Races to Watch: 1st House District primary race is a rematch between two Wilmington Democrats

Delaware Public Media · Bente Bouthier · September 4, 2026

The incumbent Nnamdi Chukwuocha held his seat against Wilmington City Councilmember Shané Darby by a narrow margin of 90 votes back in 2022.

Four years later, she’s trying again to unseat Chukwuocha, who was first elected to the seat in 2018.

Darby - who runs a local nonprofit, Black Mothers in Power - said she’s better positioned to win this time. In 2022, she jumped in the race late at the end of July but this time…

“It's very different. I started over a year ago. I have more time. I'm raising more money. I have way more community support. I'm well known….I have a track record of what I did on City Council and the issues that I care about,” she said.

Although Darby believes getting an earlier start is an advantage , she also worries it gives Chukwuocha more time to campaign against her.

And he is working to highlight the differences he sees between them. While both served on Wilmington City Council and share opinions on education and housing, he believes her record on council reveals a gap between them.

“She hasn't been effective of passing legislation on city council with 13 Democratic members in the all urban area, and that will not equate to being successful in Dover, where you have 62 individuals that you have to work with who are urban, rural, suburban, and Democrat, Republican, and you have to be able to legislate,” he said. “So I think that's the biggest thing that separates us.”

At the state-level, healthcare was a highlight of the most recent legislative session: with bills passed to implement hospital cost controls. Delaware’s healthcare spending continues to exceed benchmarks initiated in 2018, which Darby has ideas about.

“I'm really interested in exploring those things when we talk about health insurance and how that's impacting our communities,” said Darby. “I also know that I have a heart for maternal health care. There are ways in the maternal health care field that we can reduce costs by simply giving people more options.

She advocates for more birthing centers and nuanced maternal healthcare – instead of relying on hospitals – as a cost-saving measure with other health benefits.

“That would provide people with different opportunities and less complications. If you are a low risk birth, giving birth at home actually is better, is healthier for you, and actually saves money overall in the healthcare system, so we have to start moving to evidence-based care for health,” said Darby.

Chukwuocha also sees healthcare as a priority. He touts his work on measures related to insurance coverage and access to HIV medication. And he co-sponsored Senate Bill 1, which pushes hospitals toward a value-based care model, cost controls, and more investment in primary care.

I mean, it was rising to levels where I mean, it just wasn't sustainable.... but even with SB 1, when it passed the Senate, the version that passed the Senate would have never passed the House. …We continued to work, and we ended up with a bill that everyone can be proud of,” said Chukwuocha.

Housing affordability is another issue on the minds of voters in New Castle County and specifically Wilmington. A 2023 report said Northern New Castle County had more than three times as many jobs as workers. The ratio indicates workers cannot find suitable housing near their work.

This year city officials grappled with where to allocate resources to alleviate pressure.

Darby supports inclusionary zoning. During Wilmington’s budget conversations, she supported a housing trust, which struggled to gain traction. She wants more units to match Wilmington’s – AMI or area median income.

“So, I heard that people were getting rent increases in one setting, $300, $400...We see a lot of development happening in our city, but they're all market rate, right? So how are we making sure that we are at least taking a certain percentage of those units, and we're making sure that they are affordable, at least 60% AMI,” said Darby. “Also I as a council person feel like we have to work with landlords, right? I think a lot of times we say landlords are evil, they're bad, right? For me, it's like most landlords in the city of Wilmington are small landlords. They're not big developers. They're small landlords.”

Darby wants renters, landlords, and homeowners at the table to assess state resources to improve rental stock.

Chukwuocha points out he’s already working on housing issues in Dover. He voted for the Affordable Housing Act – Senate Bill 23. It tells localities to align their zoning maps and affordable housing plans.

“To me, it's about improving the amount of affordable housing stock that we have available. I think those-that's the main focus that we need to do-is to really increase the number of units that we have available,” he said.

But Chukwuocha says Wilmington lacks the space for more development compared to other Delaware towns.

“So we're trying to look at ways in which we can look at our our aging housing stock and ways in which to create more housing, affordable housing from the housing stock that we have,” he said.

Education is also top of mind for Wilmington voters as the city’s schools continue to struggle with raising literacy and math proficiency scores.

The state Department of Education set ambitious goals to improve student test scores. Specific efforts, like the Wilmington Learning Collaborative, aim to help city students. It has an $11 million budget this year to improve overall student outcomes in the 9 Wilmington schools where it operates. But Darby says lawmakers need to be ready to reevaluate these Wilmington-specific efforts and focus on what’s worked for other states.

“I'm gonna go in, assess, research, learn, and then if we need to pivot because money has millions of dollars have been invested, and our kids still can't read on grade level and do math, I think it's time we pivot,” said Darby.

