Delaware
Delaware gubernatorial candidates meet for latest head-to-head debate
Delaware’s gubernatorial candidates Matt Meyer and Mike Ramone faced off on the debate stage Thursday at the University of Delaware.
The debate included conversations on education, health care, housing and climate change, which led to several opposing takes from Meyer and Ramone.
While they agreed Delaware’s educational funding structure should be reworked, the pair clashed on the issue of voucher programs for charter and private schools. The Republican Ramone said constituents should have options.
“I absolutely believe if a child and their family’s only ability is to go to a failing public school, they should have the ability to go somewhere else, whether they have to get a tax voucher to offset that cost, or whatever,” Ramone said. “That’s our obligation – to allow children to go to a school that works.”
The Democrat Meyer – a former math teacher – said voucher programs are a dangerous route to take.
“It’s a right wing attempt, a Republican attempt, to drain the public school of resources and get tax breaks for wealthy people who are already sending their kids to private school,” Meyer said.
The candidates found themselves divided again when discussing how to address the affordable housing crisis in Delaware.
Ramone pointed to a loss of opportunity as the source of homelessness.
“We have municipalities that have created so many regulatory hurdles for builders to be able to build a community in a way that is affordable. If you’re making them have all these regulatory byproducts that they have to put in a home, they will never be able to produce affordable homes, and they’re only going to produce what makes money.”
Ramone added he wants to bring the real estate transfer tax down to 3% rather than raising it to 4%.
Meyer said he sees housing as a basic right.
“I don’t think tax cuts are a solution to our crisis of affordability. I think there are Delawareans out there really struggling,” Meyer said. “The rent is too damn high, and we’ve got to get up as leaders and get shit done.”
In the weeks following Hurricanes Helene and Milton, the two were also asked about climate change and resiliency.
Meyer and Ramone both said climate change is real, though Ramone emphasized that it is both natural and manmade.
“It’s a little bit of both,” Ramone said. “But we have to come with strong, big solutions, not put sandbags up or whatever. We have to use our money – that when we have a void at the Indian River Inlet, we don’t sit there and babysit it for three years and let it run over.”
Meyer said Delaware needs to urgently invest in infrastructure and resiliency to be prepared as people living in low-lying areas.
When asked about resilience and climate change, Ramone brought up his opposition to an electric vehicle mandate, something Meyer later concurred with.
“I think you just asked my opponent about the challenges of resiliency in the face of these hurricanes, which are literally killing our fellow Americans because of lack of preparedness,” Meyer said. “… My opponent said a solution is to eliminate an electric vehicle mandate, which will not save lives. We need to invest in resiliency. We need to invest in infrastructure. Climate change is real, Mr. Ramone, and we need to act with urgency. It is truly an existential crisis.”
Evan Krape/Evan Krape / University of Delaw
When conversation turned toward transparency, Ramone identified part of Delaware’s problem as having Democrats largely at the helm of state government.
“How do you fix it?” Ramone asked. “That’s why God gave us two parties. You bring in balance. Delaware needs to decide whether they think we should have every single statewide seat, the governor’s seat, a super majority in the Senate, and, if my opponent’s last email to raise more money comes true, a super majority in the House – all of one party.”
Both candidates have supported creating an inspector general’s office to address transparency and accountability in Delaware.
“The first step to having ethics and transparency in government is making sure we elect ethical leaders,” Meyer said.
Even in their opinions on how to approach the role of governor, the candidates differed. Ramone said he currently looks to represent everyone in his district, regardless of their identities.
“I represent people. I help people. My job as a governor isn’t to exercise my morality. My job as a governor is to keep our community safe, keep our people in an environment where safety is always top,” Ramone said.
Voters elect leaders to make moral judgments, Meyer said.
“I think that there should be steps taken by our state government to make sure that historic inequities are being addressed. And so if I see bills or ideas that come across my desk, proposals from departments across our government that conflict with those ethics, with those ideals, I will veto them or work to stop them.”
Meyer referenced Gov. Carney’s decision to veto the medical aid in dying bill and said he respects the governor’s decision to cite his morals in his explanation.
In their concluding statements, Ramone and Meyer made their final asks. Ramone called on voters to shift Delaware’s one-party habits and balance out the state, while Meyer highlighted his passion, stoked by his time as a “pissed off math teacher” frustrated by a lack of real change.
WILMINGTON, Del. (WPVI) — The family of Kadir Skinner is calling for criminal charges against the police officer who shot the 19-year-old after the release of officer body camera footage that attorneys say contradicts the police account of the incident.
The shooting happened June 24 after 11 p.m. at 24th and Jessup streets.
Calls grow for body cam video in deadly Wilmington police shooting
Body camera video shows an officer drawing and firing his weapon while yelling commands. In the footage, officers can be heard saying, “He’s got a gun,” as they approach Skinner, who is on the ground.
Skinner repeatedly tells officers he is unarmed and says he cannot breathe.
