Five candidates are running for Delaware’s At-Large Congressional District—the most since 2016

This year’s filing deadline for candidates running for Congress in Delaware was July 9, 2024.

Five candidates are running for Delaware’s At-Large Congressional District, including three Democrats and two Republicans. Two candidates ran in 2022, three candidates ran in 2020, and three ran in 2018.

Here are some other highlights from this year’s filings:

• The five candidates running in Delaware this year are the highest number of candidates since 2016, when seven candidates ran.

• Delaware’s At-Large Congressional District is open this year because incumbent Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D) is running for the U.S. Senate. The only other year that the district was open in the last 10 years was 2016.
• The Democratic and Republican primaries are both contested this year. This is the only year in the last 10 years in which both primaries were contested.
• Candidates filed to run in the Republican and Democratic primaries, meaning the seat is not guaranteed to either party.

Delaware and two other states—New Hampshire and Rhode Island—are holding primary elections on September 10.

In Delaware, the winner of the primary election is the candidate who receives the greatest number of votes cast even if they do not win an outright majority.