DOVER — At the conclusion of the 151st General Assembly, lawmakers have praised the session as one of the most productive in modern state history.

Policies including sweeping gun control legislation, voting reform, paid family and medical leave, prioritizing maternal and infant health care, and expanding women’s reproductive rights were some of the strides that Delaware lawmakers made during the previous legislative session. As legislators celebrate their successes from the session, the immediate impact of the state’s freshmen lawmakers is evident.

“It’s been really exciting over the last two election cycles,” said Sen. Trey Paradee, D-Dover, who was a part of the Senate’s 2018 freshman class. “There’s been a lot of new people that have come into the General Assembly who have brought a lot of new energy and new ideas, certainly in terms of really important issues.”

Sen. Paradee, who served in the state’s House of Representatives from 2012 to 2018, said it has been refreshing to see some “really wonderful things” being done in Delaware in light of some of the tragedies that society has faced in the last few years. He is part of a Senate chamber that has seen drastic changes in its makeup over the course of the last two election cycles, as more diverse, progressive elected officials have entered the body. As redistricting prompted four-year and two-year Senate terms, the 2018 and 2020 elections saw changes in each chamber.

The 2018 election cycle saw new faces enter the Senate, including Sen. Paradee, Sen. Darius Brown, D-Wilmington; Sen. Laura Sturgeon, D-Woodbrook; and Sen. Elizabeth “Tizzy” Lockman, D-Wilmington, who has since become Senate majority whip. Just two years later, the 2020 election cycle provided more changes to the chamber with the election of Sen. Sarah McBride, D-Wilmington; Sen. Kyle Evans Gay, D-Talleyville; Sen. Spiros Mantzavinos, D-Elsmere; Sen. Marie Pinkney, D-Bear; and Sen. David Wilson, R-Lincoln, who had served in the House from 2008 to 2018.

In the House, the 2020 election cycle provided the introduction of four new representatives in the chamber: Rep. Larry Lambert, D-Claymont; Rep. Rae Moore, D-Middletown; Rep. Madinah Wilson-Anton, D-Newark; and Rep. Eric Morrison, D-Glasgow.

Some of these freshman legislators made history just by being elected. Sen. McBride became the first transgender state senator in American history, while Sen. Pinkney became the first African American member of the LGBTQ+ community to be elected to the Senate in state history, an election in which she defeated incumbent Senate Majority Leader David McBride.

In the House, Rep. Wilson-Anton became the first practicing Muslim elected to the Delaware General Assembly, while Rep. Morrison became the state’s first openly gay man to be elected in the legislature.

“Twenty-five years from now, we will look back and see what a special moment in time this has been,” Sen. Paradee said. “Despite how horrible the pandemic has been for us; we’ve been able to make some really incredible investments that are going to benefit Delaware for decades to come.”

Pandemic challenges

Sen. McBride said the pandemic introduced challenges that increased lawmaker’s responsibility to deliver, and because of the success the legislature had in light of those challenges, she is more hopeful now than when she took office. She said the freshman class of legislators was able to be effective because they knew their constituents were facing immediate and difficult challenges brought by the pandemic.

“For those of us who ran our first races during the pandemic, the needs of our constituents were top of mind for us and that really motivated us to make sure the legislature met the moment and brought the kind of change that we were hearing while knocking on doors or talking to voters over the phone,” Sen. McBride said. “All of us felt a deep responsibility to come in and deliver, and I still feel that.”

Within a week of the 2020 election, the Senate’s freshman legislators were on the phone discussing how the chamber could make paid family and medical leave a priority for the upcoming legislative session, and together, the class drafted a memo to Senate leadership outlining how the measure was a top priority for them. Sen. McBride said that while freshman legislators made a large impact in the 151st General Assembly, passing meaningful legislation is a collaborative effort.

“When you combine the experiences of returning members with the energy and the new ideas of a diverse freshman class, you can do big things and adopt bold policies. I think we’re seeing the natural evolution of a legislature. We’re seeing people represent that fuller diversity, and I think the reality is that the public wants us to deliver and wants elected officials who understand both the urgency of policies and that fundamentally, political is personal, and what we’re debating aren’t abstract ideas.”

When taking office, Sen. McBride said she felt pressure because of the immediate needs of Delawareans across the state, though she stated that any pressure she had was alleviated by Senate leadership, who was “so passionate, so nurturing, and so empowering” of the class and made them feel as if the possibilities were limitless.

‘Culture shock’

For Sen. Sturgeon, adjusting from 25 years as classroom teacher to being elected to the Senate in 2018 was difficult at first, stating it was a “huge culture shock.” She said that relationship building in the classroom setting is much different than in Legislative Hall, where she described a relationship of peers and equals, where lawmakers adhere to an existing pecking order and navigate their relationships with leadership in each chamber. She said that when taking office, she made it a priority to build a rapport with different factions in her own party to build strong working relationships in both chambers.

During the 151st General Assembly, Sen. Sturgeon said she was thrilled to make strides and improve upon educational policy. She pointed to her work as a co-prime sponsor on Sen. McBride’s bill that requires media literacy to be taught in Delaware schools, as well as sponsoring a package of bills that will improve upon reading literacy in the state. She said the three-bill-package was modeled after states that have seen immense success at increasing reading scores from kindergarten to third grade, though the legislation could not have been done without the help of both freshman and veteran legislators.

“These bills can be transformational in the education space, and to have legislators, both new and old, say ‘This is your priority, it sounds great, you’re a former teacher, you’ve done your research, you’ve done your homework,’ it really helped make it happen,” Sen. Sturgeon said.

Looking back at the 2020 election, Sen. Sturgeon acknowledged that the election of Sen. Gay and Sen. Mantzavinos were crucial for Democrats, as they flipped the seats of incumbent Republicans and made the passage of legislation like paid family and medical leave, voting reform and gun control possible.

Opening the gates

While she dethroned a fellow Democrat, the election of Sen. Pinkney also proved vital as it opened the gates for new Senate leadership. Sen. Pinkney said that Senate leadership has been effective in guiding both freshman classes and making sure they are representing their districts effectively. She said that when starting her term, she was eager to take on a new responsibility in representing her constituents, though there was some pressure in taking over.

“I come from a history of social work on a micro level, working with families individually, and not in the massive kind of way that state policy impacts large amounts of people. Both incredibly important types of work, but two very different types of work,” Sen. Pinkney said. “Being in the legislature is like drinking from a fire hose. There’s always so much to learn and so much to do.”

Despite the hurdles that the legislature’s freshman classes of 2018 and 2020 have faced since taking office, each chamber of Delaware’s General Assembly has passed a wealth of legislation that, according to Sen. Pinkney, is living proof that candidates have lived up to their campaign promises of helping the communities they represent.

“We came in to get things done, we came in at a time where we didn’t have time, we came in at a time where people’s lives had been completely altered by a pandemic, completely rocked by social injustice,” Sen. Pinkney said.

“This class of freshman legislators, we came in with a fire burning under us and a desire to get things done, and I haven’t seen it fizzle out. It really is amazing what we have been able to accomplish.”