Tuesday marked the first day of the 152nd General Assembly legislative session.
The session, which lasts for two years, will notably be the last of Gov. John Carney’s tenure as governor. It will also include a more diverse and progressive crop of lawmakers. Legislators were sworn into office on the first day.
“The votes of today become the textbooks of tomorrow,” said Sen. Sarah McBride, a Wilmington Democrat, in brief remarks after her swearing-in. “As we begin this session, it is my hope that someday long in the future, a young person will visit this place where we work, they’ll look at our names on the wall, and they will be able to say of the 152nd General Assembly: ‘They got it right.’ So let’s go try.”
Here’s what you should know about the legislative session.
New year, new lawmakers
The midterm election in Delaware yielded a new class of young, progressive and more diverse lawmakers.
The Delaware Democrats retained their majority in the Legislature. The party flipped a Senate seat in the election, further strengthening its supermajority in that chamber.
This legislative session will also have the highest number of women serving in the General Assembly, according to the Center for American Women and Politics.
Twenty-three of the 62-member General Assembly are women. The previous record was in 2006 when 21 women served in the Delaware Legislature. Rep. Ruth Briggs King remains the only woman in the Republican caucus.
A LEGISLATIVE RECAP:Abortion, guns and weed: Here are the bills Delaware lawmakers did, and didn’t, pass this year
DeShanna Neal, who won the District 13 House race, is likely the first nonbinary person to be elected to office in Delaware.
This will also be the most racially diverse Legislature in the General Assembly, with a number of Black lawmakers being elected in the midterms. There will be 16 members of the General Assembly’s Black Caucus, which had only a handful of lawmakers five years ago. There are no people of color who are a part of the Republican caucus.
A more progressive House
In the primary, Delaware’s Working Families Party showed the state’s progressive wave was not backing down.
Four progressive newcomers, backed by the party, were sworn in to the Delaware House of Representatives on Tuesday.
It’s likely these new lawmakers – Neal, Sophie Phillips, Cyndie Romer and Kerri Evelyn Harris – could have key roles in the passage of progressive legislation, particularly with the environment and criminal justice reform.
THE PROGRESSIVE WAVE:Democratic primary shows progressive legislative wave continues to ride strong in Delaware
Shake-ups in House leadership
This legislative session also features major changes in House leadership.
Neal, who will now represent the Elsmere area, defeated longtime House Majority Whip Larry Mitchell in the Democratic primary.
As a result, Rep. Melissa Minor-Brown, of New Castle, was elected by the House Democratic Caucus to serve as majority whip. This is the first time in state history a person of color has been elected to House leadership.
Rep. Pete Schwartzkopf will continue to serve as House speaker, which he has been doing since 2012. And Rep. Valerie Longhurst will return as majority leader. This will be the first time the caucus has elected two women in leadership.
The House Republican caucus leadership will also see significant changes. Rep. Mike Ramone, of Pike Creek South, will be the new House minority leader, replacing Rep. Danny Short of Seaford.
Rep. Lyndon Yearick, of Camden-Wyoming, will serve as the new House minority whip, which was previously held by Rep. Tim Dukes of Laurel.
For the Senate, leadership for both Democrats and Republicans will stay the same.
