Delaware’s elected leaders urge continued collective power against Trump administration during packed town hall

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Hundreds of Delawareans turned out in Wilmington for a town hall with the state’s congressional delegation, Gov. Matt Meyer and state Attorney General Kathy Jennings on Saturday.

The five Democratic leaders laid out actions they’ve taken to try to counter negative impacts to Delaware from President Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office, including federal funding freezes, workers losing their jobs and programs being cut. For instance, Jennings said she has already sued the Trump administration more than a dozen times over these issues and others.

The all-Democratic panel answered questions, heard concerns and urged members of the public to keep opposing actions of President Donald Trump’s administration.

Cuts to the safety net

Congresswoman Sarah McBride and Sens. Lisa Blunt Rochester and Chris Coons voiced similar concerns as members of the audience about cuts impacting critical programs and the safety net vulnerable Delawareans depend on.

Dora Williams, a community advocate, said she’s heard from people looking for help because their electricity is about to be shut off.

“Applicants have been calling me for shutoffs and the [Low-Income Heating Assistance Program],” she said. “Their assistance was stopped March 31. [Charities] are only taking emergency shutoffs and emergency electric issues. I don’t know what we’re going to do with these people.”

The Trump administration reportedly fired the staff who ran the federal program, and the money, which has been allocated by Congress, remains frozen.

Williams said she’s also heard of people seeking food assistance amid limited supplies. The federal government cut almost 1 million meals from the Food Bank of Delaware earlier this year.

Jennings said substance abuse treatment centers, health care clinics and other nonprofits are facing federal funding cuts. She said Food Bank of Delaware CEO Cathy Kanefsky told her the government stopped deliveries of meats, produce and vegetables with little notice.

“They are extremely worried what happens if people can’t shop at the grocery store because they can’t afford it,” Jennings said. “That is what will happen if he keeps going with these really cruel cuts. And she said, ‘I don’t know what we’re going to do. We won’t have enough food to give them.’”

‘Moving public opinion is an art’

McBride told the town hall audience, filled mostly with supporters, that while the Trump administration has targeted the most vulnerable in Delaware and nationwide, she was advocating for fighting back in the streets, courts, Congress and in the court of public opinion.

When asked if she would support impeachment articles against the president, she noted there were none before her and were unlikely to gain traction in a Republican-controlled Congress.

“Moving public opinion is an art, and we have to fight hard, but we have to fight smart in this moment,” McBride said. “If we go around saying, ‘Right now, we need to impeach this president,’ it’s going to shut off the conversation with the people who just voted six months ago for him to be president. We have to bring them along.”

Meyer agreed with one speaker that Delaware faces an energy crisis and blamed opposition from Trump officials to offshore wind projects approved during President Joe Biden’s administration.

Coons said he’s working to save a $750 million hydrogen hub grant the Trump administration wants to cancel.

“We all worked incredibly hard to get a hydrogen hub grant, as you know, that connects New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware to the hydrogen economy of the future,” he said. “Newark, Delaware happens to be one of the world’s leading centers of hydrogen technology.”

‘Why don’t you get thrown in jail?’

Delaware’s members of Congress pushed back on some attendees when asked about their positions on some topics. Attendee Dennis Spivack asked why more of them weren’t leading marches, mentioning events that Vermont Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders and Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are hosting across the country. Sanders will be at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, May 3. Spivack suggested members of Delaware’s congressional delegation could protest at federal buildings until they were forcibly removed.

“Why don’t you get thrown in jail?” he asked. “It worked for Martin Luther King and it could work for you.”

Coons said he attended protests in Washington, D.C., and in Delaware, but appeared not to support the idea of going to jail.

“I don’t think it is a great idea for me to get arrested on your behalf,” he said, “because I don’t trust this president to let me out.”

Blunt Rochester said people need to find and play whatever their part is in this time of uncertainty.

“We have got to be like sticks in a bundle: unbreakable,” she said. “That’s the proverb. Sticks in a bundle are unbreakable.”

The town hall was also interrupted at a couple points by people shouting about the war in Gaza. Three people were removed from the event by Wilmington police after causing a disruption.

Coons said he remained strongly in support of Israel. McBride said she supports a ceasefire in Israel and Gaza and a Palestinian state. She said she opposed the federal government imprisoning or deporting protesters who exercised their free speech rights about the conflict.

This story was supported by a statehouse coverage grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.