In most Blue States, the usual source of Democratic progressive governing is from its major cities. The Editors of Delaware Liberal have often lamented the fact that Delaware’s biggest city has been lacking in a more progressive political vision at pretty much every level. There’s one candidate in Wilmington’s Mayoral race who is finally advocating a comprehensive progressive vision for governing Wilmington — a vision that is inclusive of the entire city, that is committed to bringing city government practices into the 21st century and will start the work to tackle some of the social justice issues that damage and hold back some of our communities. Delaware Liberal is proud to endorse Eugene Young for Mayor of Wilmington.
Eugene is a native Wilmingtonian, who went away to college and returned to his community to focus on helping to find solutions to improve this community. Even though he could likely go to work anywhere, Eugene choose the path of public service and social entrepreneurship — creating Delaware Elite and joining the Center for Justice as Advocacy Director to focus on developing and implementing solutions that started to mentor some of our most at-risk teens into college and in correcting some of justice obstacles that unfairly hold back some of our citizens. He worked for Representative Helene Keeley and Representative Stephanie Bolden, addressing constituent issues from helping to deal with vacant property issues, to working with neighborhood groups to get resources to support development projects, to working with the City to define and address their yearly legislative and budget needs from the State. While working for Cory Booker, he had a front row seat to Booker’s legendary campaign to overcome Newark’s entrenched and corrupt machine politics to become the Mayor of a city that finally took back its future and is still at work to stabilize its neighborhoods and grow its economy. When Mayor Booker became Senator Booker, Young was charged with working with Senator Booker’s state-wide constituents to help them to get the Federal resources, the legislative support and private sector help to address their priorities.
This is an impressive resume for a young progressive, a resume filled with the kinds of demonstrated and successful leadership focused on bringing together the right people to develop and implement the kind of solutions that build communities; a resume will attract some of the best and brightest leaders and entrepreneurs who want to be a part of creating a government that takes advantage of technology and new ideas to better serve Wilmingtonians, and a resume that has given him a network of other leaders and experts who are also working at changing their own corners of the world. It is difficult to see if you aren’t working on this campaign, but if Eugene Young can bring to Wilmington government the kind of energy and expertise that he has built into this campaign, we have great hopes for Wilmington’s future.
Eugene is running as a change agent — and he has been greatly pressured by the city’s status quo to stand down and wait his turn. They told him that no one knew him, and Eugene spent the past year knocking on doors all over the city. They told him that he couldn’t raise any money and when this is all done, he will have raised almost 100K for his campaign and his PAC — mostly from small-dollar donors. They told him that no one would vote for him and he’s functionally tied in a close race now. Eugene has done this the old fashioned way — by meeting voters where they are, talking with them about their issues and asking for their votes. As a commenter here once observed, Eugene has been building his own army, voter by voter, volunteer by volunteer. If you live in Wilmington, you’ll know how radical this is. All too often, Wilmington politicians win because they turn out enough of “their people” to be able to get past the winner post.
The cynical effort to push Eugene into “waiting his turn” tells you what Wilmington’s leadership thinks of the city they’ve been running for more than 30 years. They aren’t interested in a powerful and inclusive vision, they aren’t interested in trying to fix the city’s ills, they aren’t interested in promoting its young leaders and ideas and they aren’t interested in government that works for more than their own cronies and friends. Eugene has ignored the people who have been in the driver’s seat as the City has been struggling with the kinds of issues that our big city neighbors have made progress in solving. He has conducted an energetic and honorable campaign, giving us hope for a new culture in government and in city politics.
Wilmington is at a tipping point. Violence, chronic unemployment, structural financial issues, declining property values, an educational system not up to serving all of its students, and a government that is less responsive than it should be to its citizens we all know about. But there’re hopeful signs too — a young entrepreneurial class that wants to be in Wilmington building businesses; a population that is very concerned about the fate of its young people; successes in developing the Riverfront and downtown with nascent development in east Wilmington and the Creative District; a group of young creatives who want to take advantage of the real value of this city to live and play in Wilmington.
Being the Mayor of Wilmington is a tough job. We need someone who will respect that difficulty and who will show up every day focused on delivering solutions that will help this city take its rightful place as Delaware’s leading city. We need someone who won’t be bound by “what we’ve always done” and who has seen what works close up. We need someone whose leadership style will encourage people to join him in tackling the tough issues. We need Eugene Young for Mayor.