Governor John Carney officially adds his name to the race for Mayor of Wilmington.
Carney filed his candidacy paperwork Monday morning and held a campaign kickoff event in the city Monday night.
He says he sees the seat as a step up, not a step down.
“Maybe a more challenging job than the one I currently have in the sense that you’re closer to ordinary folks every day and dealing with the problems that they deal with every day,” Carney says.
Carney and his wife Tracey have lived in Wilmington for nearly 40 years and says his current administration has invested more money into the City of Wilmington than any other, adding the state cannot be successful if its largest city is not.
“We are the business and cultural hub of the state, and it has been, not as much as it was historically, but it is still that,” Carney says. “It’s an employment center, it’s a generator of income for the state and for the city importantly. And the people who grow up in the city provide the future workforce for all the businesses in our state.”
Carney says he is focused on public safety and gun violence, as wells as affordable housing and community development, which he says will happen block by block, rather than through large urban renewal projects.
“There’s no gentrification happening,” he says. “What’s happening is vacant houses are being rehabbed, sold to identified, affordable buyers, so somebody who is probably low to moderate income but can afford the price point for the mortgage. So you’re not seeing high priced townhouses that are being developed.”
One recent point of contention in city politics is a residency requirement for employees, which current Mayor Mike Purzycki opposes. Carney says the requirement makes sense to him.
“It is possible there are jobs that are hard to fill or you might have to make some exceptions,” he says. “I certainly want to see public safety jobs filled with people who live in the city.”
Carney will face former state treasurer and current city treasurer Velda Jones-Potter in the Democratic primary. Potter ran for mayor in 2020, but lost to Mike Purzycki, who announced in October he will not run for a third term.
Carney’s candidacy was widely expected – he launched a committee to explore the idea several months ago.
Carney has served as Delaware’s governor since 2017. Before that he served three terms as the state’s lone Congressman. He also served for two terms as Delaware’s Lieutenant Governor and previously as Delaware’s Secretary of Finance.
