Early House leadership discourse is conciliatory as liberal politics takes further hold

By Bradley Vasoli

Liberal politics are on a steady march in the Delaware House of Representatives.

The shift reached a milestone in September when progressive Kamela Smith defeated Speaker Valerie Longhurst (D-Bear) in their state House primary. The trend continued with the Democrats boosting their chamber majority by one seat in the general election earlier this month.

And the leftward movement persisted last week through a caucus vote for a liberal trio of House leaders: Speaker-elect Melissa Minor-Brown (D-New Castle), Majority Leader Kerri Evelyn Harris (D-Dover) and Majority Whip Ed Osienski (D-Newark).

While party caucuses choose leaders and whips, Minor-Brown will still need majority approval of the House to officially become speaker on January 14, 2025, an easy hurdle to clear given the Democrats’ 13-seat advantage. Minor-Brown will move into the speakership from her latest post as majority leader. Harris previously served as majority whip and Osienski most recently chaired the House Labor Committee.

Meanwhile, House Republicans will have a new leadership duo going into the 2025-26 session. Former House Minority Leader Mike Ramone (R-Pike Creek) didn’t seek a return to his seat; instead, he ran unsuccessfully for governor against Democratic New Castle County Executive Matt Meyer. His caucus’s members elected Representative Tim Dukes (R-Laurel) to take Ramone’s place, and Representative Jeff Spiegelman (R-Townsend) was chosen as minority whip, replacing Representative Lyndon Yearick (R-Camden) in that post.

The Democrats’ policy leanings

In her six years as a representative, Minor-Brown has sponsored an abortion insurance mandate that passed last term, advocated for a higher state minimum wage, and supported using the government’s power to lower pharmaceutical costs. Harris has been outspoken in favor of universal Medicare and other social welfare programs as well as more aggressive environmental regulation.

As for Harris, her campaign website lists 91 “agenda items” across 11 categories. During her unsuccessful primary challenge against Tom Carper in 2018, she advocated for progressive causes such as Medicare for All, universal pre-K, $15 minimum wage, and criminal justice reform. She was a co-sponsor of House Bill 383, which protects the federal 340B Drug Pricing Program in Delaware and was signed by Gov. Carney in September 2024.

In a statement, House Democrats touted Minor-Brown as the first Black female speaker and Harris as the first LGBTQ+ majority leader. Osienski told Delaware Live the leadership team aligns with the First State’s demographic and geographic diversity.

“The makeup of the leadership team, I think, really resembles and looks like Delaware,” he said, noting he and Minor-Brown come from northern Delaware while Harris hails from Kent County. “So I do think it’s a good mix and I’m happy to be joining them.”

He said his own work on the Labor Committee demonstrates his commitment to pro-worker priorities. He added he hopes the General Assembly can pursue legislation to improve government-staffer background checks and thus prevent misappropriation of unemployment funds. (This spring, a former Delaware Department of Labor supervisor was exposed as having embezzled $181,000 last year, bringing the issue of fraud to widespread public attention.)

What else he, Minor-Brown and Harris will make key legislative priorities for the next two years is part of an ongoing conversation that he said has yet to conclude.

“As the new whip, I will be working with all my members to help them understand where the votes are for their legislation,” he said, underscoring the whip’s duty to secure support for a party’s proposals. “But there is definitely plenty of work to be done and we’re excited [about] the new leadership and I’m happy to be joining the team and working with my colleagues to get the legislation passed.”

House Democrats over the last session undertook legislative proposals that resonated with the party’s left-wing base, including legal protections for healthcare providers performing “gender-affirming care” and a constitutional ban on capital punishment. Those two measures didn’t make it to Democratic Governor John Carney’s desk, but pro-abortion legislation, offshore wind policies. and Medicaid funding increases did.

Republican Caucus goals in development

As for the Republicans, Dukes identified economics, budgeting, education and public safety as the policy issues his caucus intends to give the most attention. He said Republican House members will conference this week to determine more detailed treatment of these matters. Like Osienski, he declined at this early stage to wade into areas where the two parties may conflict.

One facet of the economy he said he hopes the legislature will tackle this session is Delawareans’ cost of living in light of high gasoline and other expenses. Avoiding tax increases, he said, would therefore be prudent. According to the pro-free-market Tax Foundation, Delaware’s combined state and local tax burden ranks 33rd lowest among all 50 states.

“That should be one of the last things on our list — the desire to raise taxes,” he said.

Osienski said it’s too soon for him to speak regarding any revenue changes this far out from the budget process.

A pivotal factor impacting upcoming legislative debates, in Dukes’s estimation, is the newness of all five House leaders to the positions they are filling. At the same time, Delaware is getting a new governor who is atypical insofar as he comes from county government, not Dover. The new minority leader said his caucus finds itself “in pretty good unity” and hopeful for constructive policymaking over the next two years.

“We think there’s real opportunity with the new governor coming in to communicate with him and to work with him,” he said, expressing similar optimism about working with the Democrats’ new House leaders.

The new Democratic whip was similarly conciliatory.

“I’m looking forward to having conversations with my colleagues on the Republican side to see where we can get votes to pass colleagues’ legislation,” he said.

Bob Perkins, president of Brandywine Public Strategies and executive director of the Delaware Business Roundtable, a business-leader consortium, said it’s hard to say at the outset what the new House leadership will mean economically for Delaware. He insisted, however, that those steering state policy must prioritize job growth.

“If Delaware does not have a firm economic foundation that is growing, opportunities for citizens will dry up and that will only cause problems because you don’t get revenue from personal income tax and people working, you will have to raise taxes, you will have to do all kinds of other things,” he said. “So you have to be very careful, in addition to doing some of the things that the progressive caucuses may want to do, that they still, as a foundational element of governing, make sure that we’re driving economic growth. Because if we don’t, the whole state will suffer.”

Last session’s leaders of Delaware’s Democratic Senate majority survived their caucus elections, with Majority Leader Bryan Townsend (D-Newark South) and Majority Whip Elizabeth “Tizzy” Lockman (D-Wilmington) keeping their positions. Senate Democrats nominated Speaker David Sokola (D-Newark) to stay in his role, with his retention likely to become official via a vote of the full chamber on December 16.

It remains to be seen whether the Senate Republican Leadership will see any change. Majority Leader Gerald Hocker (R-Ocean View) and Brian Pettyjohn (R-Georgetown) will stay in office during the new session, not having been up for reelection this year. Their caucus will meet on November 21.