Preston Lea (November 12, 1841 – December 4, 1916) was an American businessman and politician from Wilmington, in New Castle County, Delaware.

Wilmington proper rises from the banks of the navigable Christina River and prospered as a convenient place to collect farm products from the interior of Delaware and central Pennsylvania.

Navigable for only a short distance, the creek quickly rises into the Piedmont and through a series of small falls, provides a dependable source of power for mills.

Still holding these positions, he was also vice-president of Farmers Mutual Insurance Co., a director of Philadelphia, Baltimore & Washington Railroad, president of the Equitable Guarantee Bank, and president of the Wilmington City Railway Co. During the 30 years following the Civil War the Republican Party was largely the party of New Castle County industrialists and the African-American population.

Within a year after the election, Addicks suffered major personal and business setbacks and completely withdrew from Delaware politics.

Thus formed the durable majority coalition of upstate industrialists and downstate small businessmen that governed Delaware for 60 years and is still the basis of the Republican Party.

Laws were also passed requiring at least three months of school attendance by children and local option legislation allowed Kent and Sussex counties to prohibit the sale of alcoholic beverages.

In his later years Lea spent much of his time at his summer home "the Orchards," thought to be in the area of the refinery near Delaware City.