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Delaware GOP hopeful for political future

James Dawson/Delaware Public Media
Republican Party faithful excitedly watch election results pour in Tuesday night at Grotto Pizza in Dover.

Bolstered by an upset of one of Delaware’s most senior and high-powered lawmakers, Republicans have now set their sights on ushering in a new generation of politicians.

Despite not winning in overwhelming numbers locally, GOP newcomer Anthony Delcollo upset Senate Pro Tem Patricia Blevins in Elsmere.

 

Just 31-years-old, Delcollo and a handful of other young candidates were part of the Republican strategy for this election – mostly aimed at unseating long entrenched Democrats.

 

“They are libertarian minded, they are free thinkers, they want to see a different world. They actually know how to use technology, they just don’t have staff that use it like most of the members of the senate leadership who have been in office for longer than these people have been alive,” said Charlie Copeland, state GOP chair.

 

Former party executive director John Fluharty says this victory puts them close to taking back the state senate.

 

A special election for newly minted Lt. Gov. Bethany Hall-Long’s seat in Middletown will decide the majority of a chamber than hasn’t flipped red for more than forty years.

 

Fluharty, who’s openly gay, says he thinks it’s also a turning point in social policy for the GOP.

 

“I spend a number of year kind of out in the woods by myself and now I’m starting to see these younger millennial candidates taking that are willing to take a different view of what it means to have family values than sort of the really restrictive one that the party has had for the last almost 10 years or so,” he said.

 

Fluharty also predicts more money and support funneling into Delaware with Donald Trump winning the 2016 presidential election.