Primary Day Results ‘Rejoicing And Recriminations’ Thread
Polls have just closed. It’s up to the Department of Elections now.
In recent years, Zero Hour has been somewhere around 9:30. That’s when the results have proceeded from a trickle to a gullywasher. Maybe, just maybe, with a slimmer slate of races and more people taking advantage of early voting, we’ll know more earlier. Or maybe not.
We’ll post results as we get them. If you are either with a campaign and/or are working the polls, please feel free to share info with us.
One thing Tom Petty got right, ‘the waiting is the hardest part.’
4 precincts from NCC just came in: York 136, McG 85. Looks like most of them were from the 2nd RD, where Bolden leads Taylor 107-79.
Sucks that Cotto isn’t looking good. If she doesn’t make it. I hope she keeps the team together and takes another shot. It took Kowalko two elections.
Yeah, I think she will. But she’s got a couple of ED’s she’s really counting on. She’s still in this.
8:13. DOE just updated. Nothing yet.
8:18. Ditto.
Looks like they’re updating every 5 minutes or so–even when there’s nothing to update.
584 to 316 York. 16 of 513 precincts in. If McG needs to win Kent, the early votes are not promising for her.
Kerri’s ahead, Becca’s behind, but it looks like one ED each so far reporting.
Early numbers now GREAT for Lydia. 1126 to 604. Brandon Toole up. Madinah up. Nothing from city yet.
Lydia 1834, KMG 926. I think we just might have this!
3180 Lydia, 1595 KMG. Huxtable takes early lead. Buckson up big early. Nnamdi and Shane close. Sophie Phillips in good shape. Kerri widens lead!
I am gobsmacked. Pray that trend holds. Would have guessed the opposite. Maybe there is hope in this ole world of ours.
With at most 30K D’s voting, I don’t see KMG rallying.
BTW, the 14th SD race is fascinating. Still early, but Kyra Hoffner is leading.
What is interesting in the 14th race is the “party guy” backed by the RD is dead last currently
It’s an SD, not an RD. Of which RD do you speak?
4630 Lydia. 2237 KMG. Heffernan leading Cotto. DeShanna with slight lead. Man, these Kerri numbers are impressive.
It’s over. KMG (and Pete) are toast. Could be a real changing of the guard in Sussex D politics. 6425 Lydia, 3023 KMG.
Man, Nnamdi and Shane are separated by 5 votes. Becca’s down by about 60 votes. DeShanna still hanging tough with a slight lead. Madinah is blowing out the MAGAt.
Kerri Evelyn Harris the happiest surprise of the night! Thought it would be real close.
No reports in from 25th yet, but I have to think if Romer wins, voters engaged enough to follow Kowalko’s endorsement will be engaged enough to vote against KMG.
Yeah, kinda surprised not to see any votes in there yet.
There it is. Just refreshed with CR way ahead.
BTW, Colin Bonini is in third (out of three). Little too early to call it for Buckson, but it sure looks that way.
Bonini’s numbers not looking good
An incumbent state senator coming in third. Wow.
Kerri is killing it! So proud of my district!
Did you expect this kind of a win?
Truthfully yes! There are signs everywhere and the presence of other candidates was practically nill. My wonderful little middle class neighborhood is full of Harris supporters.
That is a great win, and a huge upgrade for the district and for the D caucus.
Lydia 9680, McG 4293.
Russ Huxtable coasting now. Man, Kyra Hoffner might just win the 14th SD. Sam Noel, the labor guy, is finishing way up the track.
Three votes now separate Nnamdi and Shane.
Becca’s still down. Getting concerned…
DeShanna’s up by about 40. Man, if she wins…
Only question now is whether Lydia hits 70%. 14,413 to 6436. (Personal to Liberal Geek–You can toss away that second speech now.)
Shane has taken the lead over Nnamdi!!
Officially calling it for Kerri!
This is getting very close to embarrassing for kmg. She should resign.
lol.
York’s strategy of not being convicted of corruption seems to have paid off. I’m not sure why there was so much handwringing over this race.
I know, right? Primary voters were actually paying attention. That’s good to know.
Because counting on voters to be well-informed and to do the right thing is a risky strategy.
