And the winners are...
A look at local and state primary results.
They had a heckuva time getting their website to work, but as the duopoly Presidential candidates debate, the state is counting votes.
I covered a batch of these races over the last few weeks, so here’s how they’re doing:
In the Republican primary for Governor, it’s no surprise that outgoing State Representative Mike Ramone has locked it up early against game but vastly underfunded Jerry Price and Bobby Williamson, who ran in that order. As of this writing, Ramone is a shade under 73% of the vote so I suspect he’s going to win. So score that as a correct prediction.
On the Democrat side, New Castle County Executive Matt Meyer is holding enough of a lead (11 points with about 2/3 of the vote in) that I suspect he’ll hold off Bethany Hall-Long and Collin O’Mara, who are trailing in that order. Looks like 2-for-2 on that one, and it is as the votes have trickled in while I was working on this.
For LG, it looks like I was right on that one too - despite only a plurality of the vote, Abortion Barbie (some may know her as Kyle Evans Gay) is leading the primary over Sherry Dorsey Walker by 11 points, with Debbie Harrington bringing up the rear. The winner takes on unopposed Republican Ruth Briggs King.
I pretty much pegged the other state race, for Insurance Commissioner. Democrat incumbent Trinidad Navarro, as I expected, is blowing out the guy he beat up on four years ago, Kayode Abegunde. It’s not quite a 50-point margin, but that was one you could have called as soon as the early voting and absentees came in. I still haven’t seen anything on Republican Ralph Taylor for that race.
When it comes to Congress, there’s no shock that Tim Sarah McBride beat a Democrat field that was cleared out of all but no-names, but my over/under was 85% and McBride is at a shade less than 80.
Yet the upset special came on the Republican side, as first-time candidate John Whalen III upset Donyale Hall, who has run a couple statewide campaigns. With next-to-no campaign funding and zero name recognition going into his late (practically at the filing deadline) entry, Whalen has won by about 11 points. (It may change a bit, but you can call it.)
Now this should be a fun race - old, white conservative against the potential first transgender in Congress.
Turning to local legislative races:
In Senate District 18, incumbent Dave Wilson won as expected over Bob Reed, with over 75% of the vote. With no Democrat challenger, it’s another four years for Wilson unless some write-in somehow prevails.
House District 14 shocked me: I had Claire Snyder-Hall figured for third, but the childless cat lady won over Marty Rendon and Kathy McGuiness (who finished third with barely a quarter of the vote, despite the endorsement of the outgoing incumbent.) I thought it would be McGuiness, but instead Snyder-Hall is going on to face Republican Mike Simpler.
No surprise in House District 20: Democrats nominated incumbent Stell Parker Selby with a crushing victory (83% - 17%) over Brian Jenkins. She now faces Republican Nikki Miller.
The BIG news is House District 36, where the race is too close to call between incumbent Bryan Shupe and challenger Patrick Smith, who trails by 11 votes. This is close enough for an automatic recount. (It appears all the precincts are in as well.) Then the winner has to unite the Republicans against Democrat Rony Baltazar-Lopez.
And second on the BIG news lead is a pair of incumbents going down on Sussex County Council. In District 1, Mike Vincent was denied a fifth term with just 38% of the vote in a three-way race, falling to Matt Lloyd’s 58%. If Christie Shirey was a stalking horse, she was ineffective with only 4%. Meanwhile, Cindy Green lost her bid for District 2 re-election by a 58-42 margin to Steve McCarron. Since no Democrat or minor party person has entered the race, barring a miracle write-in campaign Lloyd and McCarron will be Sussex County’s newest Council members, with a possible third in November.
So there will be nails bitten down to the elbows up Milford way the next few days, but aside from that an interesting evening.
Late edit: BIG News item number three: reigning House Speaker Valerie Longhurst LOST her Democrat primary to upstart Kamela T. Smith, meaning there will be a scramble for leadership come January as well. Both Speaker and Minority Leader (Michael Ramone, who’s running for Governor) are now out for next session.
On another note: since this post will appear on 9/11, you may be interested in reading my personal 9/11 story that I first posted way back in 2007.
It's a Tuesday again...
Six years ago on this very time and day of the week as a matter of fact, thanks to the magic of post-timing my post. In reality I'll be at work when this comes up, just as I was on that fateful day in 2001.
Until next time, remember you can Buy Me a Coffee since I have a page there.
Update from Smith campaign, who's seen the same thing I did:
"At the conclusion of the 9/10/24 Election Day it was reported by many media outlets and the Dept. Of Elections that the final margin was 11 votes between myself and my opponent Bryan Shupe. This is less than a .5% difference and the threshold required to trigger an AUTO-recount according to Delaware election laws.
We expected an auto-recount was impending.
On the morning of 9/11/24, the number of absentee ballots for my opponent Bryan Shupe had increased from 80 to 81. That is a single vote increase.
This increased the overall vote differential from 11 votes to 12 votes - making the new margin between our votes .521% and now above the margin of error required to trigger an auto-recount.
We had expected a recount would come based on the vote differential on the evening of 9/10/24, but that now has been impeded by a single late absentee ballot being counted and therefore technically releaving (sic) the Delaware Department of Elections from the obligation to automatically conduct a recount.
Today we have filed our petition, with exhibits, to request a recount by the Department of Elections and to pause any certification of election results until representatives from BOTH campaigns are able to witness a recount and inspect the absentee ballots.
Though the Dept of Elections already told our camp and media outlets they don't intend to have a recount, we believe this recount is the most transparent way to ensure the voters of District 36 are given the election results they deserve and are entitled. And is most appropriate when margins are so razor-thin. So, they have been served our petition.
We will continue to update you all and sincerely appreciate the commitment of the 1,145 voters who cast their vote for Patrick to be their next State Representative of District 36."
One BIG change...somewhere they found an extra vote for Bryan Shupe and it was enough to place the race outside the automatic recount territory. His lead is now 12 votes, and 50.26% to 49.74%.
If I were Patrick Smith I would be demanding an explanation of where that one vote came from. Most likely it's an innocent error, but in the interest of fairness a recount may be in order anyway.