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Blunt Rochester scores history-making win in Delaware's U.S. House race

Megan Pauly
/
Delaware Public Media

Delaware’s Congressional delegation will have a new look come January when Lisa Blunt Rochester will join Senators Tom Carper and Chris Coons on Capitol Hill.

“We just made history.  This is what history looks like."

That's what Blunt Rochester told supporters in Wilmington Tuesday night.

Blunt Rochester defeated Republican Hans Reigle in the race for Delaware’s lone U.S. House seat, becoming the first woman and first African American elected to Congress from First State.  

Blunt Rochester realizes her win’s significance in a state where one in every 5 voters is black.

But the win also had a deeply personal meaning.  Blunt Rochester also acknowledged the inspiration provided by her late husband Charles - quoting the poet E.E. Cummings.

“I carry your heart with me.  I carry it in my heart.  I am never without it.  Anywhere I go, you go, my dear.  Anywhere I go, you go my dear,   And whatever is done by me only is your doing , my darling.”

In her first run for any political office, Blunt Rochester garnered 55 percent of the vote to Hans Reigle’s 41 percent.

And she says she intends to deliver on the promises she made during the campaign when she arrives on Capitol Hill.

“What I vow to you is that I will go to Washington and fight for you. I will fight for equal pay for equal work.  I will go to fight to protect Social Security.  I will go to fight to make sure Obamacare is still here,” said Blunt Rochester.

Blunt Rochester will face an uphill battle - as the House remains firmly in Republican hands. 

She will take over Delaware's lone U.S. House seat from John Carney – who won the governor’s office Tuesday after three terms in the House.

 

 
 

 
 

 

Tom Byrne has been a fixture covering news in Delaware for three decades. He joined Delaware Public Media in 2010 as our first news director and has guided the news team ever since. When he's not covering the news, he can be found reading history or pursuing his love of all things athletic.
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