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Curtis Aiken
Curtis Aiken (Democratic Party) ran for election to the U.S. House to represent Delaware's At-Large Congressional District. He did not appear on the ballot for the Democratic primary on September 10, 2024.
2024 battleground election
Ballotpedia identified the September 10, 2024 primary election as a battleground race. The summary below is from our coverage of this election, found here.
Sarah McBride (D) won the Democratic primary for Delaware's At-Large Congressional District on September 10, 2024. Click here for more detailed results.
Earl Cooper, Sarah McBride, and Elias Weir ran in the Democratic primary for Delaware’s at-large congressional seat on September 10, 2024. The filing deadline was July 9, 2024. McBride led in fundraising, noteworthy endorsements, and polling. Incumbent Lisa Blunt Rochester (D) ran for U.S. Senate, leaving the seat open.
With McBride's later victory in the general election, she became both the first person identifying as transgender elected to federal office and the youngest person from the state elected to federal office since President Joe Biden (D) won the U.S. Senate seat in 1972. Eugene Young was McBride's leading competitor in the primary, but he dropped out of the race on June 12, 2024.[1]
McBride was elected to the Delaware State Senate in 2020. Before holding elected office, she worked for the Human Rights Campaign, the Center for American Progress, in the White House during the Obama administration, and for former Gov. Jack Markell (D) and former Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden (D). Her endorsers included Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings (D), Delaware State Treasurer Colleen Davis (D), and Planned Parenthood Action Fund. McBride said she ran “to be Delaware's member of Congress who's focused on making progress on all of the issues that matter to Delawareans of every background.” As of May 30, 2024, McBride had raised $1,867,314.[2]
Cooper was a businessman in Wilmington. He founded a heavy construction and highway traffic company in 2018.[3] Cooper also launched the Housing Pilot Program, which according to his website, "offers our people the opportunity to attain homeownership through their dedicated efforts, known as 'sweat equity.' As homeownership continues to symbolize the American Dream, Mr. Cooper, is committed to improving the city's infrastructure and rejuvenating local neighborhoods. Our focus is on creating high-quality, affordable living spaces within our communities."[4]
Weir was born in Puerto Cortes, Honduras. He earned a bachelor's degree from the New York Institute of Technology in 1994. Weir's career experience includes working in the finance industry.[5]Weir ran for this seat in 2016, finishing last in a field of six candidates with 0.7% of the vote.
As of June 7, 2024, The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter, Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales, and Larry J. Sabato's Crystal Ball rated the general election as Solid/Safe Democratic. Mike Castle, the last Republican to represent Delaware in the U.S. House, left office in 2011.
All 435 seats were up for election. At the time of the election, Republicans had a 220 to 212 majority with three vacancies.[6] As of June 2024, 45 members of the U.S. House had announced they were not running for re-election. To read more about the U.S. House elections taking place this year, click here.
In the 2022 election in this district, the Democratic candidate won 55.5%-43.0%. Daily Kos calculated what the results of the 2020 presidential election in this district would have been following redistricting. Joe Biden (D) would have defeated Donald Trump (R) 58.8%-39.8%.[7]
Elections
2024
See also: United States House of Representatives election in Delaware, 2024
Delaware's At-Large Congressional District election, 2024 (September 10 Republican primary)
Delaware's At-Large Congressional District election, 2024 (September 10 Democratic primary)
General election
General election for U.S. House Delaware At-large District
Sarah McBride defeated John Whalen III in the general election for U.S. House Delaware At-large District on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Sarah McBride (D) | 57.9 | 287,830 |
 | John Whalen III (R) | 42.1 | 209,606 | |
| Total votes: 497,436 | |||
 = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for U.S. House Delaware At-large District
Sarah McBride defeated Earl Cooper and Elias Weir in the Democratic primary for U.S. House Delaware At-large District on September 10, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Sarah McBride | 79.9 | 66,764 |
| Earl Cooper | 16.2 | 13,557 | ||
 | Elias Weir | 3.9 | 3,286 | |
| Total votes: 83,607 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Colleen Davis (D)
- Eugene Young (D)
- Alexander Geise (D)
- Lisa Blunt Rochester (D)
- Curtis Aiken (D)
Republican primary election
Republican primary for U.S. House Delaware At-large District
John Whalen III defeated Donyale Hall in the Republican primary for U.S. House Delaware At-large District on September 10, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | John Whalen III | 55.8 | 19,880 |
 | Donyale Hall | 44.2 | 15,752 | |
| Total votes: 35,632 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Joseph Arminio (R)
Polls
- See also: Ballotpedia's approach to covering polls
Polls are conducted with a variety of methodologies and have margins of error or credibility intervals.[8] The Pew Research Center wrote, "A margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points at the 95% confidence level means that if we fielded the same survey 100 times, we would expect the result to be within 3 percentage points of the true population value 95 of those times."[9] For tips on reading polls from FiveThirtyEight, click here. For tips from Pew, click here.
