State Treasurer Colleen Davis has ignored my advice to run for Lt. Governor, and is instead entering what might soon become a crowded Democratic primary for Delaware’s sole congressional seat. State Senator Sarah McBride is already running. Former Wilmington Mayoral candidate and current Director of the Delaware State Housing Authority Eugene Young has a “big announcement” scheduled at the Wilmington waterfront on Monday, July 24, and rumor has it that he is running. He should run for Mayor again to save us from another Potter run.
Honestly, I don’t know what either are thinking. Maybe they are hoping that more candidates get in to further lower the winning number, so that someone with 20% support can win the primary. Maybe they are just looking to boost their name recognition and their prospects for future runs for office. Actually, I do know what Colleen Davis is thinking: she won statewide, and McBride and Young have not, so therefore she thinks she has the wider base of support.
But McBride is a national figure. She has to be considered the dominant front runner for the nomination. She’s got a national network of support, has raised already inconceivable amounts of money, and for the past few weeks, has been making the rounds on every podcast and news show and talk show known to humanity.
Hey, who am I to discourage people running for Congress? It doesn’t happen often that we have an open seat or a statewide poisition let alone a Congressional one. The Democratic primary has essentially become the general election in this Democratic state. The last time it happened for Congress was in 2016. And back then we had three candidates competing for the job too: Congresswoman Lisa Blunt Rochester, State Senator and Senate Majority Leader Bryan Townsend, and former State Treasurer and current public defender Sean Barney. That race didn’t go negative, and everyone left that race with their integrity and futures intact.
Hopefully this race stays positive, and no candidate dares to use the DeSantis/Trump anti-trans playbook, which might play to a very narrow constituency in the Democratic coalition, but which would end forever any political or moral future the candidate who employs it wishes to have in Democratic or Delaware politics. This ain’t Tennessee. It’s Delaware.
From the News Journal:
“Raising three children here in Delaware,” Davis said in an interview, “ I think that we need more leaders in Congress who come from working class situations as I did growing up.”
“And truly, I’m focused on fighting for families and keeping them safe and secure.” […]
“It comes down to ensuring that we’re sending someone to D.C. who has a record of fighting for families and helping the most vulnerable – and doing it in a way that’s tangible,” she said.
“That’s certainly something that I have focused on over the last five years.”
Good luck Colleen Davis!
This is sad. We have a proven brilliant legislator in line for LBR’s congressional seat. This is a complete waste of energy and resources. Coleen is doing a great job where she is and Eugene, a super star activist and community leader could earn his lawmaking stripes first in our legislature and work his way up. Where is the Party’s influence here? Sadly, everyone is a freelancer.
I like Sarah. I’ll probably support her in the primary (though at this point the first to actually notice that Democrats exist south of the canal may have my vote), but let the people decide. I don’t want the party officials alone deciding who runs our government. I like that the voters will have a choice. I do worry if we have too many about the potential for a Republican ratf**king.
An appropriate role of the elected party leadership is to negotiate with potential primary candidates to maximize electoral success with people who will adhere to the platform. That is what platforms are for, to attract candidates and members in agreement with the vision.
Pay attention to candidate FB pages — I know Sarah is organizing canvasses for Milton and Dover. in Aug and Sept. The others will likely follow.
The Party doesn’t have much influence here and that is by choice. (With the exception of Lydia York) the Party is largely committed to letting Primaries be decided by voters.
Even though in this case, I wish that there had been better long term thinking here.
Exactly. When the State D Party backed Carney against Markell, it was an unforced error. That was pretty much the end of party endorsements in primaries. Other than when Lydia York ran against the disgraced incumbent.
Besides, in this case, what, exactly would the Party do? What other office would/should Sarah or Eugene run for? I wish Governor, but the Party is not going to take sides in that race by endorsing one of them.
Sorry I misspelled Colleen.
What we have going here is a circular firing squad. One of our party leadership’s tasks is to deploy our limited human and financial resources. No deployment here, just a free for all.
In a one-party state like Delaware, letting the state party select the candidates for each office effectively leaves the electorate with no say at all. Hard pass.