I'm Rony.

And here's my story.

I am 29 years old and I am the son of immigrants, born and raised in Milford, Delaware. My mother from Mexico and my father from Guatemala, they came to the United States in search of a better life. Both my parents have a middle school education.

As their oldest son, they envisioned my trajectory to be different than theirs but to what extent would depend entirely on me.

Image of Rony Baltazar-Lopez as a young boy standing in front of a school bus.

I am a product of Milford public schools starting from pre-kindergarten at Head Start to graduating from Milford High School in 2013. Growing up in a low-income, immigrant household, life challenges were abundant. There was a reason why my parents raised me with high expectations. It was because of their expectations and how hard they were on me that I learned to appreciate what I had.

I have two younger brothers, Steven and Omar who I helped raise as there is a significant age gap between us. Helping to care for and raise them as their older brother instilled in me the notion that I had to be a role model for them. To this day, my mission has been to inspire them to reach their goals and continue breaking barriers for themselves and others.

My parents are blue-collar workers. My father is a small business owner who started his towing business from scratch. With little guidance and resources yet full of hope and determination, he got his business going. Now he serves clients all around Delaware. He's inspired me to look at challenges with optimism and to always get right back up when life kicks you down.

I began developing a deep sense of appreciation for helping others at a young age when I would help my family and family friends translate documents or interpret for them at the doctor's or at school visits. Such responsibility helped me in the long run: it helped enhance my public speaking skills and my ability to interact with individuals. However, this responsibility was a result of the lack of linguistically and culturally appropriate services for non-English speakers.

It wasn't until I was in high school that I began finding what I was interested in. I remember sitting in Mr. Diaz's 10th Grade Civics class and learning about government that I began developing a love for government, public service, and politics. Mr. Diaz also pushed me to think critically and outside the box, and it was because of his advocacy that led me to be placed in honors and AP classes. Though some within the high school administration did not believe I was capable of taking on advanced courses, I set out to prove them wrong and completed several AP courses, including AP U.S. History in which I received the highest score of 5 on the exam.

I always knew I would have the challenge of becoming the first in my family to go to college but how I would accomplish that would be a different story. Due to the rising costs of post-secondary education, I found myself attending the University of Delaware (UD), first through the Associate in Arts Program. Through the Associate and Arts Program, I was able to complete my associate's degree at no cost thanks to the SEED Program. While I took classes at the Delaware Technical and Community College campus, my courses and professors were credentialed through UD. As a result of completing a whole semester of Advanced Placement (AP) classes during high school, I was able to complete my associate's in less than two years while working part-time jobs. After completing my associate's degree, I went on to complete my bachelor's degree on the main campus. Unlike traditional students, I commuted every day from Milford to Newark to attend classes to afford tuition.

During my undergrad, I had the opportunity to take on several internships including with the Delaware House of Representatives Democratic Caucus, and the Office of Governor Jack Markell. I also spent my entire last semester of undergrad in Washington, D.C. interning for U.S. Senator Tom Carper.

Image of Rony Baltazar-Lopez with his graduation gown in front of the U.S. Capitol Building.

Immediately upon graduating, I went on to work at the National Alliance for Mental Illness (NAMI) at its Delaware chapter serving as the Hispanic Programs Coordinator. In my first white-collar job, I expanded NAMI Delaware’s outreach to Delaware’s Hispanic community ensuring that Hispanic Delawareans, the fastest growing population in the state, were receiving the resources and information to seek mental help – a highly stigmatized phenomenon in Hispanic culture.

Image of Rony Baltazar-Lopez sitting in a U.S. Senate Hearing Room behind U.S. Senator Tom Carper.

After a brief tenure at NAMI Delaware, I landed a position with U.S. Senator Tom Carper's office in Washington, D.C. During this turbulent time under the Trump Presidency, I worked as a staff assistant answering phones, providing tours of the U.S. Capitol, and assisting with the operations of the office. I eventually was promoted as a junior legislative staffer and had the privilege to work on a wide range of priorities for the senator including foreign policy, homeland security, immigration, defense, veterans, and public safety. Having served in this capacity gave me the knowledge and skills that I would bring back when I returned to Delaware in the summer of 2019.

Upon returning to my hometown in the summer of 2019, I was appointed to the Milford School District Board of Education to serve out a term of one year for a former board member who had relocated outside the district. As a result, I became the youngest at 24 and the first Latino to sit on the board.

In 2020, after realizing that my voice was crucial for underserved families, particularly Spanish-speaking families, I decided to run to retain my seat. My focus during my campaign and during my appointment was to reduce dropout rates - which were and continue to be high, particularly amongst Multilingual Learners - improve graduation rates, and reduce chronic absenteeism. After an arduous campaign during the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic, I won with 57 percent of the vote. In that same year, I was elected as vice president of the board.

During my school board tenure, I remained committed to ensuring that all families regardless of their socioeconomic backgrounds had a voice. I pushed for transparency and held the district accountable for outcomes even as students were learning remotely. Here are some key initiatives that I helped push for:

Uphold the rights and privacy of students by passing Board Policy 5313, the Protection of the Privacy of Students.
Strengthened the district's external communications with the community by creating a public information officer position.
Committed to addressing racial equity and improving disparities in our education system by creating the supervisor of equity and support services position.
Began the process of revising the district's goals and objectives by working with stakeholders to create a strategic plan, which will ensure accountability moving forward.
Committed the board from engaging in improper behavior by passing two policies: an ethics policy and a conflict-of-interest policy.
Established a Graduation Advisory Committee to address graduation rates and dropout rates.

While being on the school board, I worked for Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings at the Delaware Department of Justice. There I helped with communicating her legal battles and victories on digital media platforms to ensure that all Delawareans knew that she was fighting for them.

I also challenged myself in obtaining a post-graduate degree. While working full-time, I enrolled part-time in the Joseph R. Biden, Jr. School of Public Policy at the University of Delaware and obtained my master's degree in public administration in 2022.

Today, I work for the Delaware Department of State as the Director of Legislative Affairs and Communications. In my role, I work with leadership staff and legislators to ensure that the Department's legislative priorities are being met. I also manage the communications portfolio at the Department by working daily with members of the media to fulfill their inquiries and promote the Department's services and programs through digital media and outreach efforts.

In addition, I serve on numerous boards, including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Delaware, the Delaware Hispanic Commission, the Delaware Advisory Council on Career and Technical Education (DACCTE), Delaware Center for Inland Bays, the City of Milford’s Parks and Recreation Advisory Board, La Red Health Center, the Fort Dupont Redevelopment & Preservation Corporation, and the Educational Equity Council.

My personal mission statement is to use my personal experiences as a first-generation American and my professional experiences as a public servant to continue addressing systemic and bureaucratic challenges that prevent government from working for all. I hope to become an instrument of positive change to inspire young and diverse community members to become part of the political and governmental processes to ensure that government continues to reflect and represent the needs of increasingly diverse communities.

I'm running for state representative because my life has always been about serving others. I believe that our government should reflect the priorities, the values, the interests, and the diversity of our communities. And ultimately, for me, I want to give back to the community that has given me and my family opportunities.

Image of Rony Baltazar-Lopez smiling in front of the U.S. Capitol Building.