Delaware voters are heading to the polls Tuesday in the final primary before the November midterms, but a widely circulated description of the state's voting rules has it backwards: Delaware's primaries are party-restricted, not open. Only voters registered with a political party can cast a ballot in that party's primary, with one narrow exception carved out for people newly signed up through the state's automatic voter registration process at the DMV.
Setting the Record Straight on Delaware's Closed Primary
According to the Delaware Department of Elections, the state runs a closed primary system where party membership is required to vote in that party's contest. The one flexibility built into the law applies to voters who were automatically registered through the DMV and never declared a party — those voters can still choose an affiliation at the polls, right up through Tuesday's Primary Election Day. Everyone else who wants to participate in a party primary needed to have registered with that party well before Election Day.
That structure matters because Delaware's voter rolls include voters registered with No Party Choice or No Party-AVR. As of July, the state's voter rolls showed 331,222 registered Democrats, 199,900 registered Republicans, 202,326 voters under No Party Choice, and 50,619 under No Party-AVR among more than 806,000 registered voters statewide, per the Delaware Department of Elections.
A Stalled Push to Open the Primaries
State lawmakers have been trying to change the closed-primary rule. In June, the Delaware House of Representatives passed House Bill 188 by a 22-17 vote, a measure that would let unaffiliated voters cast ballots in major-party primaries, according to the Delaware General Assembly. Under current law, those unaffiliated voters remain locked out of primary voting unless they came through the automatic registration process described above. The bill's fate beyond the House was not detailed in available records.
The marquee race on Tuesday's ballot is Democratic Sen. Chris Coons' bid for a third full term. Coons was first elected to the Senate in a 2010 special election to replace Ted Kaufman, who had temporarily filled the seat after former Vice President Joe Biden became vice president, then won full six-year terms in 2014 and 2020, as reported by WHYY. He previously served as New Castle County Executive and New Castle County Council President before joining the Senate.
Coons Faces Three Democratic Challengers, Including One With a Pointed Ballot Name
Coons has a strong track record against primary challengers. In his 2020 reelection bid, he defeated progressive challenger Jessica Scarane with nearly 73% of the vote before winning the general election, the station's report noted. This cycle, Coons faces three Democratic primary opponents, according to the seed reporting from ABC24: AI systems builder Jeff Appelhans, Mary Louve, and former business executive Eric Hansen.
Hansen took an unusual step in how he appears on the ballot. He legally filed to run under the name “E. No-Trump Hansen,” CBS News reports, putting the phrase “No-Trump” on the ballot. On the Republican side, commercial real estate agent and former healthcare executive Mike Katz is competing against military veteran John Shulli for the GOP nomination to challenge whoever wins the Democratic primary in November. Delaware has not elected a Republican to the U.S. Senate since William Roth left office in 2001, per WHYY.
McBride Seeks a Second Term as the Nation's First Transgender Member of Congress
Delaware's lone U.S. House seat is also on the ballot, with Democratic Rep. Sarah McBride seeking a second term. McBride made national history in 2020 when she was elected to the Delaware State Senate as the first openly transgender state senator in U.S. history, according to Wikipedia, before her 2024 election to Delaware's at-large U.S. House seat made her the first and only transgender person elected to Congress. She previously served as national press secretary for the Human Rights Campaign.
During her four years in the Delaware State Senate, McBride authored and passed the Healthy Delaware Families Act, which created the state's paid family and medical leave program, according to Legisletter. She pushed the paid-leave legislation through.
A Contested Primary for Attorney General
Further down the ballot, Delaware's Democratic primary for Attorney General is also drawing attention. Incumbent Kathy Jennings faces challenges from civil rights advocate and ACLU of Delaware Legal Director Dwayne Bensing, as well as small business owner Patty Rickman, per WHYY's separate report on the race.
The contest adds another layer to a primary day that's drawing scrutiny not just for its candidates but for the rules governing who gets to choose them. As Delaware's Democratic and Republican bases work through their own intra-party debates — from the Senate floor to the Attorney General's race — the unresolved question of whether unaffiliated voters will ever get a seat at the primary table remains squarely in the hands of the state legislature.
