Primary Election 2022: Newcomers Phillips, Willis face off in District 18 house race

District 18 covers part of the Del. 4 corridor east of Newark, including neighborhoods like Harmony Hills, Green Valley, Rutherford, Hillside Heights and Brookbend, as well as parts of Christiana and Bear.

Phillips is a native of Westchester County, N.Y., and moved to Newark to attend the University of Delaware. Now a resident of the Brandywine Woods Apartments in Bear, she recently earned a master's degree in energy and environmental policy from UD.

At 26, she would become the youngest member of the legislature.

She originally planned to become a national park ranger but was inspired to run for office after serving as 2021 Miss Delaware. Her platform was environmental justice, and she worked on projects like community gardens and teaching kids to cook.

Many of the people she worked with mentioned a disconnect between elected officials and underserved communities, and Phillips decided to run for office as a way to ensure those communities have a voice.

“I felt bad leaving Delaware and looking for a job in the park service when I knew that these communities were getting left behind,” Phillips said.

She believes her time as Miss Delaware prepared her to serve in the legislature.

“Since I have a multiracial, multicultural background, Miss Delaware gave me an opportunity to work with different people from all walks of life and be able to relate to everyone that I talked to in some way,” said Phillips, who said she has African American, Indian and Caribbean heritage. “I figured being a legislator is the exact same thing. You're going to be talking to different people, you have to be able to compromise and understand where people are coming from and really have that empathy.”

If elected, Phillips hopes to work on environmental bills that have stalled in the legislature, including SB 305, which sets a goal of cutting Delaware's greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030, and the Green Amendment, which would constitutionally mandate that the state government protect the environmental rights of all residents.

She also wants to advocate for a proposed law that would require environmental justice impact reports for developments and factories to protect communities already disproportionately impacted by environmental issues.

“That way, you're not putting more and more pollution in a community that's already impacted by it so much,” she said.

Phillips also wants to focus on improving education. She called for allowing school districts to take on debt for renovation projects without going to referendum, as is required now. She also wants to establish a $60,000 minimum salary for teachers so Delaware can better compete with neighboring states.

She supports a moratorium on new charter schools, explaining that the public schools in her hometown are successful because there are no charter schools or school choice to compete with.

“We really need to recognize what charter schools are doing to public schools and where those resources are going,” she said.

She also wants to increase the minimum wage, establish apprenticeship programs and protect LGBT and women's rights.

Phillips said she would bring a new, young perspective to the legislature.

“Martin is really into the Delaware Way,” she said, referring to her opponent. “We need to start stepping away from the Delaware Way, and I'm going to be a candidate who's going to do that.”

Willis, 56, is a native of Wilmington and has lived in the Eagle Glen neighborhood near New Castle since 1999.

A boilermaker by trade, Willis has worked at oil refineries and in natural gas, coal and nuclear power plants. He has participated in union negotiations, traveled to New Hampshire to campaign for Joe Biden and has long advocated for bringing more industry to Delaware.

During the 2013 controversy over the data center and power plant proposed for UD's STAR Campus, Willis was one of the most vocal supporters of the project, which was ultimately canceled by UD after public outcry.

Willis said he liked Bentz and didn't want to run against him, but when Bentz chose not to seek re-election, Willis decided it was time to throw his hat in the ring.

“It's something I always wanted to do,” he said. “I know with my background in America's energy and infrastructure, the time is right for me to go down to Dover.”

With the Russian invasion of Ukraine causing energy prices to skyrocket, America is at a crossroads when it comes to energy, Willis said. He advocates relying on nuclear power.

“The only way we will have zero-emission electricity generation is to build 100 more nukes,” he said, adding that expanding Salem Nuclear Power Plant across the river in New Jersey could bring thousands of jobs to the area. “You could live within 100 feet of a nuclear power plant, and you would get more radiation from your dentist than you would from a nuclear power plant.”

Willis said with large companies like GM and DuPont gone or diminished, Delaware needs to take advantage of its location on the Delaware River to attract more jobs to the area.

“The Delaware River gives us access to the seven seas,” he said. “We should start utilizing all these abandoned sites up and down the Delaware River, because we can make widgets at some of these sites and be within an eight-hour drive of one-third of the richest nations on Earth.”

He said proposals need to be scrutinized to make sure they abide by environmental regulations but argued that economic concerns need to be factored in as well.

“When I was growing up, those manufacturing jobs were the best social program,” he said. “Like the data center, you had a billion-dollar project, but everybody was opposed to it. OK, where's your $10 million project? You can't say no to everything and then wonder why people don't have no jobs.”

Willis also wants to expand Delaware's unemployment insurance to cover people who are self-employed and gig workers. Right now, only the employer pays into it, but he would pay for the expansion by taxing all workers 10 cents on every $1,000 they earn.

“People like Uber drivers aren't going to be eligible for Delaware's unemployment until they start paying into it,” he said.

Willis – who proclaimed “I'm not this social justice warrior” – believes he can appeal to the wide spectrum of people in his district.

“In Delaware, you have to be a moderate, down-the-road Democrat,” Willis said. “If we start electing these far-left Democrats, we're going to be just like the Republicans are.”

He portrayed Phillips as out of touch with the district, saying she has never voted in Delaware and still has a New York license plate on her car.

“I'm a lifelong Delawarean. I've been part of the community for the past 22 years,” Willis said. “I'm more in tune with the community than she is.”

In response, Phillips said she did vote in a recent school board election and added that she hasn't registered her car in Delaware because she can't afford the taxes required to do so. Under state law, new residents must register their car here within 60 days of establishing residency and pay a fee equal to 4.25 percent of the car's value.