Meet Our Candidates Colin Bonini for Governor

Hi, Jane Brady here, chair of the Delaware Republican Party. And with me today is Colin Bonini, Republican candidate for governor of Delaware. How are you doing today, Colin? Hey, Jane. Thanks so much for having me. Oh, it's great. So tell us a little bit about your personal life and about your background. Well, I'm incredibly boring. And I would like to say for anybody watching, Jane Brady is one of my longtime friends because Jane remembers when I was thin. That's how long ago it was. So I am Senator Colin Bonini. I represent the 16th State Senate District, which is just south of Dover. I go basically from Dover south to Milford. I have been in the State Senate for 25 years. I was elected at age 29. You remember that, Jane? It was an incredibly exciting time. I have been a, I think, staunch conservative stalwart. I think it's probably the best way to say that in my time in politics. Personally, there are very few things that are 100% unanimous and bipartisan. But one of them is that I totally married up and I don't deserve my lovely wife. Madam Chair, I know you agree with that. You've met her. So I'm married to Dr. Melissa Harrington, who is the Associate Vice President of Research at Delaware State University. I'm the luckiest guy in the world. So I don't know if these are interesting facts or not, but I'm one of seven kids and I'm an identical twin. It is frightening, Madam Chair, there are two of me. And my twin is a superior court judge out in California. And I've been very blessed in my career to be reelected in my district numerous times, even though it's a Democrat-leaning district. And I've been very blessed to be the Republican nominee for statewide office twice already. Great. Tell us what motivated you to decide to run for governor? We just can't do four more years. I mean, Delaware, regardless of whatever issue you're interested in, whatever criteria you use, Delaware is either in absolute decline or in relative decline to other states. Whether it's our economy, we're one of two states in the country that I think has a growing poverty rate. Whether it's public education, where we have tremendous variations, but some of our schools are literally failing to meet the needs of our students. Whether it's public safety, where Wilmington is still one of the most dangerous small cities in the country. And of course, the last several months, whether it's the sort of dictatorial policies regarding COVID-19. I mean, we have to change. Delaware has to change course. This place has been so wonderful to me, and I feel so incredibly blessed for my life in Delaware. And Jane, I just couldn't stand by and not try to fix it. And by the way, I'm confident we can't fix it. And what are some of the main issues? I think you touched on it, but some of the main issues that you're going to address as governor? So the key one, of course, is depending where we are in the current crisis, right? I mean, I think our response, the state government's response has been, John Carney's response has been sort of the worst of both worlds, right? We have a pretty high fatality rate, pretty high infection rate, but also it's been devastating to our economies. We have sort of the worst of both worlds, right? If we're going to shut down the economy, at least have a health reason to do that. And I think, first of all, we need to change the data we use to make those decisions. It needs to not just be infections, it needs to be infections, hospitalizations, et cetera, vulnerable populations, et cetera. And I think there's two key components to the COVID. The first is vulnerable populations have to be protected. We absolutely, the very elderly, those with compromised immune systems, et cetera, we just absolutely have to focus on protecting those vulnerable populations. And then the second piece is, I think the current administration looks at this and says, we're going to close and shut down the economy and radically change people's lives unless you give me a reason not to. We have to give them a reason to open up. And I actually think that's 180 degrees of where we should be. I think we need to say, you need to live your lives, you need to chase your dreams, you need to drive this economy, and we need to give you reasons why we shouldn't do that. And I think that's a very different perspective on where we are. So I think that's the piece. The economy, I think I've mentioned it before, we are incredibly low in job creation, but not just the number of jobs, but quite frankly, the level of jobs. I guarantee you the governor's going to get up in October and say, look, we've added all these jobs. And the reality is maybe we have added some jobs overall, but they're low paying jobs. And so we just need a quantity of jobs and also the quality of jobs. Our public schools, we are, I don't know, top 10 in this country for spending, yet we have many schools that just are failing to meet the needs of our students. And Madam Chair, you and I have talked about this before. I mean, we have, I think this is the number, so I apologize if I'm off a point or two, but I think it's 13% of African American eighth graders read in grade one. And I mean, when I look at the data about how some of our kids are doing, it's just devastating. Great. Now, we're going to put this out on our social media, on our YouTube channel, and we're also going to send it by email to all the delegates and optimists to the convention, and we'd like, if you'd like to make any special message to the delegates, we would like the opportunity to do that now. Okay. And Madam Chair, thanks. My message is, please vote for me. How's that for direct, right? First of all, I am a big believer in the 11th commandment, Madam Chair, that I'm not going to criticize any of my Republican opponents. I think we have some wonderful people. I just, we do, there's just no question about it. But I think it is absolutely critical that we nominate the candidate with the best chance of winning. And I, you know, regardless of what criteria you use, whether it's statewide name ID, whether it's fundraising, whether it's previous electability, regardless of whatever criteria you use, I think there's just no question that I'm that candidate. And, you know, and I think this is just too important, right? I mean, people say, oh, run for office for this, run for office for that. We need to have governor candidate who can win. That's what this is about. And I'm a strong conservative. Quite frankly, I think all the delegates know me personally, just about, you know who I am, you know, my record. And the bottom line is, we have to win. And we have to nominate the candidate who can win. And Madam Chair, I think I'm that person. I'm looking forward to it. Well, thank you very much. Colin Bonini, candidate for governor of Delaware on the Republican ticket. We'll see you at the convention, Colin. Madam Chair, thank you.