Meet The Candidates: Delaware Congressional Representative

Salisbury, Md. – Democratic candidate and incumbent Rep. Sarah McBride and Republican candidate Dr. Joe Arminio will go head-to-head on Election Day, when voters will decide who will represent them in the U.S. House of Representatives.

McBride made history as the first openly transgender person elected to Congress in 2024 and previously served on the Delaware State Senate. Her priorities are lowering costs for Delawareans and strengthening health care and government accountability.

“We need to make the American dream affordable and accessible for everyone right now, and because of reckless tariff policies, because of new forever wars, because of the decisions by this administration to cut health care and cut food assistance for the American people, far too many of my constituents are struggling under the weight of rising costs,” she said in an interview with WMDT.

Arminio has a doctorate in Political Science from MIT, has done contract work for various institutions and organizations, and ran for Maryland’s congressional representative on its Eastern Shore in 2008. He said his priority is fortifying the economy by tackling private debt, creating an American infrastructure bank and ending foreign wars.

“I’m running because we need to fix our failing economy,” he said in an interview with WMDT, saying the way to do that was by bringing down public debt. “And a way to do that is to do what Lincoln did in the Civil War, which is to emit greenbacks.”

Arminio said the government would “simply emit the currency,” and “we simply create the money.” “Now, you have to do it in certain tranches, you don’t want to put too much out, because it could become inflationary, so you want to keep an eye on how much you put out,” he said, saying the process would not require borrowing or taxing. “What we have is a situation whereby the federal government borrows money. All our money essentially comes from someone borrowing from a private bank. That builds up the debt. Greenbacks — doesn’t require any debt creation whatsoever.”

On federal policies, both candidates are against the war in Iran. McBride has expressed support for a two-state solution between Israel and Palestine and Arminio confirmed he would support the same with WMDT. However, they differ on federal immigration policy, with McBride advocating comprehensive immigration reform and Arminio saying immigration enforcement needs more funding.

On health care, McBride said she supports restoring subsidies for health insurance policies, and Arminio said he supports a free-market health care system.

On housing, McBride co-sponsored the 21st Century Road to Housing Act, bipartisan legislation to lower housing costs by ensuring “that private equity is not buying up housing stock, increasing the cost for everyone else.”

“It’ll make sure that we build homes in a responsible way, because one of the top things I hear from constituents, especially here in Sussex County, is that we are seeing rapid growth in an irresponsible way that does not take into account existing residents and the surrounding infrastructure, and so I’m working on legislation that I’ll be introducing in the new Congress that’ll help increase funding for the infrastructure that communities need to grapple with growing housing development,” she said. “Because at the end of the day, as Delaware grows. We’ve got to make sure that we’re investing in the communities that are grappling with that growth, because we should ensure that as Delaware grows, all of us win, and that it is a rising tide that truly lifts all boats.”

Arminio says tackling housing means dealing with inflation.

“When it comes to inflation, when it comes to jobs, wages ever going up, prices, we need to revive the economy,” he said.

Regarding the viral moment when Ariminio was removed from a Sept. 18 forum after repeatedly misgendering McBride, Ariminio said his misgendering of McBride was “inadvertent.”

“I represent all Delawareans, and I would do that in the Congress, and to my understanding, for every 100 Delawareans, 99 are not transgender, and one is, so I have to represent the one, which I gladly do, as well as the 99, which are not,” he said. “At the same time, though, it’s important that we have freedom of speech and expression protected for the one, for the 99, for any other demographic, for that matter.”

Regarding the September forum, McBride said she remains committed to focusing on policies that impact Delawareans.

“Other politicians want to focus on fomenting culture wars and starting new forever wars. My focus has been on lowering the cost of housing, healthcare and childcare for Delawareans of all backgrounds, Delawareans in every corner of the state and Delawareans of every political persuasion,” she said. “I’m used to politicians who want to gain attention. They’re free to do whatever they want. I’m going to continue to be focused on the issues that matter. That won’t change in a new Congress.”

Voters can make their voices heard at the polls through Oct. 29 and on Election Day.