Georgetown Elects New Mayor, Councilman After Months of Frustration

May 12, 2026

Nick, Stonesifer, Spotlight Delaware

Why Should Delaware Care?

For months, local residents have railed against Georgetown leaders as homelessness in the area has burgeoned. A slate of candidates backed by a local citizens group swept in municipal elections this weekend. 

Georgetown residents elected a new mayor and town council member by wide margins this weekend, a manifestation of the growing disillusion with the current council’s ability to manage homelessness in the Sussex County seat.

Angie Townsend came out on top of a crowded race, securing 75% of the vote to become Georgetown’s mayor. Michael Briggs unseated incumbent Councilman Eric Evans, winning the race to represent Georgetown’s third ward. An additional town council member, Penuel Barrett, ran unopposed, holding onto his seat.

All three candidates were backed by a citizens’ Facebook group known as “Make Georgetown Great Again.” The group has established a political foothold in recent months, largely in response to growing resident frustrations about town leaders’ response to homelessness.

Group members had repeatedly made posts promising to unseat officials they viewed as ineffective, using the phrase “May is on the way,” to reference last Saturday’s municipal elections. 

Unofficial election results from both contested elections, where MGGA-backed candidates each won with at least 75% of the vote, suggest the group was successful in fulfilling its promise.

Townsend will succeed longtime Mayor Bill West, who announced he would retire earlier this year. She previously served on the town council and failed to unseat West in 2024. But Townsend garnered hundreds more votes on Saturday than her nearest competitor, Itzel Hernandez, a 37-year-old Latina artist seeking elected office for the first time.

Townsend did not return a phone call on Monday from Spotlight Delaware to discuss her agenda.

Hernandez told Spotlight Delaware she was honored to have run in the race, and that she is keeping her options open for future elections. She added that following the defeat, she still plans to be active in the community and makes sure Townsend “keeps her promises.”

Asked about the wide margin of defeat, she said she wasn’t bothered by the number, and that as she spends more time in the community she hopes more people would support her in the future. 

“I think that once they see me being active in the community, it’s going to make people more interested in being involved,” Hernandez said. “So honestly, that number really doesn’t affect me.”

Michael Briggs secured a landslide town council victory in the third ward, which, according to the town’s website, encompasses “north of the center line of West Market Street and West of the center line of North Bedford Street.”

Briggs runs a propane company and has been a part of the town volunteer fire department for nearly three decades. He also has served on the Georgetown planning commission for the past two years.

Eric Evans, who claimed Townsend’s seat in 2024 after she stepped down to run against West, only secured 20% of the vote on Saturday. 

Briggs did not return a phone call on Monday to discuss his agenda. 

Make Georgetown Great Again flexes influence

At the center of the victories this weekend were endorsements from the local citizens’ Facebook group Make Georgetown Great Again. Tyler Scott, who started the group in October 2025, told Spotlight Delaware he was excited by the victories and the group’s ability to mobilize for candidates. 

“We have drastically changed the political landscape of Georgetown in one election,” Scott said on Monday. 

The group of nearly 6,000 people had for months pressed the local town council on its response to homelessness in the area, and what Scott on Monday called “fragmented service providers” in Georgetown.

Now that the group’s candidates have been elected, he said he hopes leaders will sit down with local nonprofits providing homelessness services in the town to implement more programs that are faith-based and focused on accountability.  

“We really want to help people with their mental health, addiction and permanent housing,” Scott said. “We don’t just want to keep people at rock bottom.”

Scott also said he hopes to replicate this weekend’s success in future town council elections in the first and second wards. Additionally, he said his goal is to keep “Sussex County red” in upcoming legislative races as longtime lawmakers begin to retire. 

Townsend’s agenda, controversy

In a graphic posted to her Facebook account in April, Townsend wrote that her campaign priorities are to strengthen government relationships with local businesses and residents, engage in conversations with nonprofit organizations about the best ways to serve the town’s homeless population, and “ensure that future economic development and land use decisions are consistent with recommendations from the Planning Commission.” 

Her third recommendation seems to reference the Little Living development, which generated controversy when the town council voted to approve the tiny homes project in early February, after the planning commission recommended to deny the proposal in late 2025. 

In an interview with Kevin Andrade, host of the prominent Delmarva Spanish-speaking radio station Maxima 95.3 FM, Townsend said homelessness is “the most fearful” issue in town. She said she does not want The Shepherd’s Office – a day center that provides daily meals and church services in town – to continue operating, because it attracts homeless people from other towns. 

“I don’t want to enable the homeless,” she said. “I would love to see the town of Georgetown take a stand that it’s illegal to live in a tent in the woods.”

Townsend, along with Penuel Barrett, who ran uncontested this weekend for town council and former council member Sue Barlow were also the subject of controversy in 2022. The three, all serving on town council at the time, voted to continue funding the Georgetown Historical Society, which hosts a monument dedicated to those who served the Confederacy in the Civil War and was flying a Confederate flag at its museum. 

In the La Maxima interview, Townsend said her stance in support of the museum has not changed.

“To me, [the Confederate flag] represents individuals – young men, old men – that gave their lives to fight for a cause they believed in,” Townsend said. “Whatever somebody makes of the flag is their opinion.”

According to Georgetown’s charter, candidates must be inaugurated within two town council meetings of their election, meaning Townsend, Biggs and Barrett will likely be sworn in at the council’s May 26 meeting.

Maggie Reynolds contributed to this report.