Can Delaware Democrats keep ‘stranglehold’ on statewide offices and legislature?

Murray isn’t basing that assessment on polling within Delaware, but rather on anecdotal accounts from candidates and volunteers who are knocking on doors and meeting with voters, including Democrats who might have previously slammed the door on the GOP canvassers.

“People are leaning more toward the center right than they have been historically,” she said. “So yeah, we do have a shot.”

She also noted the strife in the Democratic gubernatorial primary, which Meyer won over Lt. Gov. Bethany Hall-Long, whom the party endorsed, and former state environmental chief Collin O’Mara. The campaign featured political action committee-funded attack ads against Hall-Long because of her yearlong campaign finance scandal, and against Meyer because of two unrelated sexual harassment lawsuits against a county police leader and a tax assessment supervisor since Meyer took office.

“The gubernatorial primary was very, very contentious on the Democrat side,” Murray said. “I don’t think the Bethany Hall-Long voters and the Collin O’Mara voters are automatically going to become Meyer voters.”

Beyond whether Murray’s party has any chance to win a statewide office, the GOP boss echoed Katz in saying “there is dissatisfaction with the one-party rule” in Delaware.

“If you were to ask a [state] representative or a senator, particularly a state senator, the majority is so strong that there’s just not even a conversation or a different point of view,” Murray said.

“That’s a danger. When you’re a republic, you want to have different viewpoints on things, and the one-party rule has taken over so much that it’s difficult to even get the moment at the microphone to say. ‘Hey, can we think about this from a different perspective?’”

On the Democratic side, party executive director Travis Williams seems untroubled by the perception that one-party rule could stifle dissent and ideas.

“We are elected to these positions, right?” Williams said. “It’s not like we’ve taken them. The Delaware voters have elected Delaware Democrats. They’ve chosen to vote for us and they haven’t chosen to vote for Republicans. So I think we’d be a little more worried about losing those seats if Republicans put forth some actual policies that people agree with.”

Williams also said that despite the party’s unsuccessful endorsement of Hall-Long, leaders have pivoted to supporting Meyer as well as the rest of the Democratic ticket. Outgoing Democratic Gov. John Carney also backed the lieutenant governor, recording an advertisement for her candidacy. While Hall-Long’s political career appears over, Carney will remain a prominent player in Delaware politics as mayor of Wilmington after winning the Democratic primary for that seat, with no GOP foe.

“We don’t have a lot of time to get stuck on what happened in the primary,” Williams said. “We’ve got to come together and work to elect Democrats in the general election. We’ve met and are continuing to work with all of the nominees. And now that we have them and things are going well, we’re united and working together.”

He’s also guardedly optimistic that once the results are in, Democrats will retain all nine statewide seats, and perhaps even have that House supermajority.

“We are confident in the conversations that we’ve been having with voters,” Williams said. “We’ve been getting good responses from folks as we’ve been out and talking to people about the issues. So that bodes well for us.”

“But there’s still a lot of work that has to get done right? It’s a constant conversation. There’s work that we’ve got to do so while it does look good, we’ve still got to get over the finish line.”