Katz for U.S. Senate · Volunteer Guide

Write a letter to the editor

Twenty minutes. A few hundred words. Your name and your town at the bottom. Here is how to write one Delaware's papers will actually print.

Why it's worth your time

The people still reading Delaware's local papers are the people who vote.

In Sussex County's last midterm, voters over 65 cast half of all the ballots — while making up only about a third of registered voters. Add everyone over 50 and you get four out of five votes cast.

A letter from a neighbor carries something no advertisement can buy. It's one of the few places a campaign can't simply spend its way in — the only way in is for someone real to write something worth printing.

Five things that make a letter run

Say who you are and where you live. "I've lived in Milton for twenty-two years" does more work than any argument that follows it.
Pick one reason. Not five. A few hundred words holds a single idea properly, or four badly. Choose the thing that actually moved you.
Be specific about something. A conversation you had. A problem in your town. Something that happened to your family. Specific beats sweeping every time.
Sound like yourself. If it reads like a press release it won't run. If it reads like you talking to a neighbor over a fence, it will.
Be for something. Letters that make a case get printed more often than letters that only attack.

Stuck? Start with one of these

Don't copy these — they're just doors in. Answer one honestly and you'll have your letter.

What's the thing about the direction of the country that you actually talk about at your own kitchen table?

Have you met Dr. Katz? What did you notice that surprised you?

What does your town need that Washington doesn't seem to understand?

You've probably voted for people from both parties over the years. What made this one different?

What would you say to a neighbor who's undecided and tired of politics altogether?

If you work in health care, farming, small business, teaching or the trades — what does your work let you see that most people don't?

One honest note

We're not giving you a script, and that's on purpose. Newspapers spot form letters instantly and throw them out, and a stack of near-identical letters makes a campaign look manufactured. Your letter works precisely because it's yours. Ten letters in ten voices beat fifty in one.

Draft it here

Papers enforce word limits and most people guess. This counts as you type. Limits differ — the Cape Gazette allows 400, the News Journal wants about 250 — so aim at your paper's number. Nothing is sent anywhere; your draft stays on this device.

Your letter

0 words Aim for 200–250.

Check the paper's rules first

This matters more than anything else on the page

Some Delaware papers do not print candidate endorsements at all. The Cape Gazette says plainly: “Endorsement letters for political candidates and letters submitted by candidates for public office are not accepted.” A letter saying “vote for Mike Katz” will simply be thrown out there.

That isn't a dead end — it's a redirect. Write about the issue instead. What's happening in your town, what it's costing your family, what you want fixed. An issue letter from a real resident runs more often and persuades more than a naked endorsement does. Check the paper's policy before you write.

Where to send it

Send to one paper only — your local one is usually best, because papers favor letters from inside their coverage area.

Paper	Covers	How to send
Cape Gazette Verified	Lewes, Rehoboth, coastal Sussex	viewpoints@capegazette.com 400 words max. Local issues preferred. One letter per person per 30 days on a topic. No candidate endorsements. Policy
Coastal Point Verified	Bethany, Ocean View, Millville, Selbyville, Millsboro	editorial@coastalpoint.com · 302-539-1788 Or the form at coastalpoint.com/opinion/letters
Delaware State News	Dover and Kent County	Submit via baytobaynews.com — look for “Submit a Letter”. Ask the office for the current limit.
The News Journal	Statewide, based in Wilmington	Submit through the Opinion section at delawareonline.com/opinion. Letters run short — around 250 words.
Newark Post	Newark and western New Castle	Submit via newarkpostonline.com — look for Opinion or Submissions.

Papers ask for your full name, your town and a phone number. The phone number is only so an editor can confirm you wrote it — they don't publish it.

Rules change. If a link has moved or a paper tells you something different, let the campaign know and we'll fix this page.

Before you send

It's under your paper's word limit — check, don't guess. They differ.
Your name, town and phone number are at the bottom.
You're sending to one paper, not several — and you've checked whether it accepts candidate endorsements.
You haven't already posted it on Facebook or anywhere else. Papers want it first.
Every factual claim is something you could point to a source for.
You wrote it yourself — not copied, and not generated by an AI tool. Several papers reject both outright.

Two things worth knowing

Papers limit how often the same person appears — often once every few weeks. Pick your moment rather than sending three in a row.

And most stop running election letters near the end. Aim to have yours in by mid-October, before early voting opens on the 22nd. A letter printed on November 1st reaches a lot of people who have already voted.

If it doesn't get printed

Sometimes they just run out of room — it isn't a verdict on your letter. Try the next edition, or try a smaller paper; a weekly often has more space than the daily. And let the campaign know either way, so we know what's landing where.