Delaware

Democrat Chris Coons won a fourth term in the Senate by 27.2 points over Republican Michael Katz, in a state Kamala Harris carried by 14.7. Rep. Sarah McBride won a second term in the state’s single U.S. House seat by 28.7 points. Attorney General Kathy Jennings and Auditor Lydia York held their offices, and Ted Lauzen, a political newcomer, defeated former Republican state Rep. Mike Ramone for treasurer.¹ The governorship was not on the ballot: Democrat Matt Meyer was sworn in on January 21, 2025, for a four-year term.^{2, 3, 4}

Coons’s margin was 12.4 points wider than Harris’s, D+27.2, and the U.S. House vote went from D+15.7 to D+28.7. Coons drew 83 votes for every 100 Harris won here; Katz drew 64 for every 100 of Donald Trump’s. The Senate race drew 74% as many votes as the 2024 presidential election and 118% of the 2022 midterm’s.

Delaware has three counties, and each moved by nearly the same amount. Delaware’s part of the Philadelphia area, which casts 54% of the vote, went from D+32.6 to D+45.0, a move of 12.5 points. The Dover metro area moved 12.8, from D+2.0 to D+14.8. The rest of the state moved most, 13.9 points, and changed sides.

Sussex County was the only Delaware county Trump carried in 2024, by 11.0 points. This year it voted for Coons by 2.9, on 115,135 votes, 30% of the state’s total. Kent County, in the Dover area, went from D+2.0 to D+14.8, and New Castle County, the largest, from D+32.6 to D+45.0. McBride said Democrats had won in all three counties for the first time since 2012.¹

Democrats already controlled both chambers. They went from 27 to 30 of the House’s 41 seats, past two-thirds, and the Senate stayed at 15 Democrats and 6 Republicans, already above it, Spotlight Delaware reported.⁵ The House gains came in District 34, where Annie Norman beat Republican Rep. Lyndon Yearick by about 150 votes, and in the open Districts 4 and 9, won by Gregg Lindner and Ayanna Khan-Flowers.^{5, 6, 7} Under the constitution an amendment agreed to by two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, in two successive General Assemblies with an election between them, becomes part of the constitution without a vote of the people. That is 28 representatives and 14 senators, and Democrats now have both.^{7, 8} Overriding a veto takes three-fifths, which they already had.² They still need Republican votes for the annual capital budget, the Bond Bill, which takes three-quarters.⁵

Democratic leaders have not said they will pass amendments on guns, but they do plan to change the constitution on voting and reproductive health, Spotlight Delaware reported, and House Majority Leader Kerri Evelyn Harris said she will keep pushing to let voters approve amendments after the legislature passes them. House Speaker Melissa Minor-Brown said Democrats do not have to ask Republicans for votes but will be “responsible lawmakers.”⁵ House Democrats kept her as speaker in a closed-door caucus vote on the night of November 4, after a challenge from Rep. Madinah Wilson-Anton, who was campaigning for the speakership.⁶ Senate Democrats chose Sen. Bryan Townsend as president pro tempore, Sen. Stephanie Hansen as majority leader and Sen. Marie Pinkney as whip. Townsend named school funding, energy and health care prices as priorities.⁹

With one U.S. House seat, Delaware has no congressional map to draw. The General Assembly sets the boundaries of its own 41 House and 21 Senate districts in the state code, under criteria that include contiguous territory and nearly equal population.¹⁰ The State Election Commissioner, who supervises the staff of the Department of Elections under the policies of the State Board of Elections, is appointed by the governor for four years and confirmed by the Senate; the office was not on the ballot.¹¹

In New Castle County, Councilman David Tackett was elected recorder of deeds and Councilman Jea Street Sr. resigned, and the Department of Elections expects a special election for the County Council by the middle of December, Spotlight Delaware reported.¹² No high-court seat or school board was on the November ballot: Supreme Court justices are appointed by the governor with the consent of the Senate for 12-year terms, and school board members are elected each year on the second Tuesday of May.^{13, 14}

Republicans held no statewide office or U.S. House seat to defend, and Katz carried none of the three counties. In the legislature they kept the 15th Senate District, open after a longtime senator’s retirement, where Emily Thompson won with nearly 57%, and the 41st House District in Sussex County, where former Rep. John Atkins reclaimed his old seat with more than 53%. Rep. Mike Smith of Pike Creek won reelection with nearly 54% and is now the only Republican in any state or county office in New Castle County.⁷ Rep. Jeffrey Spiegelman, a Republican from Clayton, said the smaller his caucus becomes, the harder it is to be heard.⁵

Neither of Delaware’s U.S. Senate seats is on the ballot in 2028; the governorship is. Meyer took office in January 2025 for four years, and a governor may not be elected a third time.^{2, 3} Before then, any amendment the outgoing General Assembly passed once becomes part of the constitution if the next General Assembly agrees to it by two-thirds of all members elected to each house.⁸ The special election for the New Castle County Council is expected by the middle of December.¹²