County executive Matt Meyer wins Democratic nomination for Delaware governor

DOVER, Del. (AP) — Matt Meyer, the chief executive of Delaware’s most populous county, has won the Democratic primary for governor, taking advantage of a campaign finance scandal involving his main rival.

Meyer defeated Lt. Gov. Bethany Hall-Long and former state Environmental Secretary Collin O’Mara in Tuesday’s election. Meyer led all candidates in fundraising, but his campaign also was helped by a scandal involving Hall-Long.

Meyer will likely be considered the favorite in a November general election contest to succeed Gov. John Carney, given Democrats’ advantage in voter registration numbers.

Hall-Long has held public office since winning a state House seat in 2002, but she has been enmeshed in a campaign scandal that led several top staffers to resign and prompted election officials to commission a forensic audit.

The audit found that, during seven years as his wife’s campaign treasurer, Dana Long wrote 112 checks to himself or cash. The checks totaled just under $300,000 and should have been reported as campaign expenditures. Instead, 109 were not disclosed in finance reports, and the other four, payable to Dana Long, were reported as being written to someone else. Hall-Long has said the checks reflect repayment of loans that she made to her campaign but did not report.

Meyer will face the winner of the GOP primary, a three-way race between Jerrold A. Price, a retired New York police officer, businessman and state Rep. Mike Ramone, and businessman Bobby Williamson.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

DOVER, Del. (AP) — Delaware in November could elect the first openly transgender member of Congress and the state’s first Black U.S. senator.

On Tuesday, voters in the Blue Hen State were deciding their fall nominees in several political contests .

State Sen. Sarah McBride won the Democratic primary for Delaware’s lone seat in the U.S. House of Representatives and now has the chance to make history as the first openly transgender person elected to Congress.

McBride won Tuesday’s primary over businessmen Earl Cooper and Elias Weir, neither of whom reported raising any money for their campaigns. Cooper is a political newcomer, while Weir finished dead last in a 2016 congressional primary with less than 1% of the vote.

McBride, meanwhile, raised almost $3 million in contributions from around the country. McBride achieved national recognition at the 2016 Democratic National Convention as the first openly transgender person to address a major party convention in the United States.

McBride will go up against either Donyale Hall, a Dover businesswoman and a Gulf War-era veteran of the U.S. Air Force, or James Whalen IIII, a retired state police officer and construction company owner from Millsboro, who are facing off in the GOP primary. Democrats have held the seat since 2010.

The House seat is being vacated by Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester, who has no primary opponent as she seeks the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Democratic Sen. Tom Carper, who held the seat since 2001. With a victory in November Blunt Rochester would be the state’s first Black U.S. senator.

Here’s a closer look at other key races:

Democratic gubernatorial primary

Lt. Gov. Bethany Hall-Long, who has held public office since winning a state House seat in 2002, is hoping to overcome a campaign finance scandal and succeed Carney, who can't run for governor again due to term limits. Hall-Long has been endorsed by Carney and Delaware’s Democrat Party establishment.

But the two-term lieutenant governor is facing a tough primary challenge from New Castle County Executive Matt Meyer, who has raised substantially more money and has repeatedly drawn attention to Hall-Long's campaign finance violations. Former state Environmental Secretary Collin O’Mara also is seeking the Democratic nomination, but has been overshadowed by the other two candidates.

Hall-Long’s campaign finance scandal surfaced last September, when she abruptly postponed a campaign event with Carney, saying she needed to attend to “a personal, private matter.”

In reality, her campaign was in disarray after people hired to lead it discovered major discrepancies while reviewing years of finance reports. The scandal led to a series of resignations among top campaign staff and prompted election officials to commission a forensic audit. The audit found that Hall-Long and her husband had received payments totaling $33,000 more than what she purportedly loaned to her campaign over several years — with many of the loans never being reported in the first instance.

It also found that Hall-Long’s husband and former campaign treasurer, Dana Long, wrote 112 checks to himself or to cash. The checks totaled just under $300,000 and should have been reported as expenditures. Instead, 109 were never reported in initial finance reports, and the other four, payable to Dana Long, were reported as being made to someone else.

Despite the violations, Delaware’s attorney general and elections commissioner, both fellow Democrats, declined to seek criminal charges against Hall-Long.

Democratic primary for Wilmington mayor

Carney is prohibited by law from seeking a third term as governor, but he wants to remain in public office as a chief executive and is seeking the Democratic nomination for mayor of Wilmington, Delaware’s largest city.

His opponent is Velda Jones-Potter, a former Wilmington city treasurer who lost a bid for mayor four years ago. Potter served a two-year stint as Delaware’s state treasurer after being appointed to that post in 2008, but she lost an election for a four-year term as treasurer in 2010.

The winner of Tuesday’s primary will face no opposition in November. Carney has said as mayor he would build on the investments his gubernatorial administration has made in Wilmington, with a focus on improving public schools, expanding affordable housing and helping small businesses.