Democrats fail to gain a supermajority in the Delaware House, but maintain their long-standing simple majority in both chambers.
Democrats were eying the possibility of turning four state House seats blue this General Election, but only managed to win one of the four contested races.
Frank Burns beat Brenda Menella with 58% of the vote, giving Democrats a three-fifths majority to enact tax increases and override vetoes by the governor.
But the party was one seat shy of gaining a two-thirds majority, which would have allowed Democrats to pass the first leg of constitutional amendments in both chambers.
Current House Majority Whip Kerri Evelyn Harris says Democrats are excited for the win, but plan to keep pushing balance within the party.
“One of the big pushes from our opposition party was that there's one party rule, but the difference with Democrats is we do challenge each other. We just don't run as a pack, and so there's still that ability for us to create the legislation that really speaks to people and us to challenge each other to create what is best for the whole," Evelyn Harris said.
Without the supermajority, Democrats will need to work across the aisle if they want to constitutionalize early and mail-in voting, as well as abortion rights.
“Even previously, when we didn't have as many seats, we did work across the aisle, we did talk to folks about their opinions. It didn't mean that we always saw each other's side perfectly, but we did tweak our legislation to bring in thoughts that were different than ours as a party," Evelyn Harris said.
Republican representatives Bryan Shupe, Mike Smith and Kevin Hensley all maintained their seats in the House, beating out each of their respective Democratic challengers.
Shupe ended up winning his race with 63% of the vote after a contentious race against Democratic challenger Rony Baltazar-Lopez.
