Delaware
Delaware replaces Trump’s U.S. attorney without legal drama seen in Jersey, Virginia
Sens. Coons, Blunt Rochester deemed Murray unqualified
Murray also acknowledged that she could not have obtained the post by the process outlined in the U.S. Constitution, in which a president makes a formal nomination and U.S. Senate confirmation is required.
That’s because part of that process is a longstanding tradition that requires the nominee to receive so-called “blue slip” endorsements by their state’s two U.S. senators.
Delaware’s two U.S. senators, Chris Coons and Lisa Blunt Rochester, are Democrats who interviewed Murray for the post. Coons said the duo decided Murray, who has done criminal defense work, didn’t have the prosecutorial experience to qualify as the state’s chief federal law enforcement official.
Although Murray accused the senators of playing politics with her unconventional appointment, Coons and Blunt Rochester disagreed.
“Any suggestion of political partiality throughout this process is misleading and blatantly false, said Taj Magruder, a spokesman for Blunt Rochester.
Coons, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee that considers nominees before they are considered by the full Senate, told WHYY News last month that Murray’s acting status was “probably illegal.”
After Colm Connolly, Delaware’s chief federal judge, issued the order naming Wallace, Coons said he’s pleased the judges exercised their lawful “power to appoint a U.S. attorney in the absence of a presidential nomination.”
Coons said he’s also relieved that the transition occurred without the rancor seen in New Jersey and the Eastern District of Virginia.
In Virginia, former Trump insurance lawyer Lindsay Halligan was ruled ineligible by a federal judge in her district because Bondi named her interim boss after the 120-day period to do so under federal law had expired.
Perhaps more importantly, the indictments Halligan obtained days after taking office against former FBI director James Comey and New York Attorney General Latisha James were dismissed. Bondi has pledged to appeal but has not yet done so.
Though Habba resigned after the adverse ruling in New Jersey, Halligan remains in her post in Virginia.
Other end-around maneuvers by Trump and Bondi have been deemed unlawful in Nevada, New Mexico and California, but those three remain under appeal.
“I’m just glad that we’ve avoided that level of drama here and that in Ben Wallace, we’ve got a court-appointed U.S. attorney who can keep the office moving forward in a constructive way,” Coons said.
Besides handling major crimes, “the district of Delaware handles some of our country’s most important patent litigation, corporate litigation, bankruptcy litigation,” Coons said.
“So it’s important for Delawareans and our constituents that we have a well-managed, disciplined, appropriate respect for the rule of law in how the federal courts here are handled and how the U.S. attorney’s office is led. And I’m relieved that we seem to have a path forward here that is appropriate.”
Law prof says Judge Connolly ‘navigated it as best he could’
Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond who tracks appointments of U.S. attorneys and federal judges, praised Connolly, a Republican and former U.S. attorney for Delaware, for his deft handling of the potentially volatile situation.
“He navigated it as best he could. He didn’t provoke a confrontation,” Tobias said of Connolly, who Trump appointed as a judge during his first presidential term, with the Senate’s approval. “And he deserves a lot of credit for keeping the courts moving.”
Prior to Friday’s order, Connolly had publicly sought applications for the post, writing that “the court would only appoint a person the court deems qualified for the position.”
That clearly wasn’t Murray. In his previous order in November, Connolly wrote that judges had decided not to name anyone to the post after Murray’s interim status expired Nov. 12.
That prompted Bondi to name her “acting” U.S. attorney and led U.S. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, himself a former Trump personal attorney, to publicly rebuke Connolly on social media.
School board elections are one of the highest-leverage, lowest-participation decisions in Delaware. Turnout is low. Margins are small. In some cases, candidates run without a real contest. When voters do not engage, leadership is not selected. It is decided by default. When governance is decided by default, the system performs accordingly.
It’s clear that when residents fail to vote, it can have consequences — ones that most people recognize, but rarely connect to the ballot box. It shapes whether schools are focused on clear priorities or pulled in competing directions. It determines whether resources are invested in what improves student outcomes or spread thin. Those decisions show up in real ways: in the preparedness of students, the confidence of families, and the strength of Delaware’s workforce and economy.
In 2024, fewer than 5% of eligible voters cast ballots in Delaware school board elections, even as concern about outcomes, funding, and district leadership remained high across every sector of public life. The disconnect between what communities demand and how they participate is one of the most significant, and most solvable, barriers to progress in our state.
