2008 United States Senate election in Delaware
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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.
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November 4, 2008
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  Biden: 50–60% 60–70% 70–80% 80–90% >90% O'Donnell: 50–60% | |||||||||||||||||
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The election was O'Donnell'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; he heavily outspent her in Delaware and she ended her campaign in debt. During the 2010 cycle, 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 again ran unsuccessfully.
Background
Biden had first been elected to the Senate in 1972.[1] He won his sixth term in 2002, defeating Republican candidate Raymond Clatworthy.[2] Delaware is considered a "blue state", having last voted for a Republican presidential candidate in 1988.[3] By 2008, there were only two Republicans who held statewide office.[4]
Candidates and primaries
- Joe Biden (Democrat), incumbent senator since 1973[1]
- Christine O'Donnell (Republican), media consultant, political analyst and write-in candidate in 2006[5]
In January 2008, following a poor performance in the Iowa Caucus, Biden ended his 2008 presidential bid to instead focus on running for a seventh term in the United States Senate. He was unopposed within his party.[6] On August 23, the Democratic Party's presidential nominee, Illinois Senator Barack Obama, announced that he had selected Biden to serve as his running mate in the presidential election.[7] Under Delaware law, Biden could run simultaneously for both his Senate seat and the vice presidency, which he decided to do.[8]
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, having received less than five percent of the vote.[9] The primary election was held on September 9, 2008. Both candidates ran unopposed.[5][6]
Predictions
Pundits believed Biden would easily win re-election, 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 SurveyUSA, projecting Biden to win by 34 percent.[10]
| Source | Ranking | Date of Prediction | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Cook Political Report | Safe D | October 23, 2008 | [11] |
| Congressional Quarterly | Safe D | October 31, 2008 | [12] |
| Rothenberg Political Report | Safe D | November 2, 2008 | [13] |
General election
Biden largely ignored the election in favor of Obama's presidential run.[8] 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, Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour, and activist David Horowitz.[14]
Biden put up very few campaign advertisements;[14] nevertheless, he heavily outspent O'Donnell and her campaign failed to gain traction. She ended her campaign with thousands of dollars in debt.[15][16] Kristin Murray briefly served as the campaign manager for O'Donnell, later saying she left the campaign willingly because of O'Donnell's financial situation; O'Donnell said she was fired.[15] During O'Donnell's 2010 campaign for the seat, Murray said that O'Donnell was misusing her campaign donations and using the money to pay her rent and other "personal expenses".[17]
Results
The election was held on November 4, 2008. Only minutes after the polls closed, the race was called for Biden.[18] He was re-elected in a landslide victory against O'Donnell,[19][20] securing his largest margin of victory and improving on his 2002 performance by around 6.5%.[21] He received around two thousand more votes than Obama did in the presidential election.[20] Biden's victory was a part of a national "blue wave" in the 2008 election cycle.[22]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Joe Biden (incumbent) | 257,539 | 64.69% | +6.47% | |
| Republican | Christine O'Donnell | 140,595 | 35.31% | −5.49% | |
| Majority | 116,944 | 29.38% | 6.47% | ||
| Total votes | 398,134 | 100% | — | ||
| Democratic hold | |||||
Biden won all three counties including Kent County, which he lost in 2002.[23][21] 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 successful presidential run in 2020, Sussex County voted for the Republican candidates.[24][25][26]
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 received 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.[23]
| County | Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. (D) | Christine Therese O'Donnell (R) | Total votes cast | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| % | # | % | # | ||
| Kent | 37,074 | 56.99% | 27,981 | 43.01% | 65,055 |
| New Castle | 177,070 | 71.82% | 69,491 | 28.18% | 246,561 |
| Sussex | 43,395 | 50.16% | 43,123 | 49.84% | 86,790 |
| Total | 257,539 | 64.69% | 140,595 | 35.31% | 398,406 |
Aftermath
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.[27] Biden took the oath of office in the Senate chamber with his fellow senators-elect on January 3, 2009,[28] but resigned his seat on January 15, 2009, and assumed the vice presidency five days later.[29]
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, where Kaufman stated he had no plans to run.[30] O'Donnell once again ran unsuccessfully for the seat, losing to Democrat Chris Coons.[31] In 2015, she was sued by the Federal Election Commission (FEC) for misuse of campaign funds and was found guilty a year later.[32][33]