Republicans in blue states like Connecticut, New York, and Delaware had a reason to celebrate on Tuesday. Despite the fact that these states voted for Hillary Clinton for president, they made up for it with several significant victories in their respective state legislatures.
The biggest upset in all three states was in Delaware when 31-year old Anthony Delcollo (R) beat Senate President Pro Tempore Patricia Blevins (D), a 13-term incumbent in an overwhelmingly Democratic district.
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Delcollo was one of four millennial Republicans campaigning for the Delaware Senate and was the only one to win. His victory reduced the Democratic lead in the State Senate to just a single seat and gave the GOP a prime opportunity to win over the state’s upper chamber in the midterm elections for the first time since 1974.
In an interview with Red Alert Politics, Delcollo said the key to his success was making sure that the campaign focused on local issues.
“I didn’t even bring up Hillary Clinton or President Trump in conversation unless it was brought up to me,” Delcollo said to RAP. “I essentially focused on that I’ve lived in the area for all of 31 years, so I knew the problems and concerns that were on people’s minds. And I just went and started door-knocking extremely early and talked to people about the things I knew they were concerned about.”
The State Senator-elect said that he didn’t always dream of becoming an elected official, being a lawyer made politics a natural environment. Delcollo also stated that he attended a Leadership Delaware program with Terry and Sandy Strine, which propelled him to think about public service.
“That, as well as other things that I’ve observed through my experiences demonstrated to me that Delaware was in need of new, aggressive, passionate leadership that would focus like a laser on addressing the problems we’re confronted with, focusing on (heroin) addiction, lack of jobs and good paying jobs, and education.”
A piece of advice that Delcollo offered to other millennials, who want to seek public office one day, was to help other people who’ve been on campaign trails and volunteer for other politicians. He added that you should surround yourself with people who are smarter than you to inform you on the issues and make yourself seem credible, which is of particular importance if a candidate is young, and start early.
