Bryan Shupe and Patrick Smith remain neck-and-neck in RD 36

DELAWARE – The primary race for Delaware’s Representative District 36 has remained neck-and-neck into the night.

With 528 of 530 precincts reporting, the incumbent, Rep. Bryan Shupe is just barely holding onto the lead over challenger Patrick Smith.

Shupe and Smith are separated by less than half a percentage point–Shupe sitting at 50.26%, and Smith with 49.74%–a difference of 11 votes total.
WMDT spoke with Patrick Smith, who explained why he was challenging Representative Shupe.

“The message that we’ve just gotten out over the last couple years [is] Bryan’s inability to represent us as a republican and as a conservative. You know, I’ve been heavily campaigning for two years, speaking with constituents, going to meetings,” Smith said.

The Smith camp tells WMDT that they will be requesting a recount, as the race is currently hanging just within the 0.5% threshold needed to justify a recount in Delaware.

The winner of the race will go on to face Democrat Rony Baltazar-Lopez in November.