The last round of primaries before the 2024 general election is coming to a head on Tuesday, with voters from Delaware, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island heading to the ballot box to select new governors, senators, and House members after a string of retirements.
In Delaware, two prominent Democratic lawmakers’ departures sent ripples through the downballot as Democrats and Republicans are lining up to run for gubernatorial and Senate seats.
Eyes are already on New Hampshire for the 2024 election, as the state’s independent streak gives both parties a chance in the gubernatorial race. And only one Rhode Island contest, that of Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse’s (D-RI) seat, is producing any political drama this cycle.
Delaware Democrats race to fill Carney’s and Carper’s shoes
The First State will hold competitive gubernatorial and congressional primaries on Tuesday.
Gov. John Carney (D-DE) is barred from running for reelection after serving two terms as governor, per state law. Carney is a political staple in Delaware, having served two terms as lieutenant governor and three times as the state’s sole House representative. However, his retirement from the governor’s mansion is not the end of his career because he will appear on some ballots in the state as a candidate for the mayor of Wilmington.
Six candidates, three Democrats and three Republicans, are running in the primary to succeed Carney. Lt. Gov. Bethany Hall-Long, New Castle County Executive Matt Meyer, and National Wildlife Federation CEO and former state Natural Resources and Environmental Control Secretary Collin O’Mara are on the Democratic ballot. Running on the Republican side are retired police officer Jerry Price, state House Minority Leader Michael Ramone, and small business owner Bobby Williamson.
Carney endorsed Hall-Long, who is the only candidate from both parties to have won statewide office. However, the lieutenant governor was met with scandal over the summer after an audit of her campaign finances found she did not disclose $298,000 in payments to her husband, who operated as her campaign treasurer and wrote the checks to himself. Even after making amends to the forms in December last year, her financial reports from 2016 to 2023 do not disclose $91,000 in payments to her husband.
The state elections chief said he would not refer Hall-Long or her husband for criminal prosecution despite the investigation’s lead, former Philadelphia FBI chief Jeffrey Lampinski, calling her campaign finances “incomplete, inconsistent, and often inaccurate.”
A poll from Slingshot Strategies from Aug. 8-13 found Meyer leading Hall-Long by 4 percentage points, 27% to 23%. Before the audit of Hall-Long’s finances was dropped, Public Policy Polling found Hall-Long leading Meyer, 31% to 19%.
Longtime Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE) announced in May last year that he would not seek a fifth term in the Senate, setting off a race for the state’s first open seat since 2010. That year, Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) was elected to the seat vacated by Joe Biden when he assumed the vice presidency.
Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE), the state’s first female and first black member of Congress, announced in June 2023 that she would seek Carper’s seat, receiving the outgoing senator’s endorsement. She was the immediate favorite for the Democrats, while Republicans coalesced behind former Walmart executive Eric Hansen. Both are running unopposed and will not appear on Tuesday’s ballot.
However, voters will head to the ballots to select a replacement for Blunt Rochester’s seat. Both parties are holding competitive primaries for Delaware’s lone House seat, which Blunt Rochester has held since 2017. Democratic state Sen. Sarah McBride is the most well-known and best-funded candidate across both parties’ primary pools, and she has Carper’s and Blunt Rochester’s endorsements. If elected, McBride would become the first openly transgender member of Congress.
McBride’s closest competitor from either party is Republican Donyale Hall, who reported a campaign coffer of almost $7,500. McBride reported $1.7 million as of June.
Polls in Delaware close at 8 p.m. Eastern time. State law does not allow independent or undeclared voters to participate in either primary.
New Hampshire’s swing contest history on display
New Hampshire has been a considerable factor in the 2024 election, whether it be the Republican presidential primary or the fact that Biden did not appear on the primary ballot but won the state with a write-in campaign.
The state has a purple history: While voting for the Democratic presidential candidate for the last five elections, it also elected centrist Gov. Chris Sununu (R-NH) to the governor’s mansion four times. The state’s four-person congressional delegation is all Democrats, but the state legislature is controlled by Republicans.
Sununu and longtime Rep. Annie Kuster (D-NH) are retiring this year, opening the floodgates for candidates on both sides of the aisle. Both races, gubernatorial and the 2nd Congressional District, have competitive primaries for Republicans and Democrats.
The most-watched race for New Hampshire, other than the presidency, will likely be the race for the governor’s mansion. Tuesday’s primary sets up former Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte against former Republican state Senate president Chuck Morse. Ayotte is leading Morse in the race financially, raising over $7 million.
A poll from Aug. 15-19 from the University of New Hampshire Survey Center found Ayotte leading Morse, 65% to 21%. The center’s poll for the Democratic primary found former Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig leading Cinde Warmington, the sole Democrat on the New Hampshire Executive Council, 39% to 30%. Craig is the second-highest fundraiser of the race behind Ayotte.
In Kuster’s 2nd Congressional District, over a dozen Republicans are running in the primary. Polls from the university survey center find Vikram Mansharamani, an author and economist, leading the field with 21%, followed by Lily Tang Williams with 17%. Williams ran in the 2nd District’s Republican primary in 2022, coming in third.
The two-person Democratic primary between political operatives Maggie Goodlander and Colin Van Ostern is filled with more mudslinging than the GOP side.
Van Ostern, who is a former Kuster staffer, has the backing of the incumbent congresswoman. She filmed an ad for Van Ostern criticizing Goodlander for not living in the district for decades. Van Ostern has pitched himself as the grassroots candidate. Goodlander, who is a former aide of the late Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain, owns property in the state’s 1st Congressional District but was born and raised in the 2nd District.
New Hampshire’s last polls close at 8 p.m., though most close at 7 p.m. Eastern time. Unlike Delaware, state law allows independents and undeclared voters to vote in either party’s primary.
Rhode Island mostly free from political drama
Rhode Island is one of a few states facing little to no political drama or competitive races this cycle. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) is the only Democratic incumbent facing a strong challenger in the primary on Tuesday.
Whitehouse, who has served as Rhode Island’s junior senator since 2007, will face Mike Costa, a former Republican candidate for governor, in the Democratic primary. Costa is at a significant disadvantage when it comes to campaign finances — Whitehouse’s campaign booked over $310,000 in broadcast advertising and has $3.6 million in the bank. Costa loaned his campaign $200,000 and booked over $50,000 in broadcast ads.
State Rep. Patricia Morgan and Ray McKay are running in the Republican primary.
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For the state’s two House Democrats, reelection appears to be smooth sailings. Neither one is facing strong primary challengers, a relief for Rep. Gabe Amo (D-RI), who faced a dozen candidates to win the Democratic nomination for the 1st Congressional District after longtime Rep. David Cicilline resigned. Now, Amo is running for a full term, but he is not facing any of his 2023 competitors. Rep. Seth Magaziner (D-RI) does not have a primary challenger, either.
Polls in Rhode Island close at 8 p.m. Eastern time. State law allows independent and unaffiliated voters to participate in either party’s primary.
