Mara Gorman, who has been a leading advocate for gun control legislation in Delaware, announced Monday that she is running for the 23rd District State House seat.
“I am a change maker, a parent and a believer in democracy,” Gorman said. “I am running to be your state representative because I love Delaware and I love the 23rd District. Together, we can continue to build a safer, more equitable and vibrant community for everyone.”
If elected, the Democrat would replace State Rep. Paul Baumbach, who announced last week that he will retire after 12 years. So far, Gorman is the only candidate running for the seat, with the filing deadline set for July 9.
The heavily Democratic District 23 encompasses the northern half of Newark, plus parts of North Star and Pike Creek.
Gorman was a strong supporter of Baumbach and said she would have been happy to keep voting for him. But with his departure, she said she is ready to continue his work.
“He cares so much about his constituents and about doing the right thing,” she said. “My hope would be that I would be able to continue that tradition that he’s established of constituent services, and really paying attention to what people in the district are saying and trying to help find solutions to problems.”
A resident of Newark’s Cherry Hill neighborhood, Gorman worked as a freelance writer and travel blogger while raising her children. She now works as public affairs manager for Planned Parenthood of Delaware.
She said she never envisioned running for office but got involved in local politics in 2015 when she and others began lobbying for tougher gun laws in the wake of mass shootings around the country.
She spent several years as leader of the state chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America. Over the past few years, the group successfully pushed for several new gun laws, including a ban on assault weapons and a law that requires a permit to purchase a handgun.
Through that work, she began working on political campaigns and ultimately decided to become a candidate herself.
“I reached a place where I was really ready to give back more directly, and to be involved in the creation of the policies myself, instead of just being on the outside pushing for the things that I knew were right,” she said.
If elected, she wants to continue to work on gun safety legislation, noting that she is concerned by the recent incident in which a teenager slammed a truck into a gun store in New Castle and stole multiple weapons.
“I would like to take a look very carefully at what gun sellers are doing with their stock and work with them to see what we can do to make sure that no one can get their hands so readily on weapons that then get out into the community,” she said.
Gorman also wants to find ways to provide better access to reproductive health care.
“It doesn’t matter if abortion and IVF and gender-affirming care are legal if people don’t have access to them, if we don’t have providers and if it’s not affordable,” she said.
She said she is ready to work with Newark officials to help find solutions to the city’s ongoing budget shortfall. The city has asked the legislature to give it the power to levy a per-student tax on the University of Delaware.
“I would be supportive of finding means to make sure that we’re getting the revenue that we should from every area of the district, whether that’s landlords or the university,” Gorman said.
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