Delaware’s House Majority Caucus decided its three leadership positions in an apparently close vote Wednesday night.
State Rep. Melissa Minor Brown will remain House Speaker with Kerri Evelyn Harris as Majority Leader and Cyndie Romer as Majority Whip.
State Reps. Madinah Wilson, Kim Williams, and Sophie Phillips offered an alternative slate for those positions. Wilson told Delaware Public Media that 12 members encouraged her to run for Speaker and two additional members were excited to support her candidacy.
But ultimately Minor Brown, Harris, and Romer reached 16 votes to hit the "50% plus one" majority needed to win. Vote counting stops once "50% plus one" is reached for party cohesion.
Wilson told Delaware Public Media the close vote “creates a difficult road ahead for any leader to navigate.” But she’s excited to work with her colleagues on affordability and tax fairness.
The leadership positions set the caucus' policy agenda and decide which bills get to the floor over the legislature's two-year session.
Harris said she doesn’t expect any ill-will from the leadership vote to linger.
"We never want to feel like there's a major divide," Harris said. "...making sure that we are able to work as cohesively as possible is what we want to come out of this."
The closed-door caucus included nine newly-elected Democratic legislators.
Harris said this created a different atmosphere, as "...they only really get to hear the views of those who are running in that moment."
In 2024's election, six new House members were elected. Five new members joined in after 2022's midterm.
"...we had much smaller classes of freshmen, and so you wouldn't see as tight of margins. I think coming out of yesterday, the normal growing pains and discomfort of a leadership vote is going to course correct itself."
This will be the second term for both Minor Brown and Harris in their speaker and majority leader roles.
The only change in leadership is the majority Whip spot, where Rep. Cyndie Romer replaces Ed Osienski.
Osienski said he heard Romer was interested in the position, and wanted to support her, so he decided not to run.
House Speaker still needs a confirmation vote before becoming official. Lawmakers return to work in Dover in January for the 154th session.
Harris said the caucus intends to move quickly on the constitutional amendments that passed their first leg last year. These included same sex marriage protections in the constitution, early voting and absentee voting protections, and barring nonhuman entities from voting in local elections.
