Mayoral election in Dover, Delaware (2023)
 |
Special state legislative • Local ballot measures • Municipal • How to run for office |
 |
|
|
| 2023 Dover elections |
|---|
 |
| Election dates |
| Filing deadline: January 31, 2023 |
| General election: April 18, 2023 |
| Election stats |
| Offices up: Mayor |
| Total seats up: 1 (click here for other city elections) |
| Election type: Nonpartisan |
| Other municipal elections |
| U.S. municipal elections, 2023 |
The city of Dover, Delaware, held a general election for mayor on April 18, 2023. The filing deadline for this election was January 31, 2023.
Elections
Click on the tabs below to show more information about those topics.
Candidates and results
General election
General election for Mayor of Dover
Incumbent Robin Christiansen defeated Diana Welch in the general election for Mayor of Dover on April 18, 2023.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Robin Christiansen (Nonpartisan) | 63.1 | 900 |
 | Diana Welch (Nonpartisan)  | 36.9 | 526 | |
| Total votes: 1,426 | |||
| = 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. | ||||
Additional elections on the ballot
- See also: Delaware elections, 2023
April 18, 2023
Candidate profiles
This section includes candidate profiles that may be created in one of two ways: either the candidate completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey, or Ballotpedia staff may compile a profile based on campaign websites, advertisements, and public statements after identifying the candidate as noteworthy. For more on how we select candidates to include, click here.
Incumbent: No
Political Office: None
Submitted Biography: "Born and raised in South Florida, Diana Welch has worked and lived in locations all around the world. She has deployed many times throughout her career, including missions supporting Desert Shield. As a Special Agent, AFOSI, Diana deployed to Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya, and Uganda, and supported Operation Deny Flight in the Balkans during the conflicts conducting counterintelligence and anti-terrorism activities. She spent two years teaching advanced agent courses at the Federal Law Enforcement Academy near Washington, DC. After several years of government contract work with multiple agencies around the globe, Diana decided to settle down and invest in her adopted hometown. With more than 24 years of combined military and federal service, Diana "Landed in Delaware by accident and stayed on purpose." She began purchasing and restoring several 100-year-old buildings in Downtown Dover and opened successful small businesses in the buildings she restored. Diana Welch has been a business owner, investor, and entrepreneur for over two decades, working and serving Downtown Dover by providing jobs and housing. She can see the potential in Dover and understands the challenges facing residents and businesses as Dover grows. She has been married to Jeff Welch, a retired Dover Police Officer, for 26 years. She has one son Ryan, who is also a local businessman in Downtown Dover."
This information was current as of the candidate's run for Mayor of Dover in 2023.
Mayoral partisanship
Eighteen state capitals held mayoral elections in 2023, including 11 capitals that fell outside of the top 100 cities.
One state capital saw a change in mayoral partisan affiliation in 2023:
- Springfield, Illinois: Republican Misty Buscher defeated incumbent Democratic mayor Jim Langfelder in the April 4 general election.
After mayors elected in 2023 assumed office, there were 37 Democratic state capital mayors, six Republican mayors, one independent mayor, two nonpartisan mayors, and four mayors with unknown partisan affiliation.
What was at stake?
Report a story for this election
Ballotpedia researches issues in local elections across the United States, but information availability is a challenge for us in many areas. Please contact us about the issues that impact your local election. Note that not all submissions may meet Ballotpedia's coverage requirements for inclusion.
Candidate survey
|
|
Ballotpedia invites candidates to participate in its annual survey. |
About the city
- See also: Dover, Delaware
Dover is a city in Kent County, Delaware. As of 2020, its population was 39,403.
City government
- See also: Council-manager government
The city of Dover utilizes a council-manager system. In this form of municipal government, an elected city council appoints a chief executive called a city manager to oversee day-to-day municipal operations and implement the council's policy and legislative initiatives.[1]
Demographics
The following table displays demographic data provided by the United States Census Bureau.
| Demographic Data for Dover, Delaware | ||
|---|---|---|
| Dover | Delaware | |
| Population | 39,403 | 989,948 |
| Land area (sq mi) | 23 | 1,948 |
| Race and ethnicity** | ||
| White | 44% | 67.4% |
| Black/African American | 42.1% | 22% |
| Asian | 3.3% | 4% |
| Native American | 0.6% | 0.4% |
| Pacific Islander | 0% | 0.1% |
| Other (single race) | N/A | 2.3% |
| Multiple | 7.9% | 3.9% |
| Hispanic/Latino | 8% | 9.4% |
| Education | ||
| High school graduation rate | 87.9% | 90.6% |
| College graduation rate | 25.5% | 32.7% |
| Income | ||
| Median household income | $48,500 | $69,110 |
| Persons below poverty level | 21.9% | 11.4% |
| Source: population provided by U.S. Census Bureau, "Decennial Census" (2020). Other figures provided by U.S. Census Bureau, "American Community Survey" (5-year estimates 2015-2020). | ||
| **Note: Percentages for race and ethnicity may add up to more than 100 percent because respondents may report more than one race and the Hispanic/Latino ethnicity may be selected in conjunction with any race. Read more about race and ethnicity in the census here. | ||
See also
| Dover, Delaware | Delaware | Municipal government | Other local coverage |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
External links
Footnotes
| |||||||||
