Matt Meyer running for Governor with a focus on Delaware’s education system

DOVER, Del. – New Castle County Executive Matt Meyer is running to serve as Delaware’s next Governor with a focus on improving the First State’s education system.

“You can’t have a thriving economy, you cannot have thriving communities, when you have schools, public schools, that by recent measures are rated the fourth worst in the country,” Meyer told us in a sit-down interview on the Legislative Mall in Dover.

Education is something Meyer says he would be on a mission to change if elected Delaware’s 75th Governor. With a strong background in education, working as a middle school math teacher, he tells us he has first hand experience on how to tackle the issue.

“We have never, not in over a hundred years, elected a public school teacher to run our state,” Meyer emphasized. “I have that public school experience. So, when we’re out here talking about education, I know what it’s like to be a teacher, standing in front of a classroom.”

It’s that hands on experience that Meyer says will help shape his policy. When it comes to health care reform, he tells us those efforts need an overhaul.

“You shouldn’t have to drive to New Castle County, Philadelphia, or Baltimore to get quality health care,” Meyer said emphatically. “You travel to many parts of Kent and Sussex County, the waits to see primary care and specialists are way too long. I was down in Milford a few weeks ago, I was being told about a six-month wait for an MRI.”

When it comes to Kent and Sussex Counties, Meyer says the lower parts of the state, for far too long, have been an afterthought.

“I’m a Delawarean first and foremost, and I agree that Kent and Sussex are being left behind,” Meyer explained. “In terms of, like I said, getting a doctor, in terms of the cost of housing, in terms of traffic, in terms of getting to the local supermarket, in terms of environmental concerns, and open space.”

In 2016, Meyer ran for office for the first time, beating a heavily-favored incumbent for County Executive of New Castle County. He is currently in his 2nd term running Delaware’s largest county. He also spent 12 months in Mosul, Iraq, embedded with the U.S. Army as a diplomat during Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation New Dawn. Following that time overseas, he returned to Delaware and taught at Prestige Academy, a public school in Wilmington.

Meyer says through the good and the bad, if elected, he promises to lead with transparency.

“Things go wrong,” Meyer stressed. “You got to look people in the eye and say ‘this is what’s going on, ask me anything, I am your public servant.'”

Meyer is set to face Lt. Governor Bethany Hall-Long in the Delaware primary election set for September 10, 2024.

You can get more details on Meyer’s campaign by visiting his website – mattmeyer.org