2024 Delaware Primary Election: Who's running, where to vote and more

PHILADELPHIA - Delaware will hold its primary election on Tuesday with several hotly contested races on the ballot for both democrats and republicans. 

Voters will head to the polls to choose from a list of candidates for governor, lieutenant governor and U.S. House.

Carney will leave statewide office next year after two terms as governor, two terms as lieutenant governor and three terms as the state’s lone representative to the U.S. House. His departure has set off contested primaries for both the Democratic and Republican nominations.

The Democratic candidates are Lt. Gov. Bethany Hall-Long, New Castle County Executive Matt Meyer and National Wildlife Federation CEO and former state Natural Resources Secretary Collin O’Mara. The Republican candidates are retired police officer Jerry Price, state House Minority Leader Michael Ramone and small business owner Bobby Williamson.

Hall-Long has Carney’s endorsement and is the only candidate in the race to have previously won statewide office. But the two-term lieutenant governor has had a difficult summer after a state-ordered forensic audit of her campaign finances revealed improprieties over an eight-year period.

Emails reviewed by the Associated Press also showed that members of the lieutenant governor’s staff engaged in campaign activity on her behalf during government work hours, which is prohibited by state law. Hall-Long has disputed the findings of the forensic audit, saying the issues identified in the report were the result of minor bookkeeping errors. Nonetheless, Meyer, her primary rival, has called for a federal investigation into the matter.

Carney is barred from running for a third term as governor but will still appear on some ballots in the state as a candidate for mayor of Wilmington, Delaware’s most populous city. His opponent in the Democratic primary is another former statewide officeholder, Velda Jones-Potter, who was appointed state treasurer in 2009 and served about two years before losing her bid for a full term.

Long-Hall is also term-limited as lieutenant governor, and four women have lined up to replace her. State Rep. Sherry Dorsey-Walker, state Sen. Kyle Evans-Gay and state party vice chair Debbie Harrington are running for the Democratic nomination. Former state Rep. Ruth Briggs King is unopposed for the Republican nomination.

Carper’s announcement in 2023 that he would not seek a fifth term created the state’s first open-seat U.S. Senate race since 2010, when U.S. Sen. Chris Coons was elected to the seat Biden had vacated to assume the vice presidency. Democratic U.S. Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester looks to replace Carper, as does Republican former Walmart executive Eric Hansen. Both are unopposed for their parties’ nominations and will not appear on Tuesday’s ballot.

With Blunt Rochester running to replace Carper in the U.S. Senate, both Democrats and Republicans will hold contested primaries to take over the seat she has held since 2017. Democratic state Sen. Sarah McBride is the best-known and best-funded candidate across both primary fields. She has the backing of Carper, Coons and Rochester, and had $1.7 million in the bank as of the end of June. Her only competitor from either party to disclose any funds raised was Republican Donyale Hall, who reported a campaign war chest of just shy of $7,500. If elected, McBride would become the first openly transgender member of Congress.

Although control of both the U.S. Senate and House may come down to just a small handful of competitive races, the seats in Delaware are expected to remain firmly in the Democratic column. Once a reliable bellwether in presidential races, Delaware has shifted heavily Democratic since the 1990s. Republicans have not won the governorship since 1988, a U.S. Senate seat since 1994 or the U.S. House seat since 2008.

About half of Delaware’s 21 state Senate seats and all 41 state House seats are up for election 2024, although only 12 districts will hold contested primaries on Tuesday. Democrats hold about two-to-one majorities in each chamber.

When is Delaware's primary election?

Delaware will hold it's primary election on Tuesday, Sept. 10

When do polls open for Delaware's primary election?

Polls will be open for voters to cast their ballot from from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Where do I find my polling place?

Delaware residents who are unsure where they should go to vote can use this handy polling location locator on the state's website.

Who is on the ballot?

Democratic Primary for Governor

• Bethany Hall-Long
• Collin O'Mara
• Matt Meyer

Democratic Primary for Lieutenant Governor

• Debbie Harrington
• Kyle Gay
• Sherry Walker

Democratic Primary for U.S. House

• Earl Cooper
• Elias Weir
• Sarah McBride

Republican Primary for Governor

• Bobby Williamson
• Jerrold Price
• Mike Ramone

Republican Primary for U.S. House

• Donyale Hall
• John Whalen

Who gets to vote?

Delaware voters who are registered with a political party may only participate in that party’s primary. Democrats may not vote in the Republican primary or vice versa. Independent or unaffiliated voters may not participate in either primary.

What do turnout and advance vote look like?

As of Aug. 1, there were about 780,000 registered voters in Delaware. Of those, 45% were Democrats, 26% were Republicans and about 22% were not registered with any party.

In the 2022 primaries, turnout was about 16% of registered voters, according to the Delaware Department of Elections. About 27% of Democratic primary voters and 12% of Republican primary voters cast their ballots before primary day.

As of Thursday, a total of 22,293 ballots had been cast before primary day, about 72% in the Democratic primary and 28% in the Republican primary.

How long does vote-counting usually take?

In the 2022 primaries, the AP first reported results at 8:30 p.m. ET, or 30 minutes after polls closed. The election night tabulation ended at 12:38 a.m. ET with all votes counted.

Results can be viewed here

The Associated Press contributed to this report

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