“I don’t got nothing. I don’t got nothing,” Skinner says in the video.
Footage shows officers handcuffing Skinner and kneeling on him while he continues to say, “I don’t got nothing. I can’t breathe.”
Skinner was shot in the rear.
READ MORE | ‘We need answers’: Family disputes details after man killed in Wilmington police shooting
A second body camera angle shows a crowd forming as officers instruct people to back up.
Video from a third responding officer appears to show an officer picking something up from the grass and returning toward the crowd and the officers with Skinner.
In the footage, an officer can be heard saying, “Secure the gun,” and the officer wearing the body cam says, “I have it.”
Attorneys for Skinner’s family, along with family members and community supporters, gathered at Shiloh Baptist Church in Wilmington following the release of the video to demand justice.
“Regardless if he had a gun or not, he was still shot in the back, running from police, not having been a threat,” attorney Harry Daniels said.
SEE ALSO | Family releases witness video after 19-year-old fatally shot by police in Wilmington
Attorney Chance Lynch said the footage showed “an unjustified killing.”
“What we saw and what we witnessed was an unjustified killing,” Lynch said.
Attorneys for the family contend the video disputes the police version of events. Wilmington police previously said Skinner came out of a home armed and waved a gun at a crowd before officers opened fire.
“The video that I saw, I didn’t see a crowd, and I did not see Kadir coming out of a residence. I did not see a crowd, and I did not see Kadir pointing a firearm at a crowd,” Lynch said.
Attorneys and the family maintain that Skinner was running from a loose dog.
The family also announced a $25 million claim against the city of Wilmington for wrongful death. They are seeking criminal charges against the officer who shot Skinner.
The Delaware Department of Justice is investigating.
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Delmarva Power objects to applying legislation to interim rate
The debate among commissioners over the breadth of their oversight on utility rates comes as the company has pushed back on the group, limiting its interim rate increase to half of its total request, even while it faced criticism from commissioners that it is “cruel” and “tone deaf” for continuing to press for rate hikes.
Delmarva Power, an investor-owned utility, serves 344,000 residential and nonresidential customers in the state. Its parent company, Exelon Corporation, is the nation’s largest regulated electric and gas utility.
Its customers pay a supply and a delivery charge for gas and electricity. The supply of energy comes from PJM Interconnection, a regional grid serving Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and several other states. Delmarva Power profits through the distribution fee.
Delmarva Power Region President Marcus Beal said they need to file rate hike requests to recoup money it spends on improving and maintaining the infrastructure.
“Our equipment is extremely expensive, the items that we buy, the transformers, they’re very large, complex things to build,” Beal said. “Even something as simple as a treated pole of a certain size can be very pricey, so we spend a lot of money on the grid itself.”
Under Delaware law, interim rates can be approved seven months after a rate case is filed, while the full petition is being considered by the commission. Prior to the legislation, 100% of the rate request could be implemented. The bill caps interim rates at 50% and allows 75% of the ask to go into effect after 12 months. The bill also puts limits on Delmarva Power’s infrastructure spending.
Delmarva Power spokesperson Matt Ford said the commission overstepped its authority to cut the interim rate as much as they did and the company has argued in its PSC submissions that SB 326 did not apply to the rate increase request filed in December because it had yet to be signed into law. Meyer said he signed the bill Monday.
“Delmarva Power further reserves its objections to the applicability of the legislation, should it become effective, including its impermissible retroactive application,” the utility company said in comments filed Monday afternoon with the commission.
In addition, Delmarva Power has objected to halving $23.2 million in distribution system improvement charges as part of the interim rate commissioners approved. The fee allows utility companies to recover project costs and depreciation between full rate case proceedings.
“My suggestion is, if you don’t like it, appeal it,” Iorii said.
It’s unclear whether the utility plans to appeal the order. Ford said they were reviewing it and its implications.
Tweedie said he hopes they decide not to appeal.
“If they appeal this, what they are essentially saying is, ‘We want to extract more money from our customers than the commission intended to allow,’” he said.
Delaware State Police have identified the man who was struck and killed by a vehicle while lying on the roadway in Harrington, Delaware.
On Monday, July 13, 2026, Jimmy Burgess, 62, was struck by a Chevrolet Silverado driving westbound near the 1500 block of Whiteleysburg Road.
According to police, the Silverado, which was operated by a 17-year-old boy from Milton, Delaware, was unable to stop once he saw Burgess on the road, striking him. The driver of the Silverado was not injured during the crash.
Burgess was transported to an area hospital where he was pronounced dead, said police.
The roadway was closed for approximately three hours while the scene was investigated and cleared.
The Delaware State Police Troop 3 Collison Reconstruction Unit continues to investigate this crash.
Troopers ask anyone with information about the crash contact Sergeant M. Long at (302) 698-8518.
Information can also be provided by sending a private Facebook message to the Delaware State Police, or by contacting Delaware Crime Stoppers at 1-(800) 847-3333
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