Delaware Senator Tom Carper to Retire, Senate Seat Up for Grabs.

Sen. Tom Carper Will Not Seek Reelection for Fifth Term

Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) has announced that he will not seek reelection for a fifth term in the Senate. This opens the door to a wide-open fight for the seat he has held since 2001 in Delaware, a state with a largely Democrat population.

“If I ran for a fifth term in the Senate and won, it would be a record 15 statewide elections,” Carper, 76, said in prepared remarks at a Wilmington news conference. He and his wife, Martha, started to consider this decision months ago.

“After a good deal of prayer and introspection, and more than a few heart-to-heart conversations, we’ve decided we should run through the tape over the next 20 months and finish the important work that my staff and I have begun on a wide range of fronts, many of them begun in partnership with Democrat and Republican colleagues in the Senate and in the House,” he said.

Other Senators Not Running for Reelection in 2020

• Sens. Mike Braun (R-Ind.)
• Ben Cardin (D-Md.)
• Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.)
• Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.)

Carper has stated that the implementation of the Inflation Reduction Act and the infrastructure bill of 2021 would be his primary emphasis over his last months in office. “Implementation of both laws is indispensable if we are ultimately to win the battle against global warming while creating tens of millions of American jobs in the years to come,” he said.