Sussex County-based citizen’s PAC aims to elect candidates who ‘manage’ expanding growth

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For years, Sussex County has been the First State’s epicenter for development.

According to the Delaware Office of State Planning, the county issued almost 24,000 residential building permits between 2020 and 2024. That makes up more than 60% of the total residential building permits issued in the state during that time.

The development comes in response to the county’s growing population. The county’s population has grown by nearly 17% since 2020, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

“It’s gotten to the point where it’s just not sustainable,” Nancy “Nan” Mathis said. “The traffic is horrible. It takes months to get a medical appointment if you’re new to the area. It takes months to get a medical appointment for your pet. The classrooms are crowded. Everything that comes with growth, which [has] no infrastructure around it.”

Mathis is the president of the Save Our Sussex Political Action Committee. The group formed in 2025, and their goal is to elect candidates to office in local races, like the county council, school boards and town councils. Mathis said these governing bodies have the most impact on resident’s day-to-day life.

At the center of the PAC’s platform is “managing growth” in the region. Other key concerns include affordable housing, access to health care, protecting the environment, improving road infrastructure and maintaining safe public schools among other things.

Save Our Sussex is funded through donations from residents, and is disconnected from other organizations and special interest groups. Mathis said the PAC aims to be “for everyone.”

“We have a lot of issues that we need to deal with in Sussex County,” Mathis said. “And it’s by getting together, figuring out where the common ground is, and moving forward on that, I really think we can make some progress on fixing issues that we all agree need to be addressed.”

A citizen’s PAC

The idea of the PAC came from Sussex County Councilmember Jane Gruenebaum. She was elected to the District 3 spot during the last county election, representing beach communities like Lewes and Rehoboth Beach.

Gruenebaum entered the race late, running against the incumbent at the time, Mark Schaeffer. By the end of her campaign, it ended up costing more than $80,000. She said not every race costs that much money, but it could be a barrier for people interested in getting involved in local politics.

“I think it’s one of the problems our political system has in general, that the thought of how much money you have to raise to run for office keeps a lot of potentially very good people from running,” Gruenebaum said. “I thought ‘Well, OK, let’s do a citizen’s PAC that is focused on Sussex County.’”

Though Save Our Sussex is a local PAC, it’s not the first one to show interest in county elections. While Gruenebaum ran for her county seat in 2024, a PAC called Preserve Sussex endorsed candidates for the council. The PAC, as reported by Spotlight Delaware, was funded by some Sussex County-based developers.

Preserve Sussex funded mailers supporting Gruenebaum’s opponent. She said that she believed they saw her as an “anti-development,” and it was another motivating factor to starting the PAC.

“If they’re out there putting money into it, we need to have people who support more measured, more balanced growth,” Gruenebaum said.

According to Gruenebaum, the interest in elections from developers is likely connected to the growing real estate market in the area, leading to pressure for more development. However, the Save Our Sussex PAC wants to preserve the quality of life in the county.

“I suspect people see this PAC as anti-development and I think that’s wrong,” Gruenebaum said. “I always said [it’s] not anti-development, but I care about how it’s developed and I think we have been careless in the way we’ve developed and we’ve created problems that we didn’t need to create if we had developed differently.”

Gruenebaum has since stepped away from the PAC, which she said could be seen as a conflict in the upcoming election.

A consequential election

This November will mark the first election the PAC will have participated in. The county council seats up for grabs include District 4, which represents the southern part of the county extending from Bethany Beach down to Selbyville; and District 5, which spans the central part of the county including Georgetown and Millsboro.

The PAC endorsed Jill Hicks for the county’s District 5 seat, who will face off against incumbent John Rieley. It also endorsed Justine Cuccia for the District 4 seat, who is campaigning against incumbent and Council President Doug Hudson.

“[Hicks and Cuccia] are both committed to change, and committed to what we call ‘smart growth,’ which is putting infrastructure, pairing it with the growth, as opposed to what’s happening now of just having the pure growth and then trying to catch up,” Mathis said.

Hicks, former president of environmental advocacy group Sussex Preservation Coalition, said running for office was her way to turn her “advocacy into action.” She also said that the upcoming election is critical for the county, mainly because the council will be writing the next comprehensive plan, which dictates land use and zoning standards for the next decade.

“This is a huge opportunity for Sussex County to really begin directing planning and directing where growth should and should not be,” Hicks said. “Right now, it’s being directed mostly by developers.”

She also noted that recently passed state laws, like Senate Bill 23 and House Bill 450 will be informing the comprehensive plan, which Hicks said needs objective goals for land use.

Though Hicks and Cuccia are running as Democrats, the PAC does not support candidates based on political party.

“We want to base our decisions on where people stand on certain issues that we’re really concerned about,” Mathis said.

The general election is on Nov. 3.