Longtime Democrat Senator Announces He Won’t Seek Re-Election
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A fourth Dem senator is not running for re-election.
Longtime Democrat Senator Tom Carper announced he plans to retire after his fourth term.
His seat will be open for the first time since 2001.
The Washington Examiner reported:
Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE) announced Monday that he plans to retire at the end of his fourth term, shaking up a generally Democratic stronghold state with an open U.S. Senate seat in 2024.
The decision by Carper, a fixture of Delaware politics, will open his seat for the first time since 2001, when he was elected to the Senate after serving as a state treasurer, governor, and congressman. He has held public office in Delaware since Jimmy Carter was president. His seat is viewed by many as a safe seat for Democrats to maintain control of in the 2024 elections.
“While nothing is forever, the Delaware Democratic Party is blessed today with a bench as strong as any I’ve ever seen in the 50 years that I’ve called Delaware home,” Carper said during a speech on Monday in Wilmington. “If there was ever an opportune time to step aside and pass the torch to the next generation, it’s coming, and it will be here on Jan. 3, 2025.
“But, until then, God willing, I’ll continue working 60-hour weeks and coming home on the train most nights as long as Martha keeps leaving the light on for me.”
Carper is the fourth Democratic senator to decide not to run for reelection next year, following Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD), Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), and Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI). On the Republican side, Sen. Mike Braun (R-IN) decided to run for governor instead.
It is likely to be a crowded primary.
It will likely be a crowded Democratic primary for a safe Democratic seat. Biden won Delaware by almost 20 points in the last Presidential election, and the state has had Democratic governors since the early 1990s.
Carper said that he spoke with Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware and said he would support her if she ran for his seat.
“We love Lisa, and I spoke with her this morning and I said you’ve been patiently waiting for me to get out the way, and I’m gonna get out of the way, and I hope you run, and I hope you will let me support you and support you in that mission, and she said ‘yes I will let you support me,’” Carper told reporters.
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