Data from the 2026 Delaware Opportunity Outlook reinforce this disconnect. A majority of Delawareans believe school board members have a direct influence on the quality of K–12 education, yet far fewer report understanding how improvement efforts are being carried out, or how decisions are made at the local level. In other words, people believe boards matter, but are not consistently using the one mechanism they have to influence who serves and how decisions are made.
What governing actually requires
A strong board member asks clear, outcome-focused questions and expects specific answers. They connect decisions to priorities, work through tradeoffs with colleagues, and ensure decisions are understood before the board moves forward. They listen for whether information reflects progress or activity, and press for clarity when it does not.
These are not intuitive responsibilities. They require preparation. School board governance is often treated as something individuals can step into without training, but these are complex roles that involve setting priorities, interpreting data, making tradeoffs, and ensuring decisions lead to results over time.
The Delaware Opportunity Outlook suggests that this is not how the role is widely understood. While Delawareans recognize that school boards influence the quality of education, far fewer identify training and professional preparation as essential.
That gap has direct consequences. As the state advances new priorities, the effectiveness of those efforts will depend on whether local board members are prepared to implement them, monitor progress, and make results visible.
Delaware’s moment
Delaware has established a clear direction for public education: defined priorities, a statewide literacy commitment, and a funding reform that will place significant new responsibilities on local boards. Plans set direction. Boards determine whether those plans turn into results.
What happens next will not be determined by those plans alone. It will be determined by how effectively school boards translate those priorities into decisions, how consistently they track progress, and whether they make results visible to the public.
Candidate evaluation
Evaluating a candidate is straightforward: Can they name a small number of district priorities and explain why those matter? Can they describe what data they would review regularly and how they would use it? Can they explain how resources should align to outcomes and what they would do if results do not improve? Candidates who can answer those questions demonstrate an understanding of the role. Those who cannot speak to governance beyond the issues that brought them to the race may find the role more demanding than they anticipated.
Make your voice heard
Voting in a school board election is one of the few places where individual participation has a direct and immediate impact on how the system performs. School board elections are decided by small numbers of voters. Your decision to engage, or not, determines who governs. Choosing not to participate is not neutrality. It is a choice, and it carries the same weight as the vote itself.
Today, a decision will be made about who governs Delaware’s schools. You can be part of that decision, or it will be made without you. Either way, the results will show up in classrooms, in communities, and in the long-term strength of this state.
Find out who is running. Evaluate them on the work the role requires, not only on the positions they hold. Vote, and encourage others to do the same.
For more details about voting in today’s elections, visit First State Educate’s 2026 School Board Elections page.
Read more from Spotlight Delaware
Monday, May 11, 2026 10:57AM
TRAINER BOROUGH, Pa. (WPVI) — A person has died after being hit by a vehicle in Delaware County.
It happened around 2:45 a.m. on Monday in the 4300 block of West 9th Street in Trainer Borough.
Police and fire crews were called to the Parkview Mobile Home community for reports of a pedestrian hit by a car.
Officials say the victim went into cardiac arrest immediately after the crash.
The investigation into the crash is ongoing.
Copyright © 2026 WPVI-TV. All Rights Reserved.
LAUREL, Del. — Delaware State Police are investigating a shooting in Laurel that left a 19-year-old man injured Friday afternoon and resulted in firearm charges against a Georgetown man, authorities said.
Troopers responded around 3:20 p.m. Friday to TidalHealth Nanticoke after the victim arrived at the hospital in a personal vehicle with non-life-threatening gunshot wounds, according to police. Investigators said the man had been shot in front of a residence on Portsville Road near Randall Street in Laurel.
Police said the victim was transported to the hospital in a blue Mazda 3 driven by 20-year-old Alexison Amisial of Georgetown. Troopers later located the vehicle and Amisial at First Stop Gas Station, where investigators said he was found carrying an untraceable firearm concealed in his waistband.
Amisial was taken into custody without incident and charged with carrying a concealed deadly weapon and possession of an untraceable firearm, both felonies, police said. He was arraigned in Justice of the Peace Court 3 and released on a $3,500 unsecured bond.
The Delaware State Police Troop 4 Criminal Investigations Unit continues to investigate the shooting. Authorities are asking anyone with information to contact Detective R. Mitchell at 302-752-3794 or Delaware Crime Stoppers at 800-847-3333.
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