Deputy Editor Tim Carlin joins “Beyond the Headlines” to discuss all things related to midterm elections in Delaware. He shares a little about how Spotlight reporters spent their day on Tuesday, November 3, sorts through how the results may change things for Delawareans, and looks ahead to how Democrats may lead in the next two years.
The podcast was hosted by Director of Community Engagement David Stradley.
This transcript has been edited for length and clarity.
We are recording this mid to late afternoon on Wednesday, November 4th. Talk me through your day yesterday, and the day of your fellow reporters. What were you all doing to try to cover election day for Delawareans?
Throughout the day yesterday, we had reporters in the field up and down the state from Claymont all the way down to kind of Selbyville, talking to voters after they cast their ballots, trying to really understand what was motivating the electorate in this year’s midterm elections.
From really the times that polls opened to later in the evening – I won’t say until polls closed, I think I was the last reporter out there and I called it at around 6:30 PM – just really trying to understand what voters were hoping to see from the candidates that they chose, and then why they chose some of those candidates.
After the poll reporting ended, a select group of reporters were working well into the night to monitor results and write a slew of stories that covered our statewide and federal delegation races, our state house, general assembly races, as well as some of the more down-ballot, county council races throughout the state.
We do have a full team of reporters, and they were all over the state. I’m a “Claymonster.” We had Brianna Hill going to the polls in Claymont. Nick Stonesifer down there in southern Delaware was going to some of the border communities. That’s a lot of reporter capital on this day.
Why is it important to Spotlight Delaware to spend that time, to have the reporters out there at the polls talking to people, not just following the results?
That’s a good question. I mean, I think that you don’t get the full picture of a story unless you are kind of boots on the ground, in the field to really tell it, right?
There’s something unique about election day, in that there are a slate of set locations where people from all different walks of life will be convening to do their civic duty. To take part in kind of the most vocal, the most public check on government power – not to get too kind of Aaron Sorkin about everything. There’s just a beauty in being able to pull people aside and ask them what they think.
It’s oftentimes much harder to do boots on the ground, we call it man on the street reporting. You literally have set locations where you know there are going to be people that are there voicing their opinions in one way or another. And some people are more willing to talk than others, but that’s okay.
I think it would be a disservice to not do that type of reporting and to instead just wait for results to come in. If you don’t do the poll reporting, you don’t get the full picture of the story. It can guide you. You can hear how people are thinking about the candidates and the biggest issues.
Otherwise, you’d be kind of sitting twiddling your thumbs waiting for results to come in, and if there are shocking wins or upsets, you may be wondering, “Well, how did this happen?” But poll reporting, ideally, can help you avoid some of that from happening.
As you said, you were up until about 2:00 AM last night. You are a coffee drinker.
I sure am.
If somebody walked up to you this morning at your favorite coffee shop while the dust was still settling on election day and asked you, “Hey, Tim, you’re a reporter. What the heck happened last night?” How would you try to quantify what happened in Delaware in that 30-second line to get your latte?
Well, they wouldn’t have seen me this morning because I was definitely sleeping in.
But no, I think the biggest story of the night is that Democrats won a two-thirds supermajority in the legislature. Democrats had already held this two-thirds majority in the Senate, and they achieved the same margin in the House of Representatives. They did so by flipping three seats that were previously held by Republicans. A three-seat pickup for Democrats, albeit in a state that already does lean toward the Democratic Party, is definitely interesting.
The reason that this two-thirds majority is so important and why it’s such a key number is because having a two-thirds supermajority allows the Democratic Party to amend the state constitution without any Republican support. So before last night, in order to make changes to the state constitution, Democrats needed at least one Republican to break with their party and vote with them on those proposed constitutional changes.
But going forward, for at least the next two years, Democrats will be able to propose new amendments to the state constitution and at least start the process of enacting those amendments without a single Republican vote.
We will circle back and talk more about that. But I wanted to ask you, as someone whose job it is to closely follow elections, what surprised you the most of the results last night in Delaware?
The biggest surprise to me was the Annie Norman win in the Camden-Wyoming area house district.
So Annie Norman, a first time candidate, is a long time civil servant. Worked for the state government. She’s the former Delaware state librarian. She unseated a Republican representative, Lydon Yearick, by about 150 votes. So, a win, but a close race, in a district that I personally was not closely watching until I received a tip about mid-evening last night that that was probably a district to keep my eyes on, and that tip turned out to be correct.
I think that Annie Norman’s win was the most surprising because it was the only Democratic flip where a Democrat actually unseated a sitting Republican candidate. And I don’t think that it was a race that was on a lot of people’s minds as a potential seat that could be flipped or that would have been flipped.
Moral of the story there is don’t mess with librarians.
Yeah. I guess so. I guess you’re right.
To the point of that being a race that people weren’t really watching, midway through yesterday, we put up a list of races [on the office white board], and were trying to get staff to guess who was going to win which races – and that race was not on there because no one thought that was going to be one that was going to maybe go to the Democrats.
Exactly. It didn’t make our internal leaderboard of races to even watch. Which, I guess, maybe that’s bad on us. But hey, it all worked out in the end.
