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It’s been a long nine months of polling, voting, glitches, and campaigning, but Delaware will finally conclude the regular 2020 primary season when polls close on its state primary Tuesday evening.
Democratic Sen. Chris Coons faces a primary challenger from the left in 35-year-old Jessica Scarane, who has been endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America and supports Medicare-for-all and the Green New Deal. While Coons has taken the primary seriously and is a heavy favorite, political experts are watching to see if Scarane can eclipse the 2018 electoral performance of Kerri Evelyn Harris, who won 30 percent of the vote against the state’s senior Democratic Sen. Tom Carper.
On the Republican side, James DeMartino and Lauren Witzke are facing off for the right to challenge Coons for a Senate seat that Cook Political Report rates safely Democratic.
Perhaps more interesting is the Republican primary to challenge Democratic Gov. John Carney (who is expected to win his own primary). The race features five candidates, two of whom, State Sen. Colin Bonini and political outsider Scott Walker, have previously run — and lost — races for statewide office. Interestingly, neither candidate was endorsed by the state Republican Party, that honor instead going to Julianne Murray. Murray won the nomination simply by being the only candidate to show up to the state party convention, where she gave an anti-mask, anti-lockdown speech.
“It’ll be interesting to see what the Republican primary electorate really wants because, at the statewide level, they’ve had a bad 10 years,” University of Delaware professor Paul Brewer, a local politics expert, told Vox earlier this week. “I’ve lived here for about nine years and not a lot has gone right for the Republican GOP and Republican Delaware party. They’ve had a hard time fielding credible statewide candidates.”
Though Vox won’t have live results for local and state house races, there are several interesting ones, like the New Castle County Executive Democratic primary between incumbent Matt Meyer and challenger Maggie Jones, who received backing from organized labor groups and the local police union after disputes with Meyer.
LGBTQ advocate Sarah McBride is also running to make history in the state’s First District, where she would become the first-ever openly trans state senator if she wins Tuesday and again in the general election this November.
Polls close at 8 pm ET Tuesday. Vox is covering the results live, with our partners at Decision Desk HQ.
