11 months ago
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Delaware Sen. Tom Carper, a moderate Democrat who has held statewide office since 1976, announced Monday that he would not seek a fifth term next year. The senator also made his preferred successor clear in his departure speech, in which he asked Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester to run. Blunt Rochester, who holds the state’s only House seat, became both the first woman and Black person to represent Delaware in Congress with her 2016 victory, and she'd make history again should she replace Carper.
While the eventual Democratic nominee should have no trouble in the general election in solidly blue Delaware, state politics were far different during the early part of Carper's career. The future senator, who was born in West Virginia and served in the Navy during the Vietnam War, first arrived in the First State in 1973 as a student of the University of Delaware's business school. He quickly became involved in local politics the next year by working on Democrat Jim Soles' campaign for the House, an effort that ended in a 58-40 loss against Republican incumbent Pete du Pont despite the Watergate wave that ushered many Democrats into Congress.
Carper, though, had more luck in 1976 when he sought the post of state treasurer at the age of 29 and won 55-43 as Jimmy Carter captured the state's electoral votes by a smaller 52-47 margin. Carper's win proved to be a bright spot for his party locally on what was otherwise a rough night: Du Pont unseated Gov. Sherman Tribbitt in a landslide while two future Carper foes prevailed in their respective races, with Sen. William Roth winning reelection and Thomas Evans succeeding Du Pont in the House.
