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The big story of Election Day 2024 will be the presidential election, and the swift capture of the United States’ highest office by MAGA Republican and former President Donald Trump.
In Delaware, it was a different story. Democrats swept all of the big races (including president), and made history while doing it.
Delaware state Sen. Sarah McBride was favored to win the state’s lone US House of Representatives seat in a race against Republican John Whalen — and she did, pulling in nearly 60% of the vote. This will make her the first openly transgender member of US Congress. Previously, she was the first openly transgender member of the Delaware Senate and the first openly transgender speaker at a major party convention when she spoke at the DNC in 2016.
At the Delaware Journalism Collaborative Congressional Debate on Aug. 28, McBride answered questions about AI, data privacy and social media.
“The government absolutely has to regulate artificial intelligence so that we’re maximizing the potential that it has to expand access to health care and improve health outcomes while also mitigating the risk,” McBride said. “We can’t stick our heads in the sand and pretend like this innovation is not without any risk.”
When it came to the stalled American Privacy and Protection Act introduced into the US House in 2022, McBride said she would “absolutely support similar protections for consumer data, from both an individual privacy perspective, but also from a national security perspective.”
Another historic win went to current US Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester, whose seat McBride is filling. Blunt Rochester defeated Republican Eric Hansen with more than 56% of the vote. Before the election, there were no Black women in the US Senate. Now there are two: Blunt Rochester and Maryland Democrat Angela Alsobrooks. They are the 4th and 5th Black women to ever serve on the US Senate, after Sen. Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois, Vice President Kamala Harris and Sen. Laphonza Butler (both from California).
Both Blunt Rochester and Alsobrooks are also the first Black US senators from their respective states.
As a US representative, Blunt Rochester introduced the “Consumers LEARN AI Act,” a bill that, if passed, will have the federal, state and local governments, along with private, public and nonprofit organizations identify what people need to know to be AI literate.
“AI is already here and happening around us, whether it’s the chatbots you use while online shopping, or virtual assistants like Siri or Alexa,” Blunt Rochester told Technical.ly in September. “We want people to be able to take advantage of the benefits of AI, but also be protected when using it.”
Other firsts for Delaware include the election of New Castle County Executive and entrepreneur Matt Meyer as Governor (the first county executive to become governor in Delaware), and Governor John Carney’s election as mayor of Wilmington — the first sitting governor to be elected as a mayor.
In the state legislature, Democrats continue to have majorities in both the House and Senate, but they are also bipartisan. Three incumbent Republicans won hotly contested races where Democrats challenged their seats, preventing a supermajority.
State of Delaware
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