State Senator Kyle Evans Gay, representing the 5th District, won Delaware’s lieutenant governor race Tuesday and will become the state’s 27th lieutenant governor on Jan. 21.
Gay, an attorney, won a state Senate seat in 2020 and has served in that role for four years. Prior to that, she served as a deputy attorney general in the Delaware Department of Justice and clerked for the Delaware Superior Court, while also taking up private practice.
The role of lieutenant governor not only presides over the state senate but also oversees the board of pardons and acts as a resource to connect citizens with other state agencies.
She emphasized that there are many steps to help solve the housing crisis, one of which is making sure there are local partnerships with local solutions to help meet the needs of each individual county.
In collaboration with making sure housing is affordable and available, Gay says it must be in conjunction with “smart transportation,” and that providing housing is only one piece of the puzzle.
“We cannot do anything in housing without thinking about how that affects other pieces of the puzzle, and that includes childcare,” Gay said. “It includes food security and other supports that make for the holistic family experience.”
She also touched on some of the apprehension that building a comprehensive community and affordable housing faces, commonly known as NIMBY (Not in my backyard).
“It’s talking to people honestly about what they need, their neighbors need, and it’s actually asking people to come to the table around a vision for building and humane housing and opportunity that I think will benefit all of us,” Gay said.
The state’s dated funding formula for schools is an issue that populated not only her campaign but also became a hot-button issue during the gubernatorial campaign.
“I also believe that we need to take a hard look at the funding formula,” Gay said. “It is very, very old, and does not acknowledge that a student like my kindergartener might not need as many monetary resources as one of her peers.”
The state’s funding formula, unchanged from the 1940s, is based on enrollment and not an individual student’s need, which she argues is an inappropriate use of state funding considering the amount spent on education in Delaware.
During her time in the state legislature, she also championed expanding voting rights to Delawareans. She introduced and passed Senate Bill 5, which created an automatic voter registration system at the Department of Motor Vehicles.
Her goal is to amend the state’s constitution to allow vote by mail without an excuse and for those who endured a period of incarceration to be enfranchised, which would need a supermajority in both chambers of the state legislature.
In closing, the new lieutenant governor -elect focused her attention on the many new challenges that the younger generation will face, as well as the fact that it is a new world and things are constantly changing.
She added that this change plays out on every level of government and young people should be involved but also provided with the tools by those currently in power to help tackle these challenges.
“I think it’s really important for us to consider that, and that while I’m asking to lead, I’m actually asking for everyone to come with me, to make better decisions, to be smarter about policy,” Gay said. “To finally stop making decisions for the next political cycle, because we don’t know what’s in front of us, we have to come and work together.”