High turnout in Delaware leads to Democratic supermajority in state legislature
A deep blue state got bluer as Democrats swept all five statewide races and flipped Republican seats in every county.
As Republicans were being swept out of office across the country, voters moved Delaware from blue to indigo.
Democrats swept every statewide race in the First State on election night, flipped Republican seats in the statehouse in all three counties, and gained supermajorities in both the state Senate and House of Representatives for the first time since 1992.
That means Democrats could pass constitutional amendments without Republican support. In recent years, Democrats have tried and failed to pass amendments protecting reproductive freedom, same-sex marriage, and voting rights.
Unlike Pennsylvania and New Jersey, constitutional amendments don’t require a statewide referendum in Delaware.
“Winning a supermajority is a strong vote of confidence from Delawareans,” Speaker of the Delaware House of Representatives Melissa Minor-Brown told Spotlight Delaware. “They’ve seen what we were able to accomplish over the last two years, and they’re ready to see more, and we’re ready to deliver.”
Delaware has long been a Democratic stronghold, with the party controlling all nine statewide seats since 2018. In 2024, when other blue states like New Jersey made major shifts to the right during President Donald Trump’s successful reelection campaign, Delaware drifted just four percentage points toward Republicans, among the smallest moves in the country.
Delaware snapped back Tuesday, shifting 16 percentage points toward Democrats, according to voting data analyzed by the New York Times.
Highest midterm turnout since 2018
While a small number of ballots remains to be counted, more Delawareans voted in this election cycle than any midterm since 2018.
As of Thursday morning, 384,862 ballots were cast in Delaware, putting turnout of registered voters a little shy of 48%. The number of ballots was up 18% from the 325,632 cast during the 2022 midterms.
Democratic Sen. Chris Coons coasted to reelection, securing nearly 64% of the vote to earn a fourth term. Coons has yet to face a serious Republican contender, easily dispatching opponents that have included conspiracy theorist Lauren Witzke and Christine O’Donnell of “I’m not a witch” fame.
Delaware’s only member of the U.S. House, Democratic Rep. Sarah McBride, was also reelected by a large margin after her Republican opponent, Joseph Arminio, was removed from a candidate forum for repeatedly misgendering her.
McBride remains the first and only transgender member of Congress, an issue Republicans repeatedly brought up during her first term. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) banned transgender women from using women’s bathrooms at the U.S. Capitol just weeks after McBride’s victory, and she was repeatedly misgendered by Republicans on the House floor and during committee hearings.
During her victory speech on election night, McBride said her goal was to build “a politics of trust and hope, of accountability and aspiration.”
“To build a government that sees and respects all of us,” McBride said. “And to build a tomorrow that is different and better than today.”
