House District 6 Primary Conversations:​ Rae Krantz, Ed Mulvihill & Ralf Santana

I was born and raised in Virginia, near the Blue Ridge Mountains up the Shenandoah, and they are still, of course, very near and dear to my heart. Yeah. I was raised in a conservative community, actually, with kind of a conservative view of how the government should work and does work and societal things and everything.

And as I grew and moved away from home, met lots of new people, I began to really analyze those beliefs and decide for myself what I wanted my beliefs to be. 2016 was a big wake-up call for me, as it was for many in my generation, that politics had to be a group project.

And so in 2018, I started canvassing for Democratic candidates, and then through that action, I learned about these things called issue campaigns. And I learned about how if you want to get a bill passed, it actually takes a lot of work in the background before getting to the point where it’s being debated on the floor of a committee or of a legislative body.

And so I worked on a bunch of stuff here in Delaware, increasing the minimum wage. I helped with canvassing for that. I met our then State Senator Sarah McBride when I was helping to volunteer on the Paid Family Medical Leave Act and getting stories together for that. And most recently, of course, I was advocating for data center regulations partnering with the canvassing efforts of Sierra Club.

As many people are aware, data centers are an immense strain on our electricity grid and on our water supply, and they also include a lot of other negative effects.

There’s a lot coming out now around the noise pollution that they contribute. They absolutely decimate the property values of anyone that these data centers are going up next to because it can be so difficult to live near them. In places where people are on well water, it runs them dry. And there was one really crucial question that came up in the very initial town hall back in August last summer.

And that really tells me that not only is there an obscene lack of transparency with all of these data centers getting built and how all these votes are happening, but also it’s very much a gold rush, if you will. And the billionaire companies that are building these data centers, they don’t care.

And that is the biggest pivot point to me. I very, very much want our mentality to be about longevity and people being able to live healthy, safe, and affordable lives. And building a data center in people’s backyards seems antithetical to that based on all of the data that we have right now, all the research, all the effects that we have seen.

And my perspective is, if these billionaires don’t want it in their backyard next to their mansions and their homes, then why is it OK to put it in our backyard?

So I think the reason why we are seeing this alignment on the data center issue is because due to Delaware’s tax structure, we are not set up to make money off of a data center being built here in the way that other states like Virginia are set up to make money.

In terms of larger picture on Delaware’s economy, something I would love to see is for Delaware to get really, really innovative in investing into local economies and having just a more robust business environment here in Delaware for people here in Delaware. And I think we can do that.

And while that is understandable, I understand where that desire is coming from. I also want us to be more resilient and not as dependent on any one company, right? And so that’s where my focus is gonna be is on like, yes, can we bring some of these newer industries into Delaware, especially as there’s so much climate science that is developing right now.

No, I do not. And the reason comes back to the same reason that I am very skeptical and hesitant with data centers, right? How is it going to impact the community overall? And I know there’s a traffic study being done through WILMAPCO right now to try to help the neighborhood of Southbridge recover from the harmful effects that the Port of Wilmington has, I guess, enacted on or caused to happen to that neighborhood.

And I just really want these companies to think about the people first and then the profit second. And why is that too much to ask? And we say, “Oh, because companies have to make profits. That’s who their shareholders are.” And I would argue, what about their stakeholders?

So that tells me you don’t give a damn about the people. And I cannot and I will not support projects by people who just wanna come in and make their money and leave everyone else to handle the consequences.

So the reason why I am upset with SB 21 and the process of how it was passed is because I believe it did harm to our corporate franchise. And right now, our corporate franchise is one-third of our state budget.

Yes, they copied and pasted our law, and yes, their filing fee is three thousand instead of two fifty. However, they don’t have the decades of case law and trust that has been built up. So Delaware is the Gucci bag of corporate franchise laws, and I don’t want Delaware to try to compete with Walmart’s off-brand knockoff, right?

