Before winning office in 2018 to become the first Latina woman ever elected to the Delaware Senate, I spent more than two decades in the classroom teaching Spanish and English, and advocating for my students as they battled through homelessness, domestic violence and other obstacles many of us can hardly imagine.
Those young people and their families inspired me to fight for the powerless in the halls of government, where I have used everything I learned during my time as a school teacher to inform my work as the chair of the Senate Education Committee.
With your support, we changed the way we fund our schools to direct more resources to students with the greatest need, regardless of their zip code. We increased teacher pay and added nearly 500 mental health counselors and social workers to our elementary and middle schools. And we changed the way we teach reading to our youngest students to help return Delaware to its position as one of the highest performing reading literacy states in the nation.
We also confronted some of the hardest challenges facing working families in our state. We secured 12 weeks of paid leave for families welcoming a newborn or caring for an elderly parent. We reduced violent crime and risk of mass shootings by passing some of the most impactful common-sense gun safety legislation in decades. We protected a woman’s right to choose, made it easier for Delawareans to vote, and kept more children in school and out of our criminal justice system.
While our work is far from over, there are forces already at work to tear down the progress we have made.
You can help make Delaware a safe and healthy place to work and live for all by supporting my re-election today. Every little bit helps.
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