The2024 Wilmington mayoral election was held on Tuesday, November 5, 2024, to elect themayor ofWilmington, Delaware. Following Incumbent mayorMike Purzycki's decision to not seek re-election, term limited GovernorJohn Carney and former Wilmington treasurerVelda Jones-Potter ran for the Democratic nomination. Jones-Potter had previously challenged Purzycki's 2020 reelection bid. On September 10, 2024, Carney defeated in the primary Jones-Potter by 743 votes. Due to the dominance of theDelaware Democratic Party, noRepublicans ran for the seat. Carney ran unopposed in the general election and received over 24 thousand votes. With his victory he became the first sitting governor ever to be elected mayor.
TheDelaware Democratic Party dominates the politics of Delaware. The party holds a supermajority in both chambers of the State Legislature and holds all statewide seats. The final time Republicans won statewide in Delaware was in 2014 when the elections forDelaware Auditor of Accounts andDelaware State Treasurer were won byTom Wagner andKen Simpler respectively.[1][2] In 2018, Wagner did not seek reelection while Simpler was defeated by a Democratic challenger.[3][4]
In 2020, following a competitive primary incumbent DemocraticMike Purzycki won the democratic nomination with 42 percent of the vote. He defeated political rivals, former City Councilmen Justen Wright and Wilmington City TreasurerVelda Jones-Potter.[5][6] He was uncontested in the general election winning re-election to a second term.[7]
Purzycki had considered running in 2024. However, on October 3, 2023, Purzycki revealed that he would not be seeking a third term citing his age and a desire to spend time with his family. Incumbent Governor of DelawareJohn Carney, who was unable to seek re-election as governor due to term limits, decided to enter the race.[8][9]Velda Jones-Potter, former treasurer of Wilmington and Delaware as a whole, also decided to enter the race. Jones-Potter had previously challenged Purzycki for the nomination in2020.[9] On August 9, Carney and Jones-Potter participated in apublic forum debate hosted by the Rotary Club of Wilmington. Issues included education, quality of life, and job creation.[10]
The primary election was held on September 10, 2024.[11] Carney received 5,308 votes, winning with over 53 percent of the vote. He defeated Jones-Potter by 743 votes.[12]
Due to the Democratic party's dominance over both Wilmington and Delaware at large, theRepublican State Committee of Delaware (GOP) did not run a candidate.[2]The News Journal's Anitra Johnson noted that, with the exception of a few competitive City Council seats, most candidates in Wilmington ran unopposed.[13] The election was held on November 5, 2024, since no other candidates ran in the general election, Carney won the election unopposed. With his victory he became the first sitting United States governor to be elected to a mayoral office.[14] After the results came in, Janyce Colmery, a member of the Delaware GOP told Chis Barrish ofWHYY-TV that result was expected and that "Wilmington’s a big problem because that’s never going to change. I mean, they just brought in Carney as their mayor. Are you kidding me?”[2]
On November 27, Carney announced he would be reappointing the incumbent chiefs of the fire and police departments.[16] Carney resigned from his position as Governor on January 7, 2025 to be sworn as mayor.[17][18]Bethany Hall-Long, the outgoingLieutenant Governor, was sworn in as Governor to finish to final two weeks of Carney's term, before being succeeded byMatt Meyer, the winner of the2024 Delaware gubernatorial election.[17]
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