meantime, you can Buy Me a Coffee, since I have a page there now.