Democratic Frontrunner Matt Meyer Elected Delaware’s Next Governor

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As expected, Democrat Matt Meyer swept to victory in the race to replace outgoing Delaware Gov. John Carney, who was term-limited. Currently the New Castle County executive, Meyer bested Republican state Rep. Mike Ramone 56%-41%. 

The outcome was widely expected in a deep blue state where the last Republican governor left office in 1993. Meyer was a front-runner for the Democratic nomination in a three-way primary decided Sept. 10. 

Education analysts have watched the race for two reasons. The new governor will be under pressure to lead the state’s General Assembly into acting on a quarter-century of recommendations from task forces and commissions on reforming Delaware’s Jim Crow-era school funding system. 

Created decades ago to ensure affluent, white communities would continue to get a disproportionate share of education dollars, the finance formula sends more money to districts that already enjoy bigger budgets thanks to higher property taxes. As Delaware’s population has diversified, the inequities have deepened. Near-unanimity about the scope of the problem has not translated to the political will to boost state funding.

In 2020, Carney settled a lawsuit brought by the ACLU on behalf of the Delaware NAACP and a coalition called Delawareans for Educational Opportunity, in part by agreeing to commission an American Institutes for Research study to determine exactly how underfunded Delaware’s schools are. 

Earlier this year, the researchers reported that fixing the problems would cost $500 million to $1 billion. After the report’s release, lawmakers created a planning commission to figure out how to raise revenue and right inequities, with an eye toward releasing recommendations in October 2025 for a new funding system to take effect in 2027. Not everyone is convinced the timeline is not simply another instance of kicking the can down the road. 

Now, policy wonks are watching to see whether Meyer’s long experience in K-12 education will translate to political urgency. The governor-elect started his career as a Teach for America corps member at a Wilmington charter school, where virtually all students were impoverished and the inequitable distribution of resources left teachers to struggle. 

During the campaign, Meyer released a detailed, 18-page education platform that included specific proposals for reforming both the state funding system and county-level taxes.

“Funding cannot change overnight but must increase with urgency,” the plan noted, pledging to “Better align our state’s funding system with the AIR report’s recommendation of an additional increase of $3,400 to $6,400 per pupil.”

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