After a long and bitter campaign, New Castle County Executive Matt Meyer has won the Delaware Democratic Primary in the race for governor. Opposing candidate and current Lt. Gov. Bethany Hall-Long, who had the backing of Gov. John Carney and the Democratic Party, conceded less than two hours after polls closed. Meyer led with 47 percent of the vote as of 10 p.m., followed by Hall-Long at just under 37 percent and former environmental secretary Collin O'Mara at 16 percent.
Matt Meyer is currently in his second term as county executive for New Castle County. In this role, he has established the state's largest emergency housing shelter by converting a hotel and invested in public health and emergency services like Hero Help and the Police Mental Health Alliance, which divert people dealing with substance abuse from incarceration to treatment.
Meyer grew up in Delaware, attending schools in the Brandywine School District and the Wilmington Friends School. He studied computer science and political science at Brown University. After graduating, he lived in Kenya, where he worked at a recycled footwear company, and spent a year in Iraq, where he was embedded with the Army as a diplomat during Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation New Dawn. He currently lives in the Trinity Vicinity neighborhood of Wilmington.
Before becoming a politician, Meyer was a middle school math teacher and small business owner. His gubernatorial campaign is focused on:
- Education
- Combating crime
- Sustainability and climate change
