A native Delawarean with family in all three counties, Bryan Townsend is a state senator and attorney committed to supporting hardworking Delaware families. He is the lucky husband of Lilianna, an attorney, former teacher, and first-generation American who was born in Vietnam and grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. Bryan and Lilianna welcomed their first child, Logan, in June 2017.
Bryan has been a state senator since 2012. He chairs the Health, Children, & Social Services Committee and serves on several other committees, including Education; Capital Improvement; and Banking, Business, & Insurance. He has a track record of bringing together diverse stakeholders to solve difficult issues, and he has been designated as one of the most productive legislators in Delaware's General Assembly.
One of four sons of a retired Newark police officer from Sussex County and a long-serving public schoolteacher from Newark, Bryan worked his way through school – a product of the Christina School District, the University of Delaware, the University of Cambridge, and Yale Law School. After law school, Bryan clerked for the Delaware Court of Chancery and then became an attorney at a major Delaware law firm, representing Delaware businesses of all sizes as well as children in foster care, victims of domestic violence, and a veteran with service-related disabilities.
Never afraid to challenge the status quo to benefit the public, in 2012, Bryan won an against-all-odds primary election against the highest-ranking state senator by promising responsive government and by building a coalition of students, retirees, teachers, and other community leaders who wanted to see a new approach and more candor in government.