Why Should Delaware Care?
A Kent County Republican primary generated relatively little attention in the lead up to the election, but ended up being the tightest primary race by far on Tuesday — and among the closest elections in recent Delaware history. The district, which has one of the closest registration splits between Democrats and Republicans anywhere in the state could be a seat to watch in November.
Following a Wednesday recount, Morgan Hudson was declared the winner of the Republican nomination for House District 33 in the Milford area.
The two-person race in a rural Kent County representative district became by far the tightest race in Tuesday’s primary election, when just seven votes separated Hudson and opponent Matt Bucher. That margin represented 0.35% of the total votes cast in the district primary, which prompted a recount by Department of Elections officials under state law.
Kent County election officials confirmed Wednesday evening that Hudson, a Milford native who works for her family business, won with a total of 1,017 votes over Bucher’s 1,010.
The vote difference was among the closest races in recent Delaware history, a spokesperson for the State Department of Elections said.
Neither Hudson nor Bucher has previously held statewide office. The pair were vying to replace Rep. Charles Postles, who is retiring after having represented the district that covers Magnolia, Frederica and north Milford for the past decade.
Bucher, a former member of the Milford School Board of Education and the former 33rd District Republican Party chair, ran a visible campaign heading into the Sept. 15 primary.
Meanwhile, Hudson largely kept a lower profile throughout the primary campaign, declining media interviews and relying less heavily on social media posts to get her message out.
Hudson told Spotlight Delaware on Thursday morning she attributes her narrow win to the time she spent door-knocking and intently listening to voters’ concerns about the district.
“People are struggling and they’re hurting right now and they want somebody to listen to them,” she said. “People are tired of empty promises. At the doors, that’s what I just kept hearing over and over again.”
Bucher declined to speak by phone with Spotlight Delaware about the primary results, instead referring to a written statement he put out on Wednesday evening.
In the statement, Bucher wrote that he is familiar with the vote tabulation process from his time as a GOP district chair, and can confirm that “the likelihood of a different result in this particular election is a statistical zero.”
“What we need right now is clarity,” he wrote. “I call on you all to unite, and pray for the success, and to grant wisdom and strength of will, to my former opponent, and 33rd District GOP nominee Morgan Hudson.”
Tightest