ABOUT ME AND MY CAMPAIGN
Amy Solomon
Love for sweet tea, wrap-around porches, and lively conversation was instilled in me as the daughter of Southern parents. Yet, as we were an Air Force family, a love of traveling and varying geographies was instilled in me as well. I appreciated difference and variety, and was curious to see and learn new things in places I’d never experienced before. The tropical feel of Florida and the Philippines, the Germanic influences in the mid-western U.S., and the arid Mojave Desert cultivated my appreciation for the diversity of our world. Still, the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina held a special place in my heart, my love for them a foreshadowing of my attendance of the University of North Carolina at Asheville.
Later, I gravitated towards the city and met my husband from Britain while I lived in Brooklyn, New York. We moved to London where I built a career in media and we began our family. We settled in Delaware in 2015 by the time my second son was on the way, and I quickly took to Wilmington's caring and fun community.
I’ve come to gain my knowledge of Delaware through varied interests and events as well as experiences with new friends I met at Tower Hill School, The Pilot School, and Christ Church. I met countless families partaking in communal extracurricular activities. While the quarantine has upended some of our familiar routines, my family and I still feel connected to the overall Delaware community. This is the strength and power of Delaware.
However, there are some problematic patterns in Delaware. Education funding needs to be our priority. We need property reassessment built from the ground up. We need gun laws that will protect everybody. Finally, we need a fair justice system that is not set on criminalizing poverty or marginalized groups. I know from my concentration in biochemistry in college that we need to link policy to facts supported by data from the outset, not merely what will appease the most powerful constituents in a press release. I know from working in the business world that strategic plans, recruitment processes, and clear communication are key components to success.
Politics is personal. This campaign that I am embarking on feels personal. While I wish I could speak on current issues free of any bias, it would be impossible for me to do so as a mother who was a passionate volunteer within a Delaware public school. Because of my drive to create spaces where equitable education is possible, I am looking to join legislators in Dover to make this plausible idea a reality. It is my responsibility as a human being to do all that I can to ensure our children’s futures are cultivated responsibly.
HOW I IDENTIFY
I am proudly a Progressive Democrat. After attending Delaware’s JFC hearings in person, I came to understand that our Democratic leaders are not challenging the status quo. It is difficult and disheartening to realize that my party is doing little to actually provide all American’s an equitable life. However, I will continue to embrace the Delaware Democratic Party platform and advocate for more progressive policies.
I love Delaware and I love the Delaware Way. However, we need to acknowledge, discuss and break down the ways in which it has excluded certain groups of people who have been implicitly deemed dispensable by way of our policies and systems. It is important to acknowledge that the current representative, Gerald Brady, has not actively fought to break down these disparities. Though Representative Brady has provided excellent constituent services to the 4TH district for fourteen years, his voting against a woman’s right to choose should Roe v. Wade be overturned and his lack of issue and policy making regarding our local public schools shows that he ultimately will not get the job done the way it needs to be done. I ask the 4TH district residents to give me the chance to attack a long list of items that have languished for decades.
My primary focus is to figure out how to create a more balanced community by leveraging our combined resources to better serve all Delawareans in a transparent and equitable manner. We must fight to end discriminatory practices within systems that are responsible for the way our communities handle policing, housing, and education.
