Mike Miller running for Congress in 2016
Jimtown resident Mike Miller said he’s decided to run for U.S. Rep. John Carney’s soon-to-be vacant congressional seat because families are suffering and people are hurting.
“We can do better,” said the Democrat during an interview Oct. 28 in his living room. “I can’t just sit idly by while I see the state and country go down this path.”
Carney, a Democrat who has represented Delaware in Congress since 2011, announced Sept. 16 that he is running for governor in 2016 to replace Gov. Jack Markell. Elected first in 2008 and then again in 2012, Markell is term-limited and cannot run for re-election.
There are more than nine months before the July 2016 filing deadline, and Miller is the first Sussex Countian to join the already crowded race for the seat.
He’s the sixth candidate to announce his intentions and the fourth Democrat – Sen. Bryan Townsend, D-Newark; Rep. Bryon Short, D-Highland Woods, and former state Labor Secretary Lisa Blunt Rochester are the others. Former Wyoming Mayor Hans Reigle and activist Rose Izzo are the two Republicans.
Miller said he doesn’t mind the challenge of a contested primary, and he looks at a campaign as a job interview.
“If I’m just given a chance, I know I can do the job,” he said. “You’ll see what I can do for you.”
Miller is no stranger to political campaigns – he ran for Congress in 2000 and 2002, Cape Henlopen Board of Education in 2009 and the state Senate District 6 seat in 2012, created because of redistricting following the 2010 census.
Miller, 46, is a lifelong Sussex County resident and graduate of Cape Henlopen High School. He’s a small business owner, Tax-man Accounting Services and Miller’s Lawn Service, husband to Denise for 22 years and father of three.
Miller said there’s time to get his message out, but he quickly added he would like to see a wall built across the Mexican border and would like to increase the minimum wage to at least $11 an hour.
“As a small business owner who worked from the ground up, I know what it’s like to live off nothing,” he said. “I started my businesses with nothing. One truck. One push mower.”
The Democratic primary is set for Sept. 13, 2016, but Miller said he’ll be busy getting his message out.
“I’ll be going from neighborhood to neighborhood, from one business to the next,” he said. “Hopefully Sussex County will come out and support a Sussex County man.”
Chris Flood has been working for the Cape Gazette since early 2014. He currently covers Rehoboth Beach and Henlopen Acres, but has also covered Dewey Beach and the state government. He covers environmental stories, business stories and random stories on subjects he finds interesting, and he also writes a column called Choppin’ Wood that runs every other week. Additionally, Flood moonlights as the company’s circulation manager, which primarily means fixing boxes that are jammed with coins during daylight hours, but sometimes means delivering papers in the middle of the night. He’s a graduate of the University of Maine and the Landing School of Boat Building & Design.
