An Open Letter To Sarah McBride
Guest Post By Jason330:
Sarah,
I just finished reading your latest newsletter, and I hope you’ll take this message in the spirit of urgency and shared concern with which it’s written.
To be honest, the newsletter could have been written in 1990 — and that’s what unsettled me most. It lays out important policy updates and district-focused accomplishments, but it says nothing about the most dangerous reality of our political moment: Donald Trump’s increasingly explicit, unapologetic assault on democracy.
From his call for redistricting maps in Texas to his threats of political violence and promises of authoritarian revenge, Trump is no longer hinting — he’s declaring. And yet, far too many Democratic leaders are still behaving as if normal politics can be played around the edges.
I know you feel your role in Congress is to fight for Delaware. But I also believe that showing courage, naming the threat plainly, and demanding moral leadership from within your own party is one of the most meaningful ways you can serve our state, and the country. I worry that history will judge this moment not just by who had a strong voting record, but by who raised their voices when it counted most.
Please speak out. Not just in votes and quiet conversations, but in statements, interviews, and action. Many of us are looking for leaders with the guts to tell the truth and the spine to call their own party to more.
I’m still hopeful. And I still believe in your leadership. But I’m asking you to meet this moment with the urgency and moral clarity it demands.
Sincerely,
Jason Scott
Middletown
Couldn’t agree more. The bullshit that the Delaware Way was about comity rather than rigging the game for the rich needs to die, not be carried into another generation.
I have no problem with primarying her if she doesn’t get serious.
Incredible, isn’t it? We have a Congressional delegation that’s incredibly diverse demographically – a white man, a Black woman and a trans woman. Yet ideologically we have no diversity at all.
Thats all well and good, but what specifically do you want Sarah to say/do? Please expand on “showing courage, naming the threat plainly, and demanding moral leadership” – sounds like Sarah could capture all of that in a strongly-worded letter that says nothing.
Courage looks like a full-throated rebuke of israel and commitment to the recognition of Palestinian statehood. Naming the threat plainly is calling all ICE agents jackbooted thugs who should be put in prison. Moral leadership is telling losers like Kamala to drop out of politics and forget 2028.
Oh, THAT’s your definition of moral leadership. You trolls expose yourselves with ‘ Moral leadership is telling losers like Kamala to drop out of politics and forget 2028.’
Yes, going after ICE and rebuking Israeli genocide while rejecting/returning contributions from AIPAC are strong stands. As is working in the House to cut off military aid to the regime committing genocide.
Moral leadership means practicing good party hygiene. Harris fully bought into the centrist/corpradem political cosmology. I don’t think asking someone who engaged in political malpractice and further toxified the democratic party deserves rehabilitation.
Which has nothing to do with what Sarah can and/or should do.
In what way, exactly, is she enabling Kamala Harris’ elevated standing (which, BTW, does not exist) in the Party?
You have one more chance, should you so choose to use it, to say something cogent. Another failed try will find you in the forgotten dustbin of those who briefly commented here.
I’ll bite:
When Rep. Wilson-Anton called out the fucked-up situation with Stell Parker-Selby, that was a case study in moral leadership and party hygiene. Yeah it did not make Dems as a whole look good, but it demonstrated that there is fresh blood willing to take on the establishment culture. Is it too much to ask our congressional delegation to do the same?
(btw I never said that Sarah was actively enabling Harris – Harris is just the embodiment of the failures of the democratic party to read the room at the national level. I could name a half dozen other prominent democrats, but i saw the media buzz around the “107 days and it struck me how craven you gotta be to monetize you failed campaign and still try to be coy about 2028. At some point that behavior needs to be called the fuck out.)
Uh, you DO understand that Madinah is a member of the same caucus that Stell Parker Selby nominally also belonged to.
The whole point of Jason’s post, which is obvious, is that we’re in the most perilous times we’ve ever seen in this country, and we need our leaders to lead the fight against what’s happening. You’re way off on some tangent.
I think you are seeing a very small number of elected democrats willing speak out in statements, interviews, and action. That number needs to grow and Sarah’s newsletter was frankly disgusting in view of current events.
Have to be honest. Sarah has not impressed me at all so far
File this under better late than never:
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/07/31/sarah-mcbride-gaza-famine-00486954
Oh come on. Singling out one mid-August newsletter and pretending that it represents Sarah’s broader statements and posture over the last seven months is ridiculous… especially given that the newsletter criticizes Trump on Medicaid and blames the Israeli government directly for the famine. You’re either purposefully ignoring all of the other comments she’s made or are telling on yourself for not paying attention. I’ve been to most anti trump rallies since the election and she’s been to more than any major statewide. She’s literally called Trump an authoritarian wannabe more times than I can count. And was one of the first Dems in the house to forcefully speak out against the due process violations by ICE. And she’s been vocal about the Texas power grab on social. I get wanting even more, but taking someone who has been under more direct attack than any Democrat in the House other than Jasmine and AOC and claim they aren’t fighting hard enough based on a newsletter is a bit much.
The Texas governor is threatening to arrest Texas Democrats for refusing to participate in a special session he has called to rig the midterms. But let’s talk about grants to volunteer fire companies
OldTimer–don’t know how long you’ve been reading DL. But Jason, who founded the blog, has long been a strong supporter of Sarah. He’s not nitpicking her record.
I read Jason’s post to mean that the same courage that she showed even before she ran for office in Delaware, and that she showed as a member of the Delaware State Senate, is desperately needed from her in Washington. Both Coons and Rochester have governed as Delaware Way drones. There is nothing we’ve seen to suggest that they’ll ever be more than that.
We need more from Sarah, and she’s shown that she’s capable of more. The times call for it.
No it’s not.
I agree. I think every piece of communication she sends out should be 500 pages long and comprehensively list every single thing she has worked on or is working on. The totality of an elected official’s work MUST be communicated in every single newsletter send. Other speeches, social media posts, videos, interviews…they’re all completely meaningless.
::exaggerated eyeroll emphasizing sarcasm::
Also, interesting choice to single out Sarah here…nothing on Coons or LBR’s newsletters that also aren’t 100% focused on Trump every week. Hmmm…
Because we already know who and what Coons and LBR are. There’s no point.
Do you get her emails? They literally are 500 pages long. I’m not sure if the main post is referring to some campaign email but her office’s content is so extensive Gmail cuts it off and you have to open in a new window.
Fwiw I got a form letter response 30 minutes ago that is every bit as embarrassing and out of touch as the newsletter. I’m thinking she’s been coonsified. Too bad.
Could you share the letter? I didn’t get it and am curious what she would say on this.
Ok It’s a pdf, which in itself is annoying AF
How do you not look down on people who enable a President to model behavior such as predatory sexual exploitation and rape, a life full of criminal acts to benefit his inherited wealth, a willful disregard for morality and now, the dismantling of our democracy to benefit only the very wealthy and the ruin of our social safety nets. How do you reach common ground with these people who, knowingly or not, embrace fascism that three generation of my family served as officers in the Army to oppose? And those same fascist enablers look down on the educated and well read as elitists. Just how, Sarah?