So I am someone who does not take corporate donations, and I’ve made that very clear, and I do not accept corporate PAC support, and I’ve made that very clear. And I think this corporate PAC sees me as someone who cannot be bought, and therefore, they do not want me to win because it would be harder for them to get what they want exactly when they want it and exactly how they want it should I win my seat.

Sure. I have been having amazing, amazing conversations at the doors. As anyone who’s ever worked on a campaign knows, I’ve been canvassing a lot. And people are so ready for just some creativity in our government.

And I say I want our government to be more proactive. And actually, I credit Spotlight Delaware for letting me know that our aquifers are at risk for sea level rise, and saltwater intrusion, and that terrifies me as someone who enjoys drinking water. I don’t know about the rest of y’all. And so when I talk about being proactive, like I don’t wanna wait like how it took 40 years to do our first tax reassessment, right?

I don’t wanna wait 10 years until the seawater has entered, and now we’re in a panic ’cause now we have to drink bottled water for another decade while we fix it or figure out something else, right? I wanna start working on figuring out that problem now and maybe even working to prevent it from becoming a problem or as big of one.

And so we need people who are not normal politicians. We need people who can think outside the box and push against expectations and challenge norms. And people just really, really want that kind of energy in our state government, and I would love to bring it.

I’m a fourth-generation small business owner. My family’s been in this district for 90 years. And sometime in college, I kinda was getting this bug that I was like, “You know what?” Like, I had all these other opportunities and career paths, but the one I kept coming back to was I really couldn’t, like, level set not being a part of this family business.

I love our business. It’s a lot of fun, and it’s a fun industry. But I always realized, like, what I loved most about it was we’ve been this kinda community center, in our neighborhood for 90 years, and we found ways to make this a space where neighbors gather, and we have a positive impact on the community.

So we needed a leader and that was an opportunity I was able to step up and be a leader, be the president of our retail association. We started that association and got to advocate in Dover. And we had a lot of success with defending independent small business retailers throughout the state.

But then this opportunity arose with Representative Heffernan retiring, and a few people suggested like, “Hey, why don’t you run?”

And at first my answer was like, “I don’t know that that’s for me.” I’ve always enjoyed working with our elected officials and not just for our industry-related stuff, but for our community at large. And I kind of thought, like, “Leave that to someone else.” But a few folks I talked to who I really respected really encouraged me to think about running.

They said, “Hey, you’re the kind of person we need. We need somebody who’s from the area, who’s a neighbor, who’s a leader.” And I took that seriously, and we thought about it for a while and decided, yeah, I think this is kind of the next step in our service journey for the community.

I hesitate to call it going viral, right? Because it’s Delaware, and there’s limited scope there. But we’re really loud about the property tax reassessment.

I’m a small business owner through and through, and the one thing I can’t stand, and again, this relates directly to some of the lobbying work we’ve done against, like, Total Wine and Costco, is when the big companies get breaks that the little guys don’t, and that is, like, my pet peeve.

The problem is that the underlying data that Tyler Technologies provided was flawed, and we see that now. So when you have these big, massive properties that saw huge, huge, huge assessment increases, which translates to millions of dollars in tax revenue loss, and the state and the county and the schools have to be revenue neutral, so that money has to come from somewhere. So in doing that split rate with underlying data that wasn’t good, it put this unfair burden on small business owners particularly.

Chase is paying a billion dollars less. How does this make sense? And so that was probably one of the issues that caught wind the most, I think. And it was a relatable issue because it has affected small businesses throughout the state. It affected residents throughout the state, and there’s been some work, some good work that’s been done to start to address that, and I think still more work that needs to be done.

So that is one of the issues that like, from day one we weren’t super happy about. So in 2017, I think, was when Gulftainer first was announced as taking part in this new terminal, container terminal down in Edgemoor.

We had like over a hundred and fifty people show up because everybody felt the same way we felt like, “We need information about this.” We need to know why this is happening, how it’s happening, and what they’re gonna do to mitigate the impact on residents. And in the years since, we’ve gotten some answers, and we haven’t gotten other answers.

