Democrats sweep Senate, House votes
WILMINGTON, Del. – Election Night turned into a party for Democrats early, as they won both seats open in the United States legislature Tuesday night.
Leading the way was an early call from the AP for incumbent Senator Tom Carper, who won a fourth term. Carper defeated Sussex County Councilman Rob Arlett with 60 percent of the vote.
The number one topic for Carper as he returns to Washington will be continuing environmental work, especially to combat climate change.
“There’s a number of ways that we can address global warming and do it in ways that create jobs, and job creation is like 3 million. Jobs are already in energy efficiency, sustainable energy and we can do a whole lot better in that way.”
Carper returns to a senate controlled by the GOP, with a republican in the White House. He says he understands the balancing act that comes with working with the other side of the aisle.
“We’re going to have to find ways to work together. The people of Delaware, when the administration is wrong, when the presidents wrong, they want me to oppose him, to fight him. But on the other hand, they want us to work together.”
Lisa Blunt-Rochester
In the other national race, democratic Congresswoman Lisa Blunt-Rochester easily won her re-election bid, defeating outspoken republican candidate Scott Walker.
The congresswoman says she was inspired by the amount of women and new people getting involved in the process this election cycle.
“Now to see so many other people stepping up who have never run before either, and saying I care about my state, I care about my country and I want to get involved.”
Blunt-Rochester says she wants to focus on criminal justice reform the next two years, highlighting her Clean Slate Bill recently introduced.
These results follow a democratic pattern we have seen in Delaware for decades. A republican has not won a senate seat in Delaware since 1994. The GOP also has not won the only house seat for Delaware since 2008.