She also supports proposals to consolidate the multiple New Castle County school districts that serve Wilmington.

“There's been a lot of pushbacks. I know there's more steps that need to happen. So I'm really in support of pushing that conversation too,” she said.

Chukwuocha says he’s led in those conversations, and he’s advocated actions to undo effects of the Neighborhood Schools Act of 2000, which said students go to schools closest to them.

“Which everyone thinks, oh, that's great. …But in the city of Wilmington, .. what it did was create a whole city full of high need, high poverty, racially identifiable schools that no one wants to teach in and and are it has harmed our city gravely,” said Chukwuocha. “When I was a member of City Council, fought hard against this issue."

A member of the Redding Consortium, he participated in plans to consolidate school districts. It passed a plan last year to create a single northern New Castle County district, which he says will even out resources and standards for students and educators.

“We have just one equal tax base for our districts, one pay scale for our teachers …and we're going to continue moving forward to that,” he said.

Chukwuocha says the state's work to revamp its school funding formula is also vital to results for Wilmington’s students.

“So more money will begin pouring into our school districts that would hopefully be able to support adding additional supports like social workers and therapists inside of our schools,” he said. “But we truly need to just evaluate the system. The city of Wilmington doesn't have a voice in terms of its education system, and I mean, just makes no sense.”

Another issue that is again front and center is police transparency and accountability in Wilmington following the fatal shooting of 19-year-old Kadir Skinner by police in July.

Both Darby and Chukwuocha say community safety, gun violence prevention, and police accountability are connected issues. While on council, Darby says she has pushed for increased police accountability, and now she’s ready for a review of the Law Enforcement Officers Bill of Rights which was amended in 2023.

“Really looking at how we actually solve crime and gun violence in our community, which is very connected to police violence, so those are just a few things that were a part of those packages that I have been calling for. One of the most important ones that I have been calling for was the external assessment or audit of Wilmington Police Department, where we can have a third-party entity come and really dive into our police practices internally,” she said.

The Attorney General’s office says it will produce a report offering findings on its investigation into Kadir Skinner’s death. Chukwuocha says he trusts the AG’s office to produce an accurate report.

“We've had far, far too many gun deaths. …I've known the young man. He used to come to the community center with his cousins…when he was a young man, so I grieve with that family, and like so many, like my own families, who had gun lost individuals to gun violence, we do. We look forward to a very thorough investigation,” he said. “It's a constant where communities feel they're being overpoliced and it could lead to interactions that turn fatal. …we've worked for probably the past two or three mayors to really create a true sense of community policing, I think that in our community this was an unfortunate incident, but this is not who we are.

But Chukwuocha says the issues of violence and policing go beyond to a single policy,

“The root always goes back to education….mean, historical factors that have been heaped upon so many of our communities, …We can't look at firearms, violence, illegal firearms, and try to isolate it. We can't isolate it from broken systems. We can't isolate it from poverty,” said Chukwuocha.

As Darby and Chukwuocha campaign, each makes the case they are best suited to deliver for Wilmington in Dover.

Darby says some changes City Council wants to make require state statute changes and she believes she’s ready to strengthen the bridge between council and the General Assembly.

“An important thing to me is Wilmington having a seat at the table,”she said. “So when I say that Wilmington City Council and Wilmington State delegation do not have a relationship. There's no, there's no like transfer of knowledge, power, resources. There's no collaboration that happens, right? I want to be able, as a state representative, come to Wilmington City Council and say, how do we create a strong coalition.”

She also plans to address affordability issues in ways she can’t on City Council.

"We don't really control electricity things on council. So I do a lot of my work around water utility, and I have been a big proponent about how we get an external assessment on our water billing system, …How do we also make sure people who are the most vulnerable are protected from water shutoffs? That same way I am about water on a city level would be the same way now that I talk about water, electricity, cost of living, rent,” she said.

Chukwuocha touts his record in Dover. He points to his work on legislation that assures parents are no longer charged for expenses from time their child spent in foster care. He plans to push again for Eric’s Law – a voluntary identifier on someone’s ID that they have an unseen disability - as well as regulation of synthetic THC products.

“Having all of these smoke shops selling THCA and Delta eight, nine, and 10s and those low grade marijuanas. Really want to address that, and the way I feel we can address that is by the redefining legally what a smoke shop is, what they can sell and what they can't because right now they're just saturating in our city selling these unregulated products and we need to address that,” he said.

Democrats make up about two-thirds of registered voters in the First House District. So, the winner of this primary will be heavily favored to win the seat in November’s General election against Republican Lisa McInnis.

Read the full story at Delaware Public Media