Editor’s note: This is the first of two reports on the race for Delaware attorney general. Next week: An interview with the incumbent candidate, Kathy Jennings.)

Delaware is known as the state of “firsts” and it could deliver another first in this year’s elections if Dwayne Bensing becomes the first openly gay man elected attorney general of any state in the country. 

 The Washington Blade spoke with current Delaware ACLU Legal Director Bensing to discuss his campaign. He is challenging incumbent Attorney General Kathy Jennings in the Sept. 15 primary. 

Bensing is an Arkansas native who moved to Delaware from D.C. a decade ago. He is a UPenn law school graduate with a background in education both as a teacher and an attorney, having worked for the Department of Justice and then the Department of Education under the Obama administration. 

He left the DOE under the first Trump administration in 2020 after acting as a whistleblower in an effort to protect trans athletes from discrimination.

“As a whistleblower, I don’t shy away from calling out bad acts, even if it’s from the political elite or the establishment. That’s the kind of independent government oversight that I want to bring to the office of the attorney general,” Bensing told the Blade. 

One of the pillars of Bensing’s campaign is corporate accountability: “I don’t think billionaires need any more grease on the wheels to pad their pockets,” said Bensing.

Bensing criticized Jennings for her stance on corporations and the wealthy.

“I don’t think that our attorney general appreciates the moment that we find ourselves in, where the billionaire class is consolidating all of the wealth on the backs of the working class and consumers,” Bensing said. 

In particular, he knocked Jennings’s handling of the restructuring of OpenAI, as she and California Attorney General Rob Bonta approved the company’s transition from a nonprofit organization to a public benefit corporation. 

“The people’s voice is being diminished in so many ways by the corporate oligarchy and government establishment elite who’ve benefited from the system as it is,” said Bensing.

“I believe that we have to clean up our own backyard first and really solidify the ‘small d’ democratic norms of access to voting at the ballot box, access to a high-quality public education, and access to free speech,” said Bensing. 

Bensing also spoke about the mistreatment of unhoused persons and the unhoused camps that are being removed by the government in Wilmington. 

“For people who have no place to go and are in a public space, we need to make sure that we’re providing them the services so that they can lift themselves up, not criminalize their mere existence,” said Bensing.

Bensing shared his desire to reform the “Delaware way” by pushing Delaware to sort out its disagreements internally and hold the federal government and corporations accountable. 

“From my vantage point at the ACLU of Delaware, the Delaware way is a way to preserve the power, the influence, the resources of the establishment elite, and so those who are benefiting from the Delaware way,” said Bensing.

“I think we are a state of neighbors, as our congresswoman often reminds us, and I think that will always keep us polite without being aggressively disagreeable, but what I feel we are losing is that accountability piece,” said Bensing.

As a gay man, Bensing has been a staunch supporter of transgender rights and the LGBTQ community as a whole throughout his career. 

When asked about his plans to continue his support for the trans community. Bensing responded by saying “I’ve been on the front lines of this issue.” He also referenced the late Barney Frank, saying “If you’re not at the table, you’re probably on the menu.” 

“In private practice, I filed the very first federal district court case regarding the rights of transgender students under Title IX,” said Bensing.

Bensing continued the fight for trans youth while working in the DOE under the first Trump administration: “When I found myself in the Trump administration unexpectedly, I met with Secretary Betsy DeVos in her office, and I begged her to meet transgender students because I didn’t think she understood that our transgender students were being vilified by the very leaders who were sworn to protect them.”

As previously mentioned, Bensing left the DOE in 2020 after he leaked emails showing protocol violations in an investigation involving the treatment of transgender students. 

Bensing highlighted Delaware’s past as being a leader on the “front lines” of LGBTQ protections and emphasized the need to continue protecting LGBTQ rights. 

Last August, Jennings wrote a letter to Nemours Children’s Hospital imploring them to reconsider their decision to stop providing gender affirming care services to new transgender youth patients.  

Bensing criticized Jennings’s letter to Nemours, describing it as an example of Jennings having “more bark than bite.”

“Our attorney general wrote a strongly worded letter to Nemours while other attorneys general said we will sue you, and did sue when health care providers stopped providing life-saving healthcare to transgender youth,” said Bensing.

“Battle lines have been drawn and the attorney general needs to stand with LGBTQ+ youth on this issue,” said Bensing.

Bensing has also been president of the Delaware Stonewall Political Action Committee for five years. He explained that its mission is to elect LGBTQ individuals and allies to office. 

“It’s really important that we keep fighting for equal protection under the law, and that we show up in civic spaces, that we become elected leaders, that we become engaged members of our community,” Bensing said. 

Bensing recalled growing up gay in Arkansas at a time not too long ago when same-sex marriage was what we described as “a bipartisan issue of objection.” 

He shared his concerns over same-sex marriage losing support according to recent polls: “That’s a fight I think that many in the LGBTQ+ community thought we had won.”

“I know firsthand how fragile our constitutional rights are and how fickle the public can be when extending dignity to a minority group.” 

Rep. Sarah McBride (D-Del.) officially kicked off her re-election campaign this week with a grueling tour of her state that saw her visit 57 municipalities in just 57 hours. 

The tour culminated Monday evening in Rehoboth Beach with a packed crowd at the Convention Center. At least 400 attendees stood patiently in a line that wrapped around the block and snaked down Rehoboth Avenue. Once inside, a DJ entertained the ebullient crowd that kept busy batting beach balls around the venue. 

The crowd featured a large LGBTQ presence that cheered speakers including state Rep. Claire Snyder-Hall, state Sen. Russ Huxtable, and Delaware Democratic Party Chair Evelyn Brady, who introduced McBride. 

McBride took the stage to Chumbawamba’s “Tubthumping” and the lyrics “I get knocked down, but I get up again.” In her remarks, she touched on a record of introducing more bipartisan legislation than any other freshman lawmaker and touted an award her office won for providing superior constituent service.

“People want leaders who are focused on lowering costs, solving problems, and delivering results,” she said. “That’s exactly what I’ve worked to do in Congress, and that’s why I’m running for re-election – to continue delivering for and defending Delaware.”

McBride is the first transgender member of Congress and is Delaware’s sole representative in the U.S. House. She will face the winner of the Republican primary in November. Rev. Earl Cooper — a former Democrat McBride defeated two years ago — is running for the GOP nomination. The state primary election is Sept. 15 and the general election is Nov. 3. 

Pride month festivities continue through the end of the month and there’s a new event for Rehoboth/Dewey Beach residents and visitors, Pride on the Bay, set for June 27. 

Boaters will tie up at the sandbar near Massey’s Landing from 12-4 p.m. Visit Pride on the Bay’s Facebook page for a map of the exact location. You can rent pontoons for the day at Dewey Beach Watersports (deweybeachwatersports.com).

Aqua Bar & Grill is sponsoring the inaugural event and will provide a floating DJ for the afternoon. Aqua will then host an after-party back on land (57 Baltimore Ave., Rehoboth Beach). 

Local part-time resident Brian Sparrow is organizing the gathering, citing the need for more Pride-oriented events at the beach. 

“I decided to create an event in June for Pride month,” Sparrow told the Blade. “There aren’t many Pride events in Rehoboth and Dewey where we can take advantage of the Rehoboth Bay.” 

He noted that there is another event called “Bay Pride” but that it is held in late summer on a Sunday. “Having the event on Saturday will allow for more boat renting options for visitors and friends to join,” Sparrow said, adding that he plans to make this an annual event.