And a lot of people say, “Well, what are you gonna do to stop the port?” And I just give them this honest answer, which is like, “There is very little, like I’m gonna be able to do as a newly elected state representative to stop like this port expansion.” What I can do is make sure that we have a seat at the table, that there’s regular communication between the port operators and the residents, and that when there’s issues, that they’re addressed in a timely manner.

The biggest thing that I am concerned with right now is the truck traffic. There’s DelDOT studies that are out there from 2021 that talk about how this truck traffic is not gonna be supported by the existing infrastructure of I-495 at Edgemoor Road, and so it requires capital improvement.

And so the proposal that I really like from DelDOT is capital improvements to Hay Road that takes the truck traffic out of the Newport, down Hay Road, and into 12th Street, which is a much less residential area. It’s more industrial. And hopefully, that would mitigate a lot of the concerns that people have about the truck traffic.

That’s my favorite question. I’ve learned so much about myself that I didn’t know was true. Never was a Republican. I was an independent when I first registered. And at some point, I’m not sure exactly the year, but I did change to Democrat. I think it was 2016. But for me it was I always prided myself on being kind of independently minded and policy over party.

But somewhere along the lines of Donald Trump winning the Republican nomination for president, I realized, like, this probably doesn’t make any sense in a state like ours where we don’t have open primaries. I can’t sit on the sidelines. I would say my voting record and donation record has always been Democratic.

But I do get a little chuckle out of that.

Yeah, I mean, I think there’s nuance to everything. I think that being a Democrat today is much different than being a Democrat 10 years ago.

I think that when we’re talking about a local election like ours, it really comes down to knowing the person you’re voting for and trusting their judgment and trusting their motives. And that’s the most important thing. We are a progressive state. We have been a progressive state, and we’ve been on the right side of a lot of those issues.

It’s a little tough as our politics becomes further and further divided, I don’t consider myself a moderate. I don’t think that’s the right word for it. I think I’m a Democrat, and I think I wanna fight for the neighbors and community members in our district for the issues that are most important to them.

Yeah. So the support for the campaign was a total surprise. Going in we thought the biggest weakness we were gonna have was fundraising, right?

I said, “Well, how do we combat that? How do we combat, $100,000 of spending?” Which was a projected number that was thrown our way. And the answer was, well, we’re probably not going to. We’re gonna have to just go out there and door knock and get our message out best way we can and raise as much money as we can.

In regards to the corporate law aspect of it, this is a tough one. It’s Delaware, and a third of our revenue comes from that corporate franchise tax. So I understand the necessity to protect that. But I’m also open to like, what other options can we have to become less dependent on it?

It’s important. The problem I have with the opposition’s approach of kinda, hey, big companies don’t matter. But if you lose that, if you lose that third of your revenue, how do you replace it? And I have not heard a plan that makes any remote sense that would cover that gap.

It’s almost all profit. So you can’t take it lightly. You can’t jeopardize that revenue stream because the only way you replace it is through sales tax and increased property taxes. And we just went through the reassessment boondoggle and everybody saw how that went.

That would be nothing compared to what property tax would have to increase to cover this large deficit if these companies left.

I’m a native of Philadelphia, and it got pretty bad in Philadelphia. I joined the Marine Corps.

The Marine Corps instilled in me some traits and some characteristics that led me to become as successful as I have become. I did two tours in Iraq. I obviously fought for the country. Now I understand that fighting for the country is kind of passe now and unfortunately, I can’t do anything about that.

I was in the Marine Corps Reserve for six years. I did two tours in that, and a bunch of different classes and things of that nature. Leadership courses, things like that. I enlisted in 2003. And I finally got done in 2009, somewhere around there.

So the last 15 years, it’s been odds and ends. I tried to become a police officer, but the injuries I received in the Marine Corps prevented me from doing that.

I’ve done siding. I’ve done roofing. I’ve done all types of hard labor jobs. And then finally, I realized, “OK, let me put my Marine Corps experience to the test. Let me put it to work.” And I decided to do armed security for different companies around Pennsylvania. And finally, I work at a armed position in Philadelphia at the Social Security building in Philadelphia. And that has been where I’ve been for a while now because I got married, I have kids. You need something stable, you need a rock, you need a foundation. I’m still there. It’s helped me throughout my life. I’m in my neighborhood here where I live.

