Big Ideas,
Preserving Sussex County

Growth That Pays for Itself

Builders have been allowed to build as much as possible without contributing to the roads, police, fire, and EMS capacity their projects demand. When the bill comes due, it's local residents who pay - not the developers who profited.

  • Require developers to fund the road upgrades and public-safety capacity their projects create the need for.

  • Tie new development approval to demonstrated infrastructure capacity, so growth doesn't outrun the services that support it.

  • Treat chronic flooding and rising beach replenishment costs as a growth-management problem, not a routine maintenance expense.

  • Property tax fairness: relief for year-round residents, and a real look at how second- and third-home owners contribute to the infrastructure their presence requires.

Make It Affordable to Live Here

There's plenty of housing for people who can afford second and third homes, but very little for the workforce that keeps this district running, including the nurses and healthcare professionals our aging population depends on. And it's not just housing: rising utility bills are squeezing the same families, making it harder to stay in the community they serve.

  • Support workforce and healthcare-worker housing, so nurses, teachers, and service workers can afford to live near the jobs the district depends on.

  • Rein in unjustified Delmarva Power rate hikes, and make large energy users, including data centers, pay their fair share instead of shifting costs onto residents.

  • Address the provider shortage behind long waits for a first medical appointment.

  • Stop the district from losing the people it needs most to towns that are more affordable.

Protect Our Democracy

Voting should be accessible to every citizen and shouldn't cost someone hours of their day, especially in a district with a large senior population. And money plays too large a role in today's elections.

  • Restore mail-in and early voting the right way through a constitutional amendment so access can't be stripped away in court again.

  • Reduce the outsized role money plays in state elections.

Ensure A Quality Education for Every Child

Delaware just passed a new school funding formula that directs more resources to students with the greatest need. Getting that implementation right - and making sure Sussex County classrooms see the benefit - is unfinished business. But funding is only the starting point; what matters is what students actually get in the classroom.

  • Hold the state accountable for fully implementing the new funding formula, with real dollars behind special-education and multilingual-learner support.

  • Make sure Sussex County districts see their fair share - not just districts near Wilmington.

  • Support competitive pay so Sussex County can recruit and keep good teachers.

  • Push for outcomes, not just dollars - smaller class sizes where they matter most, and support for students falling behind before they fall too far.

Guarantee Women's Health Care

Delaware has been a leader on reproductive health access - but statutory protections can be repealed by a future legislature. Constitutional protections are far harder to unwind.

  • Support enshrining reproductive freedom in Delaware's constitution, so these rights can't be stripped away by a future legislature.

  • Defend Delaware's existing protections against federal rollback attempts.

  • Make sure the guarantee is real in Sussex County - not just the state's more populous counties.

Protect What Makes This District Worth Living In

Sussex County has lost an estimated 43,000 acres of forest since the late 1990s - mostly cleared for the same development that's already straining our roads, EMS, and flood control. Every acre of forest or wetland we pave over is an acre that used to protect us for free.

  • Require forest and wetland preservation standards for new development - Sussex is the only Delaware county without them.

  • Treat wetlands and forestland as flood infrastructure, not empty lots.

  • Modernize aging wastewater and stormwater systems to handle growth already approved.

  • Protect the Inland Bays and drinking water from runoff and wastewater failures.