Yesterday was the campaign’s first press conference. My campaign is focused on issues affecting children in Delaware, and although I am going to be having a series of announcements regarding my plans to improve public education, get health insurance for all kids, and other programs involving tens or hundreds of thousands of children, the announcement yesterday involved just a few thousand kids in Delaware: those who are abused, neglected, and living in foster care.

We held the press conference at A.I. Dupont Hospital for Children—you can read about the press conference here—and as I left the hospital, the location seemed very appropriate. About ten years ago, when then-Governor Tom Carper asked me to chair the state’s first Child Protection Accountability Commission, the first thing I did was to spend some time riding along with some of the state’s child protection workers so I could see their work firsthand. The very first day I ended up at A.I. Dupont with the caseworker and a five year old girl who was thought to be the victim of abuse, and we spent the next four hours there at the hospital as I watched the tragedies of her life unfold in front of me in doctor’s offices and family meeting rooms. Yesterday, almost a decade later, I was back at A.I. to announce my plans if elected Lieutenant Governor to make sure that other kids don’t suffer the same fate, and to make sure we do everything possible to help the kids that do. You can read about my plan here.