I spoke to Deb Heffernan after a while, and she was like, “Hey, everybody and their mother’s been calling me about you.” And I’m like, “Hey, I needed this stuff to get done.” I’m very persistent when things need to be done. I’m like, essentially like a dog on a bone. I’m not letting it go.

Met city council people. They all basically know who I am because of annoyances. And my wife was like, “Hey, you got the right amount of persistence, I think, to be an elected official. Like, you should probably try.” And I kinda pitter-pattered around the situation, and then finally I was like, “You know what?

If I’m gonna do it, let’s go, let’s do it now. Let’s do it a 150% full bore. And regardless of the support, I’m just gonna do it, try and make some change, and if I get elected, great. If I don’t, then I’ll keep trying to make things in my community better on my level, and then eventually get some experience and maybe run again and see what happens.”

I oppose it, yes. I oppose it because of the lack of transparency.

There’s not enough information there. It’s almost seemingly like it’s getting pushed through. Like, I haven’t seen any surveys on air quality. I haven’t seen any paperwork or filings of modernization of roads and bridges and highways, and there’s a lot that comes with all of that.

Now mind you, it sounds positive, 6,000 jobs, all this stuff sounds great, but there’s no assurances. There’s a lot of money being thrown around, and the money keeps going up and up and up and up, and no one knows why. They just keep saying, “That’s just what they cost now.”

And it’s just a lot of ambiguity.

I’ve always been an individual, and I’ve always been one to stand up when others just fall in line.

I don’t want to be in opposition to something that sounds positive, but there needs to be opposition to make sure it’s done right. And I don’t mind being that one. I think conversationally, I think I can get in a room with some people and change some minds. I’m not saying I’m the greatest conversationalist in the world.

I’m not saying I’m a professional at negotiations, but I’ve been known to speak with some people and change their minds, or at least let them see it in a different way. And if I get in and if I get elected, I would love the opportunity to try that.

I don’t like to be classified as anything. I believe that, like, everybody gets, I guess, titles. Titles, for some reason, the last 20 years, is what it is. You’re either this or you’re this. You’re a radical this or a radical that. I consider myself a Democrat in a sense where I like to be malleable.

I want them to be people friendly and positive for people.

I can’t say I’m one or the other. What I will say is, if the policies help Delawareans and the American people, I’m going to vote for it.

From what I’ve been reading is the state has contracts with Delmarva and/or that whole group. And the group basically says, from what I’ve read, and I’m paraphrasing here. It’s essentially there’s a certain percentage that the company has to make, right?

Right. Yeah. And whatever the company makes or whatever the company decides to fix or upgrades, the state has to reimburse, right?

What I wanna do is I’d like to maybe make a position that makes sure that these things are getting done, that makes sure they need to get done, make sure that they get done in a timely and economic fashion.

I think that the state should definitely review. Like I said, I’m for the people. Like I said, I think it’s in my bio, but the national average for people getting raises and salaries is, like, four percent, maybe five in some places.

And every year or every time they get a rate increase, that percentage is going up more than what the people are making in salary bumps and increases. And it doesn’t seem like it would last. The American people and the homeowners are gonna be drowning eventually if that continues to happen.

So I understand, like I said, capitalism, money, business. All I wanna do is maybe fix the rates a little bit, lower them a little bit more. Understand that people don’t make raises as much as other companies think we do, like the regular people do. It’s a struggle out here for tons of families.

Every year, every so often your bills go up and taxes go up, and it’s almost like you’re getting hit from all sides. And if we can alleviate some of those hits at least a little bit, I think it’ll be a positive force for homeowners and people out here with electricity.

I just wanna say that the type of leader I want to be is the leader that listens, is transparent and does what the voters need me to do. I believe that a lot of elected officials are kind of going rogue and doing what they want instead of what the people want them to do, and I don’t want to be that type of leader.