Time to call some more races:
Russ Huxtable: SD 6
Kyra Hoffner: SD 14
Eric Buckson: SD 16
Stephanie Bolden: RD 2
Deb Heffernan: RD 6 Just don’t see how Becca makes up that deficit. The turnout in that district was absolutely HUGE.
Sophie Phillips: RD 18
Madinah Wilson-Anton: RD 26
Eric Morrison: RD 27
NCC District 1: Brandon Toole.
The two key remaining races are Shane vs. Nnamdi, and DeShanna vs. Larry Mitchell.
Calling it for Romer. 80%?!?! That’s a blowout.
Bolden’s race looks like a missed opportunity for a vigorous challenger. Next time I guess.
Yeah. Taylor either eschewed or failed to attract the WFP/Delaware United support. For whatever reason he was more or less flying solo.
Yep. There are a couple of other great targets for next time as well.
Still waiting on Shane and DeShanna…
C’mon, SOMEBODY must have some inside info.
Too many races not uploading Early Voting or Absentee totals. I’m cautiously optimistic about how some of these races are going, knowing those data dumps could make or break.
No, they’ve uploaded it. Don’t worry. No data dumps.
Absentee and Early Voting aren’t showing either for RD 1 or 13. What am I missing?
Hmmm, you’re right. Same with RD 2. They MAY have just folded them in, although they’re not supposed to.
BTW, looks like my Sussex guy who told me that Brad Layfield was a lock was–mistaken. The D’s will have a shot in this district in November!
Only 5/11 districts have reported in. I’m not resigning from prognosticating just yet.
OK, I retire.
Shane’s up by 79 votes. Got to be nearing the end of the line on those votes…
Anybody with updates from individual campaigns?
I’m loving that Madinah and Eric Morrison are kicking the asses of the dark money funded doofuses.
Does this mean Madinah doesn’t have to apologize to Jerome Heisler?
Sad.
I’m assuming KMG’s primary loss means she will be allowed the serve out the rest of her term.
It shouldn’t. I think that, unlike legislators, statewide electeds don’t take office the day after the election.
Meaning, she’d have until January to do whatever she wanted to do.
No, it’s time for Carney to wake up from his Rip Van Winkle and initiate proceedings against her.
I think it means Carney is free to do what he should gave done a while ago.
I keep refreshing the page hoping York will go over 70%.
I still do not believe Deb won the 6th, the absentee and early votes aren’t up… I think Cotto is very much still in it
No, no, no. They’re not up in a lot of districts.
Had to have been confusion by the poll workers. No doubt folded into the final totals.
Over 2200 voted in that primary. Circled the wagons around Deb.
Could end up costing them Larry Mitchell and Nnamdi, time will tell.
If Becca comes back in two years, she wins.
It’s now a two-vote margin with Shane up over Nnamdi.
DeShanna still up by over 40.
Really don’t like that the absentee and early votes are missing for so many districts with close races. They going to mark all precincts as complete and still have zeros??? WTF
Edit: see early votes now. Do we need to wait on absentee? They were due in the mail today, right?
There may be some late absentee. No doubt the 1st will likely not be decided tonight. Don’t know if this is still the case, but, in the past, at slow times during the day, the absentee ballots would be put into the machines with officials watching.
I think, though, that the 13th could be a different story. There’s one outstanding ED in the 13th, and it’s a tiny one. Maybe nobody voted there. Feeling confident about DeShanna winning. Which would be huge.
Especially since, knowing the grassroots people behind DeShanna’s campaign, she’s not gonna get swamped by absentee ballots.
No, you can cast absentee ballots online. Even from France.
Looks like early voting and machine votes are in now. Nnamdi has eked out a lead over Shane, but it looks like DeShanna has defeated Larry Mitchell. With Kerri, that’s two progressive pick-ups. Plus, we got rid of Andria Bennett and Larry Mitchell.
Looks like four incumbents lost:
MCGUINESS (D)
BONINI (R)
MITCHELL (D)
DAILEY (R)
That must be some kind of record.
Too amped to sleep so I might as well give my immediate takeaway
1. York won, handily. All the prognostication about the failings of the campaign and the party seem pretty laughable now. Congrats to her, and her team, which includes Dave Woodside with whom I had a lovely chat while we stood outside of my alma mater Lombardy Elementary while Lydia greeted some voters there. I hope you get get the accolades you deserve Dave, because you’ve certainly earned them.
