Lawmakers file legislation that would effectively cancel this year’s Republican Presidential Primary in Delaware.
The First State already announced it would not host a Democratic Presidential Primary after President Joe Biden was the only candidate to file, but the future of a Republican Presidential Primary is in limbo.
Although former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley suspended her presidential campaign last week, making a clear path for former President Donald Trump to become the Republican nominee, she remains on the ballot in Delaware.
State Sen. Dave Lawson (R-Marydel) introduced legislation Thursday that would give an automatic primary win to a candidate if their sole opponent publicly suspended their campaign after the withdrawal deadline.
“There’s no need to run the election, the primary, because both those cards are settled. There’s really no need to go on, and it costs Delaware $1.5 million to run a useless election," Lawson said.
The bill would expire after this year’s presidential primary.
Lawson says he intends to push for a suspension of the rules to try and pass the legislation before early voting starts on Wednesday, but there seems to be pushback from both parties as he seeks to garner support for the bill.
While the bill was filed with co-sponsorship from House Minority Leader Mike Ramone (R-Newark) and Democratic Senate leadership, Ramone has since been removed as sponsor.
"There seems to be some misgivings as to it, maybe I'm missing something on it. I don't think I am. It's purely a money-saving short-term bill, and I don’t see the damage that would be done to anyone other than taxpayers," Lawson says.
Despite this, Lawson believes the bill will gain House sponsorship.
Previous legislative efforts have been made to combine the Presidential Primary with the Delaware Primary, which would prevent the state from running into a situation like this in the future.
The bill passed unanimously in the House, but was defeated in the Senate with three no votes and eighteen abstentions last June.
