2010 United States House of Representatives election in Delaware

The 2010 United States House of Representatives election in Delaware was held on November 2, 2010 to determine who would represent the state of Delaware in the United States House of Representatives for the 112th United States Congress. Democratic nominee former Lieutenant Governor, John Carney defeated Republican nominee Glen Urquhart, giving Delaware an all Democratic congressional delegation for the first time since before the 1942 midterms. This is the first open seat election since 1992 and only the second since 1976.

Overview

The state of Delaware is completely contained in a single at-large district. The district has a Cook Partisan Voting Index of D+7. Since 1993, the district had been represented by Republican Michael Castle.

Castle announced in 2009 he would run for the United States Senate seat held by Ted Kaufman (D) who had been appointed to the seat when his predecessor, Joe Biden (D), resigned to become Vice President. Castle was defeated by Christine O'Donnell in the Delaware Republican Senate primary.

Democratic primary

Candidates

• John Carney, former Lieutenant Governor of Delaware

Results

Carney announced his candidacy on April 15, 2009 and was unopposed in the primary after Scott Spencer, a transportation consultant, dropped out.

Republican primary

Candidates

• Glen Urquhart, businessman
• Michele Rollins, businesswoman and former Miss District of Columbia USA and former Miss World America 1963
• Rose Izzo, columnist

Results

Campaign

According to a September 2010 poll by Fairleigh Dickinson University's PublicMind, "likely voters in Delaware split 45%-40% on whether they prefer[ed] to have the U.S. Congress controlled by the Democratic Party or the Republican Party, suggesting that the First State's open congressional seat might be hotly contested," yet in the same poll, Carney led Urquhart by 51%-36%. Peter Woolley, the poll director, remarked that "candidates matter, not just parties" and that in Delaware candidates matter "more than in most states."

Polling

General election

Results

Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic

• New Castle (largest city: Wilmington)

References

External links

• Election Commissioner at the Delaware Secretary of State
  • Official candidate listings
• U.S. Congress candidates for Delaware at Project Vote Smart
• Delaware U.S. House from OurCampaigns.com
• Campaign contributions for U.S. Congressional races in Delaware from OpenSecrets
• 2010 Delaware General Election graph of multiple polls from Pollster.com
• House - Delaware from the Cook Political Report
• Delaware House Race from CQ Politics
• Race profile at The New York Times
• Election 2010 at The News Journal