We finally have an announced candidate for Governor in 2024. New Castle County Executive Matt Meyer announced this morning that he is running, saying the state needs to move with greater urgency to tackle the problems it faces and create a stronger future for its residents. It had long been assumed that Mr. Meyer had plans for higher office, what with his website being titled “Meyer for Delaware” much of the past two years.
Here is his announcement video:
Here is his announcement statement:
[F]ormer public school teacher Matt Meyer today announced his run for governor of the State of Delaware.
“As too many families struggle with the rising costs of housing and health care, we should be a state where every kid gets a great education, every family has a safe and affordable place to call home, and every woman makes decisions about her own body.”
Meyer had been a public school teacher in Wilmington until he stepped up six years ago to successfully challenge a three term incumbent county executive. Meyer said his students challenged him with the words in his own lesson to them – “Don’t wait for someone else to step up to make change happen. Be that person that makes it happen now.”
Considered a long shot at the time, Meyer defeated the incumbent in the Democratic primary and won by a large margin in both his first general election and his reelection in 2020. He is the first county executive in Delaware to be reelected since Senator Chris Coons was reelected as county executive in 2008.
As county executive, Meyer balanced budgets while making bold investments to improve opportunity now and strengthen Delaware’s future.
Meyer created nationally recognized programs that taught children to code, eliminated vacant properties, provided emergency housing, monitored sewage for COVID-19 and other dangerous pathogens and supported teachers to innovate in Delaware’s classrooms, a program that has been replicated in over 50,000 classrooms in five states.
He recently finalized a budget that includes a property tax reduction for all New Castle County homeowners, a first in over 50 years.
Meyer grew up in New Castle County, leaving for college and law school. He served as a diplomat in Iraq – embedded with the US Army in Mosul for 12 months, created a community-based enterprise in Africa (he is fluent in Swahili), and started two small businesses. Meyer said his years serving abroad and as a teacher in his hometown of Wilmington taught him critical lessons about the need to tackle Delaware’s challenges now.
“Together, we can tackle big challenges. Together we can lead our state into a time when our seniors are better supported, our children graduate ready to thrive in tomorrow’s economy, and our state’s families feel more secure.”
For me, I really like his logo (I am a sucker for state outlines of Delaware being incorporated into your logo), and I like his chances in a race against Lt. Governor Bethany Hall Long, assuming she runs.
Doesn’t have any exact policies that he supports, does anyone know where he falls on the ideological spectrum, whether he would be to the left of Carney or govern the same way as him?
He is definitely more liberal than Carney and in my opinion will not govern the same way as him. Remember, Meyer was the progressive challenger to the corrupt Tom Gordon in 2016.
He’s definitely more like Markell than Carney, thank goodness.