Democrats were able to maintain the strong majorities in both chambers of the General Assembly following Tuesday’s election.
In the Senate, Democrats added a seat to give them 15 out of 21. In the House, they maintain their 26-15 majority.
Senate majority whip Senator Elizabeth Lockman says Democrats aimed to not only maintain their Senate supermajority, but expand it.
“We had the retirement of Senator Ennis and we had the retirement of Senator Lopez who’s on the other side of the aisle, so those were two races we were really excited to see filled with Democrats, and we were successful,” said Lockman.
Democratic candidate Russ Huxtable won the 6th Senate district seat, which was held by Republican Ernie Lopez since 2012. Before Lopez, Republican Liane Sorenson held the seat for 18 years.
And former Democratic Senator Ennis’ seat was won by newcomer Kyra Hoffner, who pulled about 52% of the vote.
House District 26’s Madinah Wilson-Anton won her second term in Tuesday’s election. She says she’s excited to see new faces in the General Assembly, especially Democratic newcomer Stell Parker Selby not only flipped the longtime Republican held House District 20 seat blue, but also made history as the first person of color elected to the General Assembly in Sussex County. She edged Dallas Wingate by a 51-49 margin.
Another Democratic newcomer is Sophie Phillips in the 18th House District. She says she’s ready to step in and offer solutions to constituent problems.
“A lot of them live along route 1 and route 40, where there’s a ton of traffic, so they’re dealing with a lot of noise pollution and air pollution from that,” Phillips explained. “And a lot of education issues, too. There are a lot of teachers who live within the district, so I’m definitely going to be working on a lot of education-related policy, with a lot of their help, as well. I look very forward to making sure my constituents are involved in the policy process, one hundred percent.”
Phillips adds that along with environmental policy and education, she also wants to work on domestic violence policy as soon as possible.