2. Two of the most progressive freshman Dems (Madinah and Eric) got mysteriously well-funded primary opponents who were promptly thrashed to within an inch of their lives. Maybe whoever is their mysterious benefactor is will realize the futility of fighting good progressives and will focus on taking out Republicans like Ramone and Smith (Spoiler alert: they won’t)
3. Two retiring progressives (Kowalko and Bentz) have both been replaced by two young progessive women (Sophie Phillips and Cyndie Romer). Alongside DeShanna’s win against Mitchell, the House continues to become more female which is a win for Delaware.
4. Speaking of DeShanna, despite her desperate lack of campaign t-shirts, she squeaked out a win against the House Whip Larry Mitchell. Whenever an incumbent is defeated in a race this close, the question is always whether it’s because the incumbent failed or the challenger triumphed but in this case I think it’s both. DeShanna is an excellent candidate who is more reflective of the younger and more progressive nature of the district who was underserved by a wobbly campaign that led to it being so close. Larry, on the other hand, was simply a politician who’s time has come and gone, the old boy network that he so long relied upon having withered and blown away with the changing times.
5. I like Jack Bucchioni, having spent time with him when he was running against Smyk in ’18, but he’s too much of a used care salesman to ever actually win a race. I’m interested in how Russ Huxtable does against Smyk (who multiple people today told me unprompted is a terrible person and misogynist)
6. Kyra Hoffner won, though if it had been a one to one race against the ‘Tater’ I don’t think she’d have survived. She’ll be a major improvement over Ennis, provided she can win against the Republican in November.
7. Bonini got what he deserved, and that’s all I can say about him. Buckson, I’ve been told, can be reasoned with but we’ll have to wait and see.
8. Shané Darby frightens me, but in a good way. Within the space of less then three months she was a able to cobble together a team, make three passes through her district, and came within 90 votes of winning against a well-entrenched incumbent. Give her another month and she would have won.
9. Contrast that with the RD2 race. My big take away from this race is that Bolden only got 711 votes over all, over 600 less than Shané’s total. You get a decent candidate who doesn’t jump in at the last minute and that race can be won.
10. Kerri won handily, which isn’t too shocking. Not much more to say other than she’ll be a vast improvement over Bennet. I look forward to seeing her in action next year.
11. Relatively moderate R Brian Shupe whomped the angry, hairy thumb in a polo shirt known as Patrick Smith. I’m still not over Shupe’s victory in ’18 (and I likely never will be), but I suppose he’s better than the alternative.
12. Becca’s loss is too soon, too painful, and too deserving of it’s own separate analysis to comment on too much. All I can say is that she only lost by 311 votes against a much better funded incumbent who had basically every non-progressive Democratic stalwart, elected or otherwise, showing up to help her. 311 votes. That’s not insurmountable.
That’s a pretty good rundown. Since house seats come up every two years, Cotto and Darby hopefully keep the campaign teams close and take another shot at it.
Regardless, this has to be a wake up call for Dem legislators who want to work put the demands of various corporate “stakeholders” above the needs of voters in their district.
What’s most bothersome about Heffernan is that she has never come clean with the voters about her health problems. If it’s fair game for Fetterman, it should have been fair game here.
Her health issues don’t effect her ability to legislate, which is all that really matters. What’s really truly bothersome about Heffernan is that she props up terrible leadership, does as little as possible legislatively, and coasts on the goodwill of bills that she barely did anything to help pass.
Agreed, but transparency should count for something.
Her story is a sad one that repeats regularly: A single-cause activist gets elected and it’s only later that we find out a progressive position on that cause does not translate to a general philosophy.
From my perspective deep in the heart of the Sixth, after being physically absent for years, over the last 6 weeks she flooded the zone. I started calling it the Heffernan Juggernaut because it seemed she was employing every conceivable channel to reach folks. It was an article of faith that ‘Deb gets it done’ and she is our friend, among folks who have never even seen her in person. A lot of voters seemed to kind of single-mindedly receive, accept, and execute the message that “I need to get to the polls to vote for Deb.”