The 2008 United States Senate election in Delaware was held on November 4, 2008. Incumbent Senator Joe Biden, who was also the Democratic nominee for vice president in the concurrent presidential election, faced Republican challenger Christine O'Donnell in the general election. Biden won re-election to a seventh term with 64.69% of the vote, his best-performing result in his senatorial career, while also being elected vice president. It was O'Donnel's second run for the Senate after a failed write-in campaign in 2006. Biden primarily focused on his vice presidential run, which O'Donnell criticized him for. Despite this, he still outspent her. During the 2010, it was discovered O'Donnell broke campaign finance regulation by spending donations on personal expenses.
Shortly after being sworn in, Biden resigned from the Senate to assume the vice presidency, and long-time Biden advisor Ted Kaufman was appointed to fill the vacancy. A special election was held in 2010 where O'Donnell once again ran unsuccessfully.
O'Donnell had previously run in for Delaware's Class One senate seat in 2006. After losing the Republican Primary to Jan C. Ting, she ran in the general election as a write-in candidate. She lost, only receiving less than five percent of the vote.[7] The primary election was held on September 9, 2008. Both candidates ran unopposed.[3][4]
Predictions
Pundits believed Biden would easily win reelection, with all major polls placing him over 30 points ahead of O'Donnell. The first poll, conducted in mid-September by Fairleigh Dickinson University, gave Biden the best projection with a +43 margin. His weakest projection came from SurveyUSA with a +32 margin. The final poll of the election was conducted in late October by SurveryUSA, it projected Biden to win by 34 percent.[8]
Biden largely ignored the election in favor of Obama's presidential run.[6] O'Donnell tried to make an issue of the dual campaigns, claiming that doing so was evidence that serving his constituents was not important to him as well as criticizing his unwillingness to participate in debates and candidate forums. Politico's Daniel Libit writing about O'Donnell said, "nowhere else in America is a challenger wanting her incumbent opponent to campaign harder against her." O'Donnell received the endorsements of astronaut Buzz Aldrin, Missouri Governor Haley Barbour, and activist David Horowitz.[12]
Biden put up very few campaign advertisements,[12] nevertheless he heavily outspent O'Donnell and her campaign failed to gain traction. Her campaign ended with thousands in debt.[13][14] Kristin Murray briefly served as the campaign manager for O'Donnell. Murray claimed she left the campaign willingly because of O'Donnell's financial situation, though O'Donnell claimed she was fired.[13] During O'Donnell's 2010 campaign for the seat, Murray claimed that O'Donnell was misusing her campaign donations and using the money to pay her rent and other "personal expenses".[15]
Results
The election was held on November 4, 2008. Only minutes after the polls closed the race was called for Biden.[16] He was re-elected in a landslide victory against O'Donnell,[17][18] securing his largest margin of victory while improving on his 2002 performance by around 6.5%.[19]
2008 United States Senate election in Delaware[18][19]
Biden won all three counties, flipping Kent County from Republican to Democrat.[20][19] This marked the last time he won all three counties in a general election. In his vice presidential runs in 2008 and 2012, and in his presidential run in 2020, Sussex County would vote for the Republican candidates.[21][22][23]
Biden's best performance was in New Castle County, where he won around 72 percent of the vote to O'Donnell's 28 percent. O'Donnell's best performance was in Sussex County, where she almost won the county, receiving 49.84% of the vote to Biden's 50.16%, his weakest performance. New Castle County had the highest number of votes cast with 246 thousand, followed by Sussex County with 86 thousand.[20]
A few weeks after the election, The News Journal published an opinion piece by Greg Gober on Delaware's election laws. Gober found the result unfair and undemocratic as Biden's replacement was not voted on. He also criticized Biden himself for his dual campaigns.[24] Biden took the oath of office in the Senate chamber with his fellow senators-elect on January 3, 2009,[25] but resigned his seat on January 15, 2009, and assumed the vice presidency five days later.[26] Outgoing Delaware Governor Ruth Ann Minner appointed Ted Kaufman, a Democrat and longtime Biden advisor, to fill the vacant seat pending a 2010 special election. Kaufman stated he had no plans to run in 2010.[27] O'Donnell once again ran unsuccessfully for the seat, losing to Democrat Chris Coons.[28] In 2015, she was sued by the Federal Election Commission for misuse of campaign funds.[29] She was found guilty in 2016.[30]
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
