Gemma Lowery

Public service must be built on public trust, and that includes being honest about why electricity bills are climbing. Across the PJM region, soaring demand from AI data centers is driving up costs that land on ordinary families. I support policies that make large energy users, not residents, pay for the grid impact they create. Delaware’s proposal to set a separate, higher rate class for the biggest consumers, require them to cover their own transmission and distribution costs, and give the Public Service Commission real authority to protect ratepayers is a sound, evidence-based approach. I’d also require these facilities to reduce demand during grid emergencies to keep the system reliable, and direct part of their payments toward low-income energy assistance and clean energy programs. Longer term, Delaware should invest in renewable generation, battery storage, and efficiency so we can meet new demand without price shocks. Accountability means the companies profiting from our grid pay their fair share, and families get transparency about what they’re being charged and why.

Delaware is the lowest-lying state in the country, and NOAA’s projections of worsening tidal flooding demand that we plan with the best available science. I support using DNREC’s sea-level-rise planning scenarios to guide development and infrastructure decisions, updating outdated flood maps and building standards, and investing in nature-based solutions such as wetland restoration, living shorelines, and open-space buffers, which protect communities more affordably than hardened structures alone. Resilience planning has to protect the roads, water systems, and schools our neighborhoods depend on, and it must reach the working families and lower-income areas most exposed to flooding and least able to bounce back. Where repeated flooding makes property unsafe, voluntary buyouts should be fairly funded. This connects to a concern I hear across District 9: overdevelopment that paves over the open space and natural drainage that once absorbed stormwater. Smarter, science-based land use both protects the environment and keeps families safe.

Keeping young people safe and healthy is personal to me. I worked in health care at ChristianaCare for years, so I’ve seen firsthand what happens when prevention and mental-health support come too late. The steep decline in how many 11th graders see risk in regular marijuana use, especially now that adult-use cannabis is legal in Delaware, tells us our prevention approach needs to be updated and grounded in evidence. I support school-based prevention that gives students honest, accurate information about the developing brain, paired with the mental-health supports too many of our struggling schools lack. Because substance use so often grows out of stress, trauma, and lack of opportunity, I’d invest in protective factors that research backs: counselors and social workers in schools, after-school and mentoring programs, and family support. I’d sustain prevention funding through the Division of Public Health, put opioid-settlement dollars to work for youth, and enforce firm limits on youth-targeted marketing and underage access to cannabis and vaping. And I’d hold programs accountable by tracking results through tools like the Delaware School Survey and funding what actually works.