Lisa Blunt Rochester wins election in Delaware, becoming the state’s first female senator

Democratic Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester will become the first Black woman to represent Delaware in the Senate after defeating Republican Eric Hansen and independent candidate Mike Katz, NBC News predicts.

Blunt Rochester, 62, told NBC News before Election Day that her sights were on job creation, protecting reproductive rights, health care and addressing the needs of seniors and families.

Blunt Rochester, who is in her fourth term in the House of Representatives, is a historic politician, already the first woman and the first Black person to represent the state in Congress. Nevertheless, she emphasized that her candidacy was not just about breaking barriers. “I’m not doing this to make history,” she told NBC News. “I do this to make a difference.”

Hansen, a former Walmart and Procter & Gamble executive, called his business experience an advantage over a career as a politician. His goals included fixing “broken” schools, health care and prescription drug affordability, the environment, reducing gun violence and crime, and the economy. Katz is a doctor and former state senator who was a Democrat but changed his party affiliation to the Independent Party. The candidates did not hold a debate.

Blunt Rochester said that despite her lead in the polls, she doesn’t take anything for granted.

Delaware is “urban, suburban and coastal,” she said. “It’s a blue state, but we vote blue, red and purple. I let voters know that I want to represent everyone. If I go to the Senate, we all go.”

Currently, Laphonza Butler of California is the only Black woman in the Senate — and the third in history, after Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed her last year to fill the late Dianne Feinstein’s seat; Butler decided not to seek election.

Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University in New Jersey, said the Delaware race was closely watched because of the low number of black women in the Senate. In addition to Butler, only California’s Kamala Harris, who served from 2017 to 2020, and Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois, from 1993 to 1999, made it to the Senate.

“We’re not just talking about a history of underrepresentation — and remember that black women make up nearly 8% of all Americans — but also long periods of time when black women were not represented at all in the Senate,” Walsh said. “So this is certainly a potentially historic moment, but we should also think about what we gain by including their voices in the conversation.”

Blunt Rochester ran for the seat vacated by her mentor, Senator Tom Carper, a Democrat who hired her as a congressional intern when she was a student. Carper said he heard at a town hall in the late 1980s how Blunt Rochester expressed a “deep interest in public service and making a difference in her life.”

She rose through the ranks in his office and later when he became governor before joining the cabinet of Ruth Ann Minner, the first female governor of Delaware. She also served as CEO of the Metropolitan Wilmington Urban League.

In 2014, tragedy struck when her second husband died suddenly after blood clots from a ruptured Achilles tendon traveled to his heart and lungs. In her grief, Blunt Rochester said, she sought guidance and felt inspired to run for office. She won in 2016.

EMILY’s List, which supports women running for elected office, called Blunt Rochester a “trailblazing leader” in a statement Tuesday night.

“She champions working families, women and civil rights,” said Jessica Mackler, president of EMILY’s List. “We have been proud to stand by her throughout her career and can’t wait to watch her make history in the U.S. Senate.”