Miami
Delaware holds its final primaries of the midterm cycle
Voters head to the polls Tuesday to choose nominees for the U.S. Senate, the House and local offices. The top races include reelection bids by Chris Coons and Sarah McBride.
Delaware voters are casting ballots Tuesday to pick nominees for the U.S. Senate, the House of Representatives and several local offices, in what CBS News Miami described as the final primary contests of the 2026 midterm election cycle.
According to the outlet, state law sets state and local primaries for the second Tuesday after the first Monday in September in general election years, which pushed this year’s vote into the third week of the month.
Senate
Democratic Sen. Chris Coons is seeking the nomination for a third full term. CBS News Miami reported that he was first elected in 2010 to fill the vacancy created when Joe Biden became vice president, and that he is widely expected to win his primary comfortably.
Coons faces three lesser-known Democratic challengers, including former business executive Eric Hansen, who will appear on the ballot as E. No-Trump Hansen. CBS News Miami reported that Coons has raised more than $6.8 million for his reelection campaign, compared with $150,000 for his best-funded primary opponent. The other two candidates, including Hansen, have not reported any fundraising.
On the Republican side, two candidates are competing for the nomination to face him in November. CBS News Miami noted that Delaware is a strongly Democratic state and that Coons is also expected to be favored in the general election. The outlet added that no Republican has won a Delaware Senate seat since 1966, when J. Caleb Boggs was elected to the upper chamber. Six years later, he was defeated by Biden, then 29.
House
Delaware’s lone House member, Sarah McBride, is running for reelection and has no primary challengers. CBS News Miami said Democrats have held the seat since 2010.
McBride, identified by the outlet as the first transgender member of Congress, has become a target for Republican lawmakers during her first term. CBS News Miami recalled that in November 2024, before she arrived on Capitol Hill, House Speaker Mike Johnson announced that House members would be required to use the restroom that matched their biological sex. Republican Rep. Nancy Mace, who introduced that policy, said at the time that it was aimed at McBride.
McBride said in a statement then that the move was meant to distract from the country’s real issues, while adding that she would follow the rules. CBS News Miami also reported that McBride told The New York Times last year that some people in Congress were trying to use her as a political pawn to draw attention, and that she refused to play that role.
Three Republicans are seeking the nomination to challenge McBride in November. They include Earl Cooper, a former opponent from her 2024 Democratic primary who later switched parties, and John Whalen III, her opponent in the 2024 general election, according to CBS News Miami.
Sources
About this piece. Written by El Notero with AI assistance, from reporting published by the outlet cited above. El Notero did no original reporting on this story.
