I. Am. In. Awe.
I attended the Meet the Candidates event hosted by WFP/Leftward Delaware last night. I left full of excitement for three extraordinary candidates who are challenging D incumbents this year.
WFP/Leftward Delaware have been recruiting and training progressive candidates for office. Five of them participated in last night’s event. Two others, Shane Darby and Deborah Harrington, were unable to attend.
Following introductions, the ‘civilians’ in the audience, including myself, were divided into five different groups, each group with four or five people in them. The five candidates in attendance then shuttled around to each group, made their presentation, and then answered questions and received feedback, a well-thought-out non-threatening way to build on their progress. I, of course, liked all five candidates, and encourage you to support them.
I’ve been around a long time. I’ve helped to train dozens of candidates. It takes a lot to get me excited. However, three candidates made such an impression on me last night that I can’t, and won’t, contain my enthusiasm. They already are among the best challengers I’ve ever seen in something approaching 40 years of my doing this. Only one has run before, and he gave one of the best stump speeches I’ve ever heard last night.
I cannot recommend these three candidates strongly enough. (Deep breath). Here goes. In alphabetical order:
Larry Lambert (7th RD). Larry likely would have won the primary for this seat in 2018 had the progressive vote not have been split between Larry and Joe Daigle. The incumbent Ray Seigfried, who won the primary, doesn’t suck. He’s good on constituent services. However, he’s not Larry Lambert, who has walked the walk. Check out his bona fides:
Co-Chair-Delaware’s Banking Desert Initiative
Prior Co-Chair-Delaware’s Living Wage Coalition
Claymont Boys’ And Girls’ Club Board
Overlook Colony Revitalization Steering Committee Member
Secretary-Claymont Renaisssance Development Corp.
And bleeploads of others. He gave the best speech of the night, tying in his work experience and his volunteer work into his theme of ‘improving our community’. He is also immensely likeable. While it’s tough to knock off an incumbent, I believe that anybody who meets Larry will want to vote for him. And/or want to help out his campaign. Which you can do right here. BTW, it’s not so tough to knock off an opponent who only got about 28% in a splintered primary.
Marie Pinkney (13th SD). One of the women who was part of our group marveled at the natural leadership skills that Marie exuded. What an incredible candidate, and what an incredible upgrade she would be from Dave McBride! A Master Social Worker, Marie has worked in the ER, has seen the victims of gun violence who get patched up and shuttled back out onto the street. She has seen, and battled against, the school-to-prison pipeline and the opioid crisis. She works every day on the ground floor where people really need help. She was powerful in her presentation last night. She is running for all the right reasons and has the skill set to immediately become a force for positive change in the Senate Caucus. And yes, a leader. I don’t know what I was expecting, but, since I’ve rarely seen a candidate emerge as fully-formed as she has, I certainly wasn’t expecting this. Her election would cause a sea change in the Senate Democratic Caucus on behalf of progressive causes, and she is much more in tune with her district than the incumbent. Help her out, she deserves it. You can start right here.
Madinah Wilson-Anton (26th RD). Did you know that the 26th is now a minority-majority district? Did you know that the 26th has the youngest per capita age of any legislative district? Did you know that this district is represented by a longtime labor hack who is a sidekick of Tiny Tony DeLuca’s? You do now. Madinah just blew me away last night with her recounting of her experiences in door-knocking (over 5000 doors so far!!). Lots of undocumented workers, scores of people who need government assistance to grow and to thrive. Madinah recounted the story of what impelled her to run. As a legislative assistant to the House Democratic Caucus, she was stunned at the casual dismissiveness of elected officials to ‘stand up for the change we need’. She comes across as a tremendously empathetic individual. It’s impossible to dislike her. One note–because there are many Latinos in her district, many of whom aren’t eligible to vote, she has two lit pieces–one in English and one in Spanish. She deserves our support and you can find out all about her right here.
What excites me the most about these candidates is that they all are wonderful human beings who are running for office to continue doing what they have been doing– helping people. I can’t recall having felt this excited about political newcomers–ever.
Jump on board with them or the other WFP/Leftward Delaware candidates. It’ll make you feel good, and you will help them win.