My Big Question On The RD 20 Special Election–
–Is the State Democratic Party Running The Race It Should Be Running? First, my answer: I don’t know.
However, based on the relatively few published comments from the two candidates, they both seem to tout their community and professional experience. Period. Nothing more.
Which I suppose would be fine under ordinary circumstances. Which these are not.
I’ll be specific, any campaign between an R and a D that does not emphasize the following is committing political malpractice:
“Of the two candidates running, only one can and will fight the excesses of the Trump Administration that is placing so many of our friends and neighbors at risk.”
Special elections are won or lost on turnout. If there is little difference between the candidates, D turnout in particular will be depressed. Especially after L’Affaire Stell Parker Selby.
But if the D’s make this a referendum on Trump’s overturning of democratic norms, I think they should win handily. With early voting starting today, the question is: Are they and will they turn this into such a referendum?
This race is being run by the two political parties, not the candidates. It is up to both the State and Suxco Democratic leaders to stress this fundamental difference between the two candidates and between the two parties.
What are you guys hearing?
I disagree with a general statement of fighting Trump at every turn proclamation being the prime concern, unless it is supported by polling in the 20th. While it is admirable for candidates to make everything they stand for known to their constituents, it is not necessarily a winning strategy. Knowing the area around the 20th leans a little more moderate to conservative and not wanting to alienate independent voters, I think concentrating on the State issues (specifically education) is probably best. You can’t do good things in power for Delaware by losing the race. Let the Trump candidate from the Repubs alienate the population. If the polling suggests a Trump attack being beneficial, full steam ahead.
Seriously? Selby defeated a conservative mainstay, ex-cop, and then-current State Rep to first win that seat despite not running much of a race.
She hardly campaigned in her reelection effort, but won in spite of herself.
The demographics continue to trend more Blue in that district. Polling pretty much everywhere outside of Jesusland has Trump with historically-low approval rates, and he is trying to gain access to all federal power.
And you suggest waiting for polling results? If the Democratic Party is unwilling to run against this so-far successful attempt to destroy democracy, then the entire Party should go down along with the republic.
I see merit in what both of you are saying. Knowing little of this race beyond what has been published, I’m willing to pontificate from my perch in the nether reaches of northern New Castle County.
As a school administrator, the GOP candidate will do anything she can to avoid the hypocrisy of supporting federal cuts to education funding. And the D candidate, despite the known liberal leanings of her famous brother, is nonetheless associated with a charter school, the sort of entity that the MAGA folk like to promote. Given those realities, both would do well to avoid turning a state rep race into a referendum on the Orange Turd.
The candidate who projects best as the individual who understands the bread and butter issues of this slice of Sussex County is the one who will prevail. The outcome is not going to make the state any more or less MAGAfied.
Actually, it could. The House D’s are close to a super-majority.
Retaining this seat makes it more likely that they’ll be able to attain that super-majority in 2026–when Kevin Hensley in particular looks quite vulnerable.
The portion of Suxco encompassing the 20th RD is no longer like your traditional Sussex County district. It is trending in the same direction as the districts of Russ Huxtable (who has a lot of the 20th in his Senate District, 11 ED’s, to be exact) and Claire Snyder-Hall). Quite a few Federal government retirees from DC. It’s becoming more progressive by the month.
Thank you for putting my words into a more eloquent form. El Som makes the correct analysis of the district going more blue, but I know the area a little and there is still more democrat moderates and conservatives than liberal or progressive. While I share the need to attack the great orange turd, I don’t think it would pay dividends in this race unless directly asked by a democrat group.
A ‘democrat group’.
You guys out yourselves.
Only if I knew his/her real name could I tell you that. At this point, I know a few names because of interaction here and asking those in the know, but I don’t know the identity of mediawatch.
“And the D candidate, despite the known liberal leanings of her famous brother”
Who is her famous brother? Haven’t been following that race at all, sorry.
This isn’t true. Steve Smyk realized his district got bluer and the State Senate seat was opening up with Ernie Lopez’s retirement, so he tried to move up but got beaten by Russ Huxtable. The guy Stell Parker Selby beat in 2022 was Dallas Wingate, who is the son or nephew or something of a long-ago state rep, but one from a different district.
Yeah, that sounds right.
The point stands, though. The district has gotten bluer.
There was a one-term Democrat named Jay Wingate back around 1983-84. Maybe it was a relative.
Actually, the “conservative mainstay, ex-cop and sitting legislator” was Steve Smyk. Stell did not defeat him. Smyk ran for the 6th State Senate seat and lost to Russ Huxtable.
You’re right. Jonathan Tate caught that a couple of comments up.
My memory has reached the age of untrustworthiness.