Hall-Long rallies Democratic troops for 2018

There may be more than 18 months before the midterm elections in 2018, but during a recent luncheon in Lewes, Lt. Gov. Bethany Hall-Long delivered a strong message of mobilization to her Democratic brethren.

Today is the first step in sitting down and mapping out a plan for the next election, she said.

Hall-Long is a Democrat serving her first term as lieutenant governor after more than a decade as a member of the General Assembly representing the Middletown area, first in the House and then the Senate. She urged Sussex Democrats to recruit strong candidates to turn back the sea of red that has flooded Sussex County.

Hall-Long was speaking to a full house at the March 9 luncheon of the Eastern Sussex Democrat Club. The Bethany Blues parking lot was overflowing and all the seats in the restaurant’s private meeting room were taken.

This was the second time Hall-Long had been invited to the luncheon, but she had to cut that meeting short because it was in the hours immediately following the end of the prisoner siege at the James T. Vaughn Correctional Center in Smyrna that ended in the death of Correction Officer Lt. Steven Floyd Sr.

At that February meeting, Hall-Long, who represented the district where the prison is located for six years as a senator prior to her new role, said she had come prepared with different remarks, but she had to fulfill her role as lieutenant governor.

"These are the moments that bring you to your knees," she said.

The March meeting had a much different tone. It was less than two weeks after the special-election win of Democrat Stephanie Hansen over Republican John Marino to fill Hall-Long’s vacant Senate seat. Had Marino won, Republicans would have been in control of the Senate for the first time in more than 40 years.

Hall-Long credited the Democrats in the room with participating in the door-knocking and phone calling needed for Hansen to win. Delaware was the first state to hold an election since the November election, and it delivered a referendum, she said.

Speaking of the recent election cycle, Hall-Long said the Democratic Party needed to stick to its core social issues, but also get back to the real-world monetary issues facing voters. The reason Hillary Clinton lost was because the party moved away from pocketbook issues, she said.

Hall-Long suggested the club form a subcommittee that will recruit candidates to run in 2018 that could stand with Speaker of the House Rep. Pete Schwartzkopf, D-Rehoboth Beach, the lone Democrat elected to a state or county position in Sussex.

It all starts with the people and the issues they care about, said Hall-Long, who then listed off roads, schools and medical care as examples. Looking at historical voting trends during mid-term elections, 2018 will not have a huge voter turnout, she said, unless there are strong, motivated candidates to bring people to the polls.

Tides go in and tides go out, she said, and it’s time for the Democrats to have their turn in Sussex.