As far as good on us goes, due to our advanced analytics, I guess, you were actually the one that broke it to Annie Norman that she was going to be the winner. Can you talk a little bit more about that?
Yeah. So, I called Annie Norman after all of the votes were counted. There are 11 voting precincts in that house district and all the votes had been counted. There were no outstanding votes, and she was the winner.
Spotlight Delaware has our results tracker on our homepage, and those numbers are pulled directly from the Department of Elections website. It’s as accurate as you can get.
I called Annie Norman and I introduced myself and I said, “Hi, I’m with Spotlight Delaware. I would love to chat with you about your win.” And she seemed a little surprised and said, “So, you’re projecting that I’m the winner?” I said, “Well, it’s not really a projection. The votes have been counted, but based on the numbers I’m looking at I’m pretty certain that you’ve won.”
She was at a watch party in Kent County, and I asked her if she wanted a few minutes to try and consult with members of her team. She thanked me for calling her and said she would call me back. And she ultimately did, once she had a moment to kind of absorb the information.
She said that she had received a few congratulatory texts, but she wasn’t certain. And even when I talked to her the second time, she kept saying, “I keep asking everyone, are you sure? Are you sure?” And I had to tell her, “Yes, we’re sure you have won this race.”
So, a little bit of a funny moment last night.
Spotlight Delaware’s reporting is really focused on the impact of public policy decisions on Delawareans. I want to get your take on some of the impacts of the results from last night.
You’ve already referenced this supermajority that the Democrats now have in both the House and Senate in Delaware, and the fact that that is so important is because constitutional amendments can now get passed without any Republican say.
What is that actually going to mean on the ground? Are there amendments that have already been introduced that need this vote or are we still kind of up in the air about what might this mean as far as amendments that might be coming towards Delaware?
You know it’s hard to predict what new amendments could be introduced during the next general assembly. But there are a slew of outstanding amendments to the constitution that are halfway through the approval process.
Taking a bit of a step back, in order for Delaware to amend its constitution, the legislature needs to vote to approve the proposed constitutional change in two consecutive general assemblies.
A general assembly is one of the two-year sessions of our state legislature. One of the biggest examples of an outstanding or in-process amendment, and there are a slew of them, I don’t have all of them in front of me, forgive me. But one of the biggest ones from the end of or earlier this year was the right to equal marriage for gay marriage and interracial marriage. The legislature passed that proposal I think on the last day of this year’s session, at the end of this year’s session. It kind of all blurs together
So the first half of the approval process is done. But in order for that to pass, it required at least one Republican to vote with Democrats in order to enact that change.
Now, when that proposal, this equal marriage constitutional amendment is brought up for a second vote sometime within the next two years, Democrats will not need a single Republican vote in order to enshrine the right to gay marriage and the right to interracial marriage in the Delaware State Constitution.
So that’s just kind of one example of how this new two-thirds supermajority will make it easier for Democrats to push forward their own policy agenda in a very permanent way. It’s one thing to pass a law, but it’s another thing to enshrine a policy into the state constitution.
But if Republicans or Republican voters are concerned that now that this supermajority exists that a whole slew of changes are coming at them right away, that actually is not the case because it has to be voted on twice.
There would need to be votes in the next assembly as well two years from now.
Correct. It still takes at a minimum three years because you could introduce something during the second year of one general assembly, and then it must go through the second general assembly before it can become law.
I think the long-term fear for Republicans here is that now that Democrats have achieved a two-thirds supermajority, that they will hold onto that two-thirds supermajority in perpetuity, or at least for the next several years.
But, I have not heard that there is kind of a slate of new constitutional amendments that are going to be introduced on January 1 of 2027.
Let’s shift to the county level and specifically Sussex County Council. The reporting team was looking closely at two contested races there that in many ways were going to serve as a referendum on land use policy and the building boom in southern Delaware.
What ended up happening in those two races?
Sussex County Council also saw one Democratic flip. Democratic challenger Jill Hicks, a longtime land preservation community advocate activist voice, beat out incumbent Councilman John Rieley to win the kind of Millsboro-Georgetown-still somewhat coastal Sussex area seat.
But, in the other Sussex County Council race that was on the ballot, Democrat Justine Cuccia did not win and was unsuccessful in her challenge to Doug Hudson, who is another longtime Republican. So a bit of a mixed bag there in Sussex, where you had one Democratic challenger win, another Democratic challenger lose.
The kind of balance of power, if you will, for those keeping track is three-two for Republicans. There are three Republicans on County Council and now two Democratic council members.
What do you think the impact of that split result from last night will be on land use policy in Sussex County?
I think that last night’s vote kind of follows the 2024 election where a slate of three new candidates all won and all kind of came in running on issues about growth and development as well. But I think that the tenor is a little bit different this time.
I think that Jill Hicks was very focused on wanting to have her voice and have a say in the development of Sussex County’s next comprehensive plan, which is a ten-year document that guides growth and development for Sussex County.
