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.”

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.