If America’s gay beach towns had a group chat, Rehoboth Beach would have just dropped the kind of update that gets an immediate string of rainbow-heart emojis: Susan Stewart has been elected mayor, making her the Delaware resort town’s first openly gay mayor and its first woman mayor in decades.
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Stewart won the August 8 election with 61 percent of the vote, defeating three other candidates and making history in one of America’s best-known LGBTQ+ beach destinations. She beat fellow commissioners Craig Thier and Suzanne Goode, along with newcomer William “Jake” Raak.
So, yes, Rehoboth Beach just elected an openly gay mayor. But Stewart’s agenda is considerably less “every day is Pride” and much more “please stop letting the traffic ruin the beach.”
And honestly? Fair.
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Rehoboth Beach Gets Its First Openly Gay Mayor
Stewart’s victory is historic, but she is not exactly walking into City Hall without homework.
The new mayor-elect has already served on the city’s Planning Commission and on task forces dealing with mixed-use zoning and stormwater. Before entering politics, she worked as an attorney before building a decades-long career in financial services. She founded her own financial advisory firm in 1996 and later worked with major financial institutions.
Stewart is a Pennsylvania native who spent much of her adult life in Washington, D.C. She has owned a home in Rehoboth Beach since 2013 and began living there full time during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Her route to the mayor’s office was also remarkably quick. Stewart was elected to the Board of Commissioners in 2025, meaning she will move from commissioner to mayor after just one year in elected office.
Apparently, Rehoboth looked at her résumé and thought: Well, she seems busy. Give her another job.
The Gay Mecca Wants to Keep Its Charm
For Stewart, the big question isn’t whether Rehoboth should grow. It’s how to grow without turning the place everyone loves into somewhere that requires a vacation from the vacation.
During her campaign and time as commissioner, Stewart emphasized preserving Rehoboth’s character while planning for its future. Her priorities include development, infrastructure, housing, transportation and the city’s commercial district — all while protecting the qualities that make the beach town special.
There are old buildings, outdoor spaces, the beach and boardwalk — plus traditions that are considerably more fabulous than your average municipal planning meeting. One example is the Mrs. Roper Romp, when crowds dress as the flamboyant Three’s Company character and parade through town.
It is difficult to imagine a better reminder that Rehoboth has never been especially interested in behaving like a normal beach town.
“I don’t have the skill set to articulate what I like about it, but I know I like it,” Stewart said.
Honestly, that may be the most relatable mayoral platform ever delivered.
Growth Is Coming. Rehoboth Wants a Say in How It Looks
The more serious challenge is growth. Stewart has described the city as being at a tipping point, with increasing business activity and tourism putting pressure on infrastructure and quality of life. More than 60 percent of the city’s revenue is tourism-related, according to Stewart, while about 10 percent comes from property taxes.
That creates an obvious municipal conundrum: the visitors help pay the bills, but they can also create the traffic, congestion and other headaches residents have to live with.
“What we need to do as a community of engaged residents is to figure out how we preserve that revenue stream, but perhaps more importantly, how we find a way to preserve our quality of life, because some of the tourism is what causes tension,” she said.
In other words: come for the beach, spend money, have fun — but perhaps don’t park your entire emotional support SUV in front of someone’s house.Stewart plans to continue consulting urban planners, business experts and transportation specialists while gathering input from residents as the city develops a broader master plan.
“I believe all our interests are aligned, residents and business owners and commercial property owners and developers. It’s just never been considered holistically before,” she said.
That approach fits with Rehoboth’s ongoing planning work. The city adopted its first five-year strategic plan in May 2025 and is rewriting its commercial zoning code, which Stewart has described as foundational to the next stage of the planning initiative.
“Harmonizing our code will be important, because there are gaps in our existing code that lead to tensions,” she said. “If a zoning code or building code doesn’t address something clearly, then that leaves it subject to interpretation.”
Translation: if the rules are confusing, somebody eventually has to have a meeting about it. And then another meeting about the meeting.
Even the Traffic Has Been Asked to Get Its Act Together
One of Stewart’s concerns is how the city moves people around. During the city’s recent planning discussions, residents and business owners were invited to weigh in on zoning and development, while urban planners worked with the community to imagine what Rehoboth could look like in the future. Stewart has stressed the importance of balancing commercial growth with residents’ quality of life.
She has also pointed to Rehoboth Avenue as an example of a street designed for a very different era.
“When you turn onto Rehoboth Avenue, it’s our boulevard, and it’s the boulevard to our beautiful nature and our boardwalk, but it’s filled with cars,” she said. “Our forebears did a great job of laying out the city, but it was done decades and decades ago.”
Residents have raised concerns about downtown revitalization, mixed-use development, workforce housing, parking, traffic and support for local businesses and cultural programs.
Business owner Mike Venanzi, a board member of Rehoboth Beach Main Street, said Stewart’s willingness to engage with business owners could benefit residents and the tourism economy.
“I think having a commissioner and a mayor that welcome the business owners, speak with them, invite them to have conversations, are good for business, good for the residents of Rehoboth and good for the tourists,” Venanzi said. “That’s really [what] Susan and the entire crew there are focused on that.”
Stewart also wants City Hall to spend less time getting tangled in day-to-day operations and more time concentrating on strategy.
“I’ve been trying to work on a set of rules for us as a governing body that will help us get back to the point where we can concentrate on strategy and vision and let the professionals execute that vision,” she said.
A gay mayor who wants everyone to focus on strategy, vision and execution? Somewhere, a clipboard just got very excited.
For LGBTQ+ Rehoboth, Representation Matters
Of course, the biggest significance of Stewart’s victory isn’t zoning. It’s representation. Rehoboth Beach has had a prominent LGBTQ+ community for decades, with organizations such as CAMP Rehoboth helping cultivate an inclusive environment for LGBTQ+ residents and visitors.
Robin Brennan, executive director of CAMP Rehoboth, described Stewart’s election as “incredible.”
“My first thought was really about representation and how much it matters,” Brennan said. “When people see themselves reflected in leadership positions, it sends a powerful message about who belongs and that our voices matter, that we’re heard.”
That matters particularly in a place where LGBTQ+ residents and visitors have helped shape the town’s identity for generations. Stewart has also credited community members and organizations such as CAMP Rehoboth with helping make Rehoboth more welcoming.
“This is just a place where everyone are people, and that’s the aspiration for everything,” Stewart said.
The grammar may be slightly wobbly. The sentiment is not.
Rehoboth’s Next Chapter Is Looking Pretty Queer
Stewart’s election does not magically solve Rehoboth Beach’s problems. The city still has to wrestle with development, infrastructure, housing, parking, traffic and the eternal municipal question of how to make everyone happy when everyone absolutely does not want the same thing.
But there is something undeniably meaningful about the person now tasked with helping navigate all of that.
Rehoboth Beach has long been a place where LGBTQ+ people could come for a weekend, build a life, open a business, fall in love, retire, make friends and generally be themselves. Now, for the first time, an openly gay person will sit in the mayor’s office. That makes Stewart’s victory about more than a rainbow flag outside City Hall.
It is a sign of how much the community itself has changed — and how much LGBTQ+ people have helped shape the place they call home. Stewart’s challenge now is to preserve that sense of belonging while making sure Rehoboth can actually function for the people who live there.
Or, put another way: keep the beach beautiful, keep the town welcoming, and somehow convince everyone to stop fighting about parking. No pressure, Mayor Stewart. Stewart is scheduled to be sworn into office on September 18.
Source: WHYY