Republican Councilwoman Kilpatrick has decided to retire, and her seat is up for grabs
For 16 years, Councilwoman Janet Kilpatrick has represented Hockessin, Yorklyn, North Star, Pike Creek and part of Newark which makes up New Castle County “District 3.”
Councilwoman Kilpatrick is not seeking reelection, one of two decades-long tenures ending this year. Democrats Kira Alejandro and Kyle Grantham are competing for her seat in the Sept. 15 primary; the winner faces Republican Melissa Brayman, Director of Administration and Finance at the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce, with no primary of her own. Both Alejandro and Grantham sat down for interviews about who they are and what they’d do if elected.
Kira Alejandro: A musician and community advocate
Growing up…
Alejandro, 30, grew up in Hockessin-off Brackenville Road-and still lives in the district, in Yorklyn. She plays piano and baritone ukulele, plays some guitar and bass, and grew up playing flute. She said she also grew up going to Ashland Nature Center, which she called “a focal point” in her life and where her love of the natural world began. Her favorite spot there is a boardwalk over a marsh, where she said watching frog eggs and cattails appear every year still feels peaceful. “I feel really lucky to live so close to it,” she said.
A formative influence…
She credits both parents with shaping how she sees public life: her father, “a very staunch environmental advocate” and believer in public education from his own years in New York’s public schools, and her mother, who volunteered on the spot to keep a Girl Scout camp on Sharpless Road running rather than let it close, and ran it for years afterward.
Making it personal…
Alejandro said she has personally helped save nearly 30 acres of land in Yorklyn from development, and pledged never to take donations from developers, land-use attorneys, corporations or corporate PACs. “I think you can’t be neutral if you’re funded by special interests,” she said.
On electric bills and data centers…
“The problem that we’re seeing with the delivery fees is partly because Delmarva is allowed to do non-mandatory construction of infrastructure,” Alejandro said, pointing to a pending Delaware Public Service Commission case in which Delmarva is seeking a $68 million rate increase.
“Adding poles, adding substations, building things for anticipated use… that is the only way that Delmarva can potentially profit, because they’re not supposed to be profiting off of the sale or delivery fees.” She said “part of the reason that the energy bills are continuing to increase is because data centers are getting built on our grid,” adding, “whether or not we have any data centers in Delaware, if data centers are being built on this larger grid, our energy bills are going to go up.”
“I believe the number one thing we can do at a county level to get a handle on these increasing rates is call for a data center moratorium,” she said. “We’ve seen precedent for this. Maryland has five different counties now that have enacted a moratorium. They have a county that has outright banned data centers.”
What’s been the hardest part of running?
“Running a campaign is grueling. I’m very fortunate to have a lot of people who are very invested in this campaign,” Alejandro said. “I would say overall I think the most challenging thing has just been that no one knows what the county council is. So often I find people asking me, ‘Are you running against Mike Smith? Are you running against Frank Burns?’”
Why do you think you’re the right fit for the job?
“I’m the only candidate that has any kind of concrete experience standing up for our communities and actually achieving results,” Alejandro said. “That’s why I’m running. I want to keep putting our communities first as a council member.”
Kyle Grantham: A photojournalist turned public servant
Growing up…
Grantham, 38, grew up in Cecil County, Maryland, and moved to Delaware in 2013. He considered the Naval Academy in high school before choosing journalism, as he learned more about the Iraq War, working through Ohio, Indiana, Wyoming, and California before landing at The News Journal full-time in 2013.
A formative influence…
Grantham said the person who shaped his approach to public service most was Rob Carr, an Associated Press photographer he met at 19 covering a bowl game in Mobile, Alabama. Carr later got him assignments at the Senior British Open and an Ireland-Scotland rugby match, then brought him along to shoot Orioles and Ravens games for his first national byline. “No one gets anywhere in this industry by themselves,” Grantham said Carr told him, a lesson he’s carried into politics.
Making it personal…
He left journalism after being assaulted by a Trump supporter about two weeks before the 2016 election, then spent nearly a decade in the county executive’s office after Gov. Matt Meyer, then county executive, brought him on. Grantham lives in Newark with his wife and 2-year-old son, still coaches the county’s adult co-ed soccer league at Banning Park.
On electric bills and data centers…
Grantham explains, “I think we need to work with the state to get power bills under control. I’m not convinced we can unilaterally impose a moratorium on data center construction without backing from the state legislature.
The companies building these things have more money than God and armies of lawyers. If we go it alone against them, I don’t think we can win. If we work with the state to take a comprehensive approach to fighting them – whether it be zoning, tax reform, or hopefully an outright ban – we have a better shot of making Delaware look less attractive and keeping them out of the state altogether.
But simply hitting ‘pause’ for a year or two with a moratorium isn’t going to be enough. The energy and environmental impacts from these facilities are never going to be solved, and even if they somehow were, these facilities are being built to power AI technology designed to replace workers and produce a product 40% the quality for 10% the cost. I’m never going to support that.
At the same time, the County can be bringing new clean power projects online to introduce power locally at cost and start curving bills down.”
What’s been the hardest part of running?
“This is easily the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life,” Grantham said. “I think the one thing I wasn’t necessarily prepared for was the guilt, having a two-year-old and needing to spend so much time out putting the hard groundwork in. When I’m out 20, 30 hours a week knocking doors, I just feel guilty that I’m not at home with him. And then on the flip side, when I’m at home and I am enjoying myself, then I feel guilty that I’m not working hard enough.”
Why do you think you’re the right fit for the job?
“What I want people to see in those endorsements is that these people are recognizing the fact that I understand what this job is about and what it’s not about, and the way that it can have an impact on lives in a real way, and that they see in me the experience and qualifications to do it well,” Grantham said.
Where the two candidates’ money and endorsements stand
Grantham raised roughly $25,900 through Aug. 16, per the State’s Campaign Filing Report System, and have some noteworthy endorsements from six NCC council members, including Councilwoman Kilpatrick and Councilman Hollins, plus Gov. Matt Meyer.
Alejandro raised nearly $44,700 over the same period, almost $18,850 more than Grantham, with some notable endorsements from one council member, two state officials and the Sierra Club.
Both candidates agree Delaware’s electric bills are a real burden, and that data centers are part of the story. They disagree on whether the fix is a moratorium or a zoning overhaul. On Sept. 15, District 3’s Democrats decide which approach, and which candidate, gets the chance to prove it right.
How to vote
Only registered Democrats can vote in the Sept. 15 primary. The deadline to register was Saturday, Aug. 22; early voting runs Sept. 2-13. Check your registration or district at the state’s voter portal, ivote.de.gov/VoterView.
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Correction (Aug. 24, 2026, 12:07 p.m.): This article has been updated to correct Melissa Brayman’s title. She is Director of Administration and Finance at the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce, not an office administrator.
Vil Ramunno is a contributing journalist with Delaware LIVE and a Delaware-based policy writer and researcher, specializing in translating complex legislative and economic issues into plain English residents can understand and relate to. She founded and developed “Dover Dash” on CivicDelaware.com, a free legislative bill tracker that matches Delaware General Assembly bills to the specific personas they affect, such as homeowners, renters and small-business owners. She brings a background in communications, small-business finance and public-facing policy education, and has appeared numerous times on WDEL’s “The Rick Jensen Show” to discuss pending legislation. You can email her at: [email protected]
