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Bio

CLAIRE SNYDER-HALL is running to be the FIRST WOMAN to represent the people of Representative District 14 (RD 14) — Rehoboth Beach, Dewey, and Lewes — in the DELAWARE STATE HOUSE. She wants to use the extensive network of relationships she has developed through her political work in Delaware over the last 13 years to benefit the district and help improve the quality of life in the First State.

Claire is a pro-choice Democrat who will work to protect reproductive freedom, strengthen the democratic process in the First State, and advance doable bills aimed at improving Delaware’s quality of life in terms of health, education, housing, and the environment.

Over the years, Claire has worked in the political world in a number of different ways. For five years (2015-2017 and 2021-2024), Claire led the Delaware office of Common Cause, a national, non-partisan, grassroots organization with over 1.5 million members that works to protect and strengthen democracy, by safeguarding the freedom to vote, opposing the power of billionaires to buy elections, organizing for community-centered redistricting, exposing cronyism and corruption, and bolstering ethics and transparency laws.

As part of her CCDE job, Claire built coalitions with ally organizations and lobbied state legislators to support or block particular bills, and through that work she has developed strong working relationships with lawmakers and the leaders of governmental and non-governmental organizations all over the state.

Between stints at Common Cause Delaware (CCDE), Claire was in Florida, taking care of her mother during her final years, and she remained active in the Democratic Party during that time. Claire was elected to the Sarasota County Democratic Committee and the statewide Democratic Progressive Caucus, served as a delegate to the state convention, chaired the Sarasota-Charlotte Democratic Progressive Caucus, and actively participated in the community organization, Progressive Sarasota. After her mother’s passing, Claire moved back to Rehoboth Beach and returned to Common Cause.

Prior to joining the CCDE team in 2015, Claire’s political work included chairing the Democratic Committee in RD 14 for 4 years and serving on the Sussex County Democratic Executive Committee; running a grassroots campaign for the Delaware State Senate in 2014 against Ernie Lopez; co-leading the weekly phone banks at CAMP Rehoboth during the marriage equality campaign; organizing canvassing efforts to protect manufactured homeowners; working on the statewide death penalty repeal effort; and serving on the board of the prison reentry organization, The Way Home.

Before moving to Rehoboth full-time in 2011, Claire served on the faculty of George Mason University, where she taught political science and also administered a range of academic programs. Her twenty years of classroom teaching experience also include courses taught at Princeton University, Rutgers University, Hunter College, Illinois State University, & New College of Florida (before DeSantis destroyed it).

One of Claire’s greatest passions is writing. Her most recent book, Battling the Prince: A Woman Fights for Democracy (SUNY, 2021) is a political memoir. Her other books include Gay Marriage and Democracy: Equality for All (Rowman & Littlefield, 2006), Citizen-Soldiers and Manly Warriors: Military Service and Gender in the Civic Republican Tradition (Rowman & Littlefield, 1999), and the co-edited volume Right-Wing Populism and the Media (Routledge, 2014). In addition, she has published dozens of articles and essays on issues of concern to democrats, feminists, and progressives. She served as co-editor of the academic journal New Political Science: A Journal of Politics and Culture for the Caucus for Critical Political Science from 2020-2023.

Claire holds a PhD in political science from Rutgers University, with a major in political theory and minors in political economy and women & politics, and a BA cum laude in psychology from Smith College. She resides in the Villages of Old Landing in Rehoboth Beach with her wife Mikki and their three cats.