I think that she really was hoping or is hoping to focus on creating a plan for growth and development in Sussex County that is more holistic, if you will, and less kind of piecemeal and moves away from fights over individual projects – I think about a lot of the drama surrounding Atlantic Fields, the kind of big commercial development off Route 24 last year – and really thinking about ways to integrate infrastructure improvements, mixed use developments, affordable housing issues as well, into the development conversation in Sussex County as it continues to grow kind of at warp speed almost.
Final impact question here. I wonder if you can just speak a little bit about your thoughts on the cumulative impact on rank and file Republican voters. Once again, no statewide offices went to Republicans. They had some unexpected flips of Republican House seats.
How can Republican voters make their voices heard as their party reach continues to shrink in Delaware?
I think you kind of hit the nail on the head for what the Republican leadership is probably going to be asking themselves or, you know, if I was a Republican state party leader, it’s the question that I would be asking myself.
I don’t have a good answer for what it means. There were three flips in the House of Representatives last night. I think it will be interesting moving forward to see if Democrats retain those seats in 2028, or if this was kind of a trickle-down from national rebuke that we saw of Trump administration policies and the “blue tsunami” that we saw across the country.
For Republicans it kind of comes down to coalescing around a message. I think that at the statewide level we saw Republicans really struggled to find what their message was going to be as a party. I don’t know if I have any words of encouragement or advice for Republicans, but I think that it’s a dynamic that will be interesting to see how it continues to shape up in coming years.
And for those rank and file Republican voters – you are still a Delawarean. You know, those are still your representatives. You can still make your voice heard. Show up at Leg Hall, go to committee hearings, talk.
Exactly. And I think that one thing that I also heard from some winners last night – I’m thinking about Greg Lindner down in the fourth House district near Long Neck and Oak Orchard, he was very clear that he plans to be a representative for the entire district and not just for those that voted him into office.
I think that that’s really telling about where the state is.
I also heard from Alonna Berry that she told me that throughout her day, her tour of the district yesterday, that she had heard from voters that they were really looking for political leaders to turn down the temperature, to put an end to the division. It’ll be interesting to see how some of that takes shape.
A lot of these big issues that people said brought them out to the polls – the cost of living, housing costs, gas prices, those are things that affect everyone. These aren’t partisan issues.
Like you said, casting your vote, speaking at public meetings, going to legislative hall, these are all kind of levers that you can pull to engage civically in ways that let your elected officials know what you want from them.
So let’s end on this: this didn’t necessarily play out last night, it played out more in the primaries, this center left/far left divide in the Democratic Party.
But in about three hours, as we record this, the House Democrats are going to be voting for who will be the speaker of the House. What are you looking for as that center left-far left divide perhaps plays out in that election?
Just a quick clarifying point that the meeting that’s taking place tonight – again, we’re speaking on Wednesday, November 4th – is the kind of an internal Democratic House caucus meeting where they will determine their majority leader, majority whip.
And I believe how it works is they will vote on who they would like to nominate as their House Speaker, but the Speaker of the House does formally need to be approved by the entire House of Representatives. Though in years past, it’s my understanding that Republicans have just elected who is put forth as the nominee for that position. So just to be super crystal clear.
But later tonight, Democrats will kind of have their first intraparty test of how they’re going to govern together. This meeting of choosing Democratic House leadership – in some ways it’s the first litmus test for this new kind of state of progressive lawmakers that were thrust into office after the primary election.
I think it’ll be most interesting to see who ultimately comes out on top of that race. I think it’ll help maybe be a bit of a guide post or a guiding light for what we can expect for the next two years from the Democratic caucus.
It’s been reported that the current House Speaker, Melissa Minor-Brown, is being challenged by a vocal progressive lawmaker, Medinah Wilson-Anton. In my own reporting, I’ve heard any number of possibilities for how that race could ultimately turn out. The votes are conducted via secret ballot internally within the Democratic Party, so it will be interesting to see how they ultimately shake out. It will help us understand how longtime, maybe more center left candidates and then some of these more progressive left candidates are going to get along with one another, are going to come together.
If they can kind of agree quickly and easily on a leadership team, that might say one thing. I’ve also heard the idea kind of bandied about that neither the current House Speaker Minor-Brown nor Representative Medinah Wilson-Anton will win out, and that somehow there will be a kind of third choice – a dark horse candidate – maybe put forward as a kind of consensus pick. I think that also will tell us that maybe there’s coalition building happening.
Ultimately, I think just the political nerd in me is kind of interested to see how it shakes out, but I don’t want to make too many guesses. You know, this all could be a moot point and maybe it will be a moot point by the time this comes out. But it does speak more broadly to the possibility of these friction points between the more progressive Working Families Party-backed candidates and the more longtime, establishment or center left candidates, if you will.
That was a big talking point during the primaries. The Working Families Party and progressive candidates, I want to say they unseated four or five Democratic incumbents. Again, forgive me for not having the exact number, but they’re sending a larger contingent to Dover than they have in years past.
So it will be interesting to see how these different factions that have not always gotten along in the past, now that the progressive faction has more numbers, how they will fare over the next two years. It’ll be interesting to see.
Well, thank you for your insights, Tim, and for your continued reporting as our elected officials get to work for Delawareans.
Of course. Happy to be here and happy to do the work.