Progressive newcomers look to shake up Delaware legislature

DOVER, Del. (AP) — Democrats remain comfortably in the driver’s seat in Delaware after sweeping statewide and federal contests on Election Day and maintaining their majorities in the state House and Senate.

But Tuesday’s results also promise to bring several fresh faces and ideas to the General Assembly. Democrats flipped two state Senate seats that had been held by Republicans while sending several left-leaning progressive newcomers to Dover.

The Democratic candidates elected Tuesday include Sarah McBride, who will be the first openly transgender state senator in the country, and the state’s first Muslim lawmaker, Madinah Wilson-Anton. Also, Marie Pinkney and Eric Morrison became the first openly queer woman and gay man, respectively, to win legislative office in Delaware.

“It’s a major shift,” said Wilson-Anton, who edged out an incumbent Democrat who had served 22 years in the House by 43 votes in the September Democratic primary before easily defeating her GOP opponent Tuesday.

“I’m excited that I’m joining the legislature with a lot of other progressives who have our community’s best interests in mind,” she added.

The new class of progressive Democrats has already made it known that they plan to make their voices heard in Legislative Hall, regardless of any customary tradition or deference to senior lawmakers.

“I think with the freshman class coming in, there’s going to be a lot of change coming,” said Pinkney, a social worker who identifies as queer and was elected Tuesday. She had unseated the Senate president pro tem, one of the longest-serving lawmakers in Delaware history, in September’s Democratic primary.

Pinkney said Delaware is in store “for some game-changing legislation.” Issues that she and other progressives have campaigned on include racial justice, environmental justice, universal paid family and medical leave, a single-payer health care system, universal child care, gun control and marijuana legalization.

“I think having more people like us down there gives other legislators some more room to be a little bit bolder and take the lead on some of these issues,” Wilson-Anton said.

Such talk has Republicans, and some Democrats, worried.

State Republican Party chairwoman Jane Brady noted in addition to working to solidify GOP support for the party’s candidates after the September primary, the GOP also sent emails to registered Democrats urging them to look at the issues before voting in the general election for progressives who won Democratic primaries.

“They weren’t really what they were used to as Democrats. They weren’t mainstream at all,” she said.

With three progressives winning Senate seats and four elected to the House, Brady said the freshman class is bound to have influence.

“I think they’re a reality the Democratic Party is going to have to deal with,” she said.

“A lot of Democrats that we talked to, not elected officials, but just Democrats on the street, are not supportive of the positions that they take,” Brady added. “They don’t want to defund the police. They don’t want to make Delaware a sanctuary state. They don’t want to take away First and Second Amendment rights. They want school choice. ... All of that is affected by the progressive agenda. The concern is that’s where the progressives are nationally, and they’re going to influence what happens locally.”

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