The links below show polls for this race aggregated by FiveThirtyEight and RealClearPolitics, where available. Click here to read about FiveThirtyEight's criteria for including polls in its aggregation.
Election campaign finance
This section contains campaign finance figures from the Federal Election Commission covering all candidate fundraising and spending in this election.[10] It does not include information on fundraising before the current campaign cycle or on spending by satellite groups. The numbers in this section are updated as candidates file new campaign finance reports. Candidates for Congress are required to file financial reports on a quarterly basis, as well as two weeks before any primary, runoff, or general election in which they will be on the ballot and upon the termination of any campaign committees.[11]
| Name | Party | Receipts* | Disbursements** | Cash on hand | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Earl Cooper | Democratic Party | $0 | $0 | $0 | Data not available*** |
| Sarah McBride | Democratic Party | $4,091,643 | $3,884,516 | $207,127 | As of December 31, 2024 |
| Elias Weir | Democratic Party | $0 | $0 | $0 | Data not available*** |
|
Source: Federal Elections Commission, "Campaign finance data," 2024. This product uses the openFEC API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
* According to the FEC, "Receipts are anything of value (money, goods, services or property) received by a political committee." |
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Satellite spending
- See also: Satellite spending
Satellite spending describes political spending not controlled by candidates or their campaigns; that is, any political expenditures made by groups or individuals that are not directly affiliated with a candidate. This includes spending by political party committees, super PACs, trade associations, and 501(c)(4) nonprofit groups.[12][13][14]
If available, this section includes links to online resources tracking satellite spending in this election. To notify us of a resource to add, email us.
| By candidate | By election |
|---|---|
Endorsements
Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Aiken in this election.
Campaign themes
2024
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Curtis Aiken did not complete Ballotpedia's 2024 Candidate Connection survey.
Campaign finance summary
Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.
See also
2024 Elections
External links
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Personal |
Footnotes
- ↑ Delaware Online, "Former Delaware housing authority director suspends congressional campaign pursuit," June 12, 2024
- ↑ Delaware Online, "Sarah McBride announces run for US House seat to become first trans member of Congress," June 26, 2023
- ↑ Grow America, "From Dream to Reality: How Earl Cooper Built a Thriving Local Construction Business," accessed August 28, 2024
- ↑ Earl Cooper for Congress, "Social Commitment," accessed August 28, 2024
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on October 17, 2020
- ↑ A majority in the U.S. House when there are no vacancies is 218 seats.
- ↑ Daily Kos, "Daily Kos Elections' 2020 presidential results by congressional district, for new and old districts," accessed September 15, 2022
- ↑ For more information on the difference between margins of error and credibility intervals, see explanations from the American Association for Public Opinion Research and Ipsos.
- ↑ Pew Research Center, "5 key things to know about the margin of error in election polls," September 8, 2016
- ↑ Fundraising by primary candidates can be found on the race's respective primary election page. Fundraising by general election candidates can be found on the race's general election page.
- ↑ Federal Election Commission, "2022 Quarterly Reports," accessed March 2, 2022
- ↑ OpenSecrets.org, "Outside Spending," accessed December 12, 2021
- ↑ OpenSecrets.org, "Total Outside Spending by Election Cycle, All Groups," accessed December 12, 2021
- ↑ National Review.com, "Why the Media Hate Super PACs," December 12, 2021
