One seat, one voice in a room of 435 — so what does Delaware's lone seat in the U.S. House of Representatives actually do for Delaware?
More than the size of the state might suggest. Delaware gets exactly one member of the House — a single at-large district — and that one person votes on federal laws and spending that reach into every Smyrna and Dover household. The term is two years, and when a Delawarean gets tangled up with a federal agency, this is the office they call.
The matchup was set on September 15. Rep. Sarah McBride ran unopposed for the Democratic nomination. Joseph "Dr. Joe" Arminio won a contested three-way Republican primary with 48 percent, beating party-endorsed Rev. Earl Cooper and 2024 nominee John Whalen.
Sarah McBride, 36, grew up in Wilmington. She worked for former Governor Jack Markell and the late Attorney General Beau Biden, and was national spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaign. Elected to the Delaware Senate in 2020, she wrote the Healthy Delaware Families Act — the law that created paid family and medical leave here. In November 2024 she won this House seat with 58 percent of the vote, becoming the first openly transgender member of Congress.
Her case for a second term rests on her first. According to her office, she introduced five bills in her first year — every one bipartisan — and co-sponsored 439 bills, about two-thirds bipartisan. Her office says it helped bring $164 million-plus in federal funding back to Delaware since 2025, and returned $8 million-plus to Delawareans through casework.
Ask her plans, and she starts with the cost of living. "We can't just go back to how things were two, three, four years ago," she told Delaware Online. "We've also got to lay the foundation for the kind of change that the public is demanding." She says she would push for nationwide paid family and medical leave, universal child care and more home-care investment, restore the enhanced child tax credit, and pass a housing bill. On technology, she wants what she called "essentially, the equivalent of an FDA for frontier AI models," and abroad, a "commitment to international law" holding "ourselves and our allies to that standard."
Joseph Arminio, a Wilmington native in his 70s and a lifelong Republican, comes at the seat from outside elected office. He earned a doctorate in political science from MIT, concentrated in defense policy and international relations, and has taught at American University and Lincoln University. He spent decades in Washington as a scholar and self-described "public policy practitioner" writing seven books on policy and history. He ran for Congress once before, in a 2008 Maryland Republican primary, and lost. This September, in his home state, he won.
He calls himself a "truth teller" and a populist for "Main Street," campaigning under a mantra: "Debt Relief at Home; Disentanglement Abroad: Restore the Dream!" "I come in as, yes, a Republican, but I also come in as a populist," he said. "I will be able to find support for these ideas among the Democrats. There's some overlap here."
His "American Prosperity Plan" targets public and private debt alike — private debt, he argues, is "a far greater problem" — and he has proposed a "Debt Jubilee" to cut what households and businesses owe banks. His stated priorities also include national defense, education reform, immigration and upholding the Constitution. On immigration he has echoed President Trump, called sanctuary cities "a calamity," and argued proper enforcement first requires a "thriving economy." He opposes the current war in Iran, and would propose a "Grand Bargain" in the Middle East: steering Israel toward a two-state solution with "essential sovereignty" for Palestinian people.
One hard moment is part of the record. Two days after the primary, at a forum at the Siegel Jewish Community Center in Wilmington, Arminio twice referred to McBride as a "gentleman." Warned by the moderator, he did it again, and organizers removed him — a decision McBride protested. That night, Republican U.S. Senate nominee Dr. Mike Katz called on Arminio to withdraw. Arminio has since said he is "not trying to make distractions"; McBride has said nothing "will ever distract me from my laser focus on lowering the cost of gas, groceries, housing, childcare, and healthcare."
Two more names can be written in — Earl Cooper and Scott Walker, whose filing is still under review by the state — but the printed ballot carries McBride and Arminio. Early voting is already underway, Thursday, October 22 through Sunday, November 1, at any site in your county: 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. through October 27 (no voting Sunday, October 25), then 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. October 28 through November 1. Kent County's sites are the BPOE #1903 Elks Lodge and Wyoming United Methodist Church in Dover, the Frederica Senior Center and Harrington Parks & Recreation — none in Smyrna, so Dover is closest for most of our readers. Election Day, Tuesday, November 3, polls are open 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. at your assigned polling place. Your sample ballot and polling place are at ivote.de.gov — look before you go, and then go.
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