This story has been updated.
Democrats on Tuesday night strengthened their majority in the Delaware Legislature and flipped two seats previously held by Republicans in Sussex County.
Every General Assembly lawmaker was up for reelection this year, though unlike the national landscape, Democrats were able to flip seats in areas that have been Republican strongholds, including picking up a Democratic seat in the Senate. No Democratic incumbent legislator lost their race.
Due to redistricting changes, Republicans picked up a seat previously held by a Democrat.
“This state spoke today and said ‘You know what, we’re going to keep it blue,’” said House Majority Leader Valerie Longhurst at the Democratic watch party on Tuesday night.
Who won those Delaware close races?
In Senate District 6, one of the most closely watched races on Tuesday, Democrat Russ Huxtable defeated Rep. Steve Smyk, garnering 51.5% of the vote, according to unofficial election results late Tuesday night. The seat was previously held by Republican Ernie López, who retired this year.
The seat previously held by Smyk in the House was then flipped on Tuesday night by Stell Parker Selby, a former Cape Henlopen School Board president. She defeated Republican Dallas Wingate, winning 51.4% of the vote, according to unofficial election results.
The Democrat will become the second woman in the upcoming legislative session to represent Sussex County, joining Rep. Ruth Briggs King, a longtime Georgetown Republican.
House Speaker Pete Schwartzkopf has been the only Democrat representing Sussex County.
Delaware House of Representatives District 4 flipped from Democrat to Republican, mostly due to redistricting. The seat, held by Bud Freel of Wilmington, had changed to represent areas of Long Neck in Sussex County. On Tuesday night, Republican Jeff Hilovsky won the seat with 57.33% of the vote. The Democrats majority in the House stays the same with an advantage of 26-15.
One of the biggest upsets of the midterms occurred in the primary when House Majority Whip Larry Mitchell lost his primary race to progessive challenger DeShanna Neal. It will create a significant shakeup in House leadership in the coming legislative session.
Neal was among the handful of new progressive Democrats to clinch their primary race and win the General Election on Tuesday night. It’s part of a significant shift occurring in the Delaware Democratic party, in which voters are still seeking more liberal newcomers over established politicians.
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Why Delaware residents voted
For many Delaware voters, the future of the country was among the most important issues on the ballot Tuesday. Michael Makowski, while voting at Georgetown Elementary, said he feels the country is at a “crossroads.”
“We can either take the bad route and become more authoritarian or try to maintain the democracy we have,” 69-year-old Makowski said. “I voted Democratic because I think the Democrats are more concerned with preserving the democracy than Republicans.”
Shelly Towler, who cast her vote at Brandywine High School, said the direction the Republican Party took under former President Donald Trump led her to recently re-register, changing her party from Republican to Independent.
“The party stands for nothing that I used to think it stood for,” Towler said.
She came to the polls with the Supreme Court’s recent reversal of abortion rights on her mind. She’s also discouraged by the Republican party’s attitude toward voting rights and the integrity of democracy.
“It’s a huge embarrassment. We are supposed to be the example?” Towler said. “It’s just going backwards in time.”
Voter turnout trends downward
Voter turnout, overall, was down this year. About 42.68% of registered voters cast a ballot on Tuesday, according to state election data as of midnight on Nov. 9.
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In 2018, the last midterm election cycle, 52.2% of eligible Delawareans voted.
There were reports of voting issues Tuesday. At least 10 Delaware polling places saw temporary voting delays after polling places temporarily ran out of the “activation slips that pull up the electronic ballot on the machine,” according to state Election Day spokesperson Mat Marshall.
In most cases, he said, more activation slips were delivered within 10 minutes, allowing voting to resume.
This election cycle marked the first year for early voting in Delaware. State election officials said nearly 77,000 ballots were cast from Oct. 28 to Nov. 6 – both in the form of absentee ballots and in-person early voting.
The midterms also came on the heels of the state Supreme Court ruling that vote-by-mail and same-day voter registration were unconstitutional in Delaware, which dramatically changed the voting options available in the state.
Brandon Holveck and Shannon Marvel McNaught contributed reporting to this article.
