U.S. Sen Chris Coons will have a primary opponent.
Jessica Scarane, a director at the Wilmington-based Archer Group advertising agency, is running on a platform of Medicare for All and a Green New Deal.
Scarane is also the president of Girls Inc. of Delaware, a nonprofit organization that provides in-school and after school programming for girls in under-resourced communities.
A primary challenge was not unexpected, given the moderate stance of Coons, who works with Republican U.S. Senators on areas of mutual interest.
The state’s other U.S. Senator, Tom Carper, faced a similar challenge in 2018 from the left wing of the Democratic Party, but easily won the primary and re-election, despite concerns over his long tenure in the House and Senate and his age.
Scarane’s announcement did get the attention of The Intercept, a website that last year hinted at a possible upset of Carper by primary opponent Kerri Harris.
Coons ranked 10th among the 100 senators in his approval rating. Coons, like Carper, has a sizable percentage of voters who don’t know about him or do not have an option, Morning Consult noted.
Scarane pointed to her Girls Inc. experience in her fund-raising Email, citing the challenges faced by women from lower-income backgrounds.
She claimed Coons is “too busy working with Donald Trump and the Republicans to protect predatory corporations at the expense of ordinary people. Maybe he genuinely believes in the agendas of his Wall Street and Big Pharma donors. Maybe he accepts our country’s massive racial and wealth inequality because he benefits from the current system.”
