Delaware voters will go to the polls on Tuesday to choose their nominees for U.S. Senate, House and a number of local races — the last primary contests of the 2026 midterm election cycle.
Delaware state law dictates state and local primaries be held the second Tuesday after the first Monday in September in general election years, pushing the primary back into the third week of September this year.
Here are the major races to watch:
U.S. Senate
Democratic Sen. Chris Coons, who was first elected to the seat in 2010 to fill an opening when Joe Biden became vice president, is expected to sail to victory on Tuesday. He faces three nominal primary challengers, including former business executive Eric Hansen, who will appear on the ballot as “E. No-Trump Hansen.”
Coons has raised more than $6.8 million for his reelection bid, compared to $150,000 for his closest primary challenger. The other two, including Hansen, have not reported any fundraising.
Two Republicans are vying for the chance to take him on, although Delaware is a solidly blue state and Coons is expected to win easily in November. A Republican has not won a Delaware Senate seat since 1966, when the state elected J. Caleb Boggs to the upper chamber. Boggs was defeated six years later by a 29-year-old Biden, making him one of the youngest people ever elected to the Senate — nearly a half-century before Biden became one of the oldest people to serve as president.
U.S. House
Delaware’s lone U.S. House member, incumbent Rep. Sarah McBride, is running for reelection, and does not face any primary challengers. Democrats have held the seat since 2010.
McBride, the first transgender member of Congress, has become a lightning rod in Congress among Republicans in her first term. In November 2024, ahead of her arrival in Congress, House Speaker Mike Johnson announced that all House members would have to use the restroom corresponding to their biological sex. GOP Rep. Nancy Mace, who introduced the ban, said it was aimed at McBride.
McBride issued a statement at the time saying it was intended to “distract from the real issues facing this country,” but she said she would comply with the rules.
McBride told The New York Times last year that there have been “folks who are coming after me” in Congress, saying they “were trying to bait me into a fight to get attention, and I refused to be used as a political pawn.”
There are three Republicans running to take on McBride in November, including an opponent from her 2024 Democratic primary who has switched parties, Earl Cooper, and her opponent in the 2024 general election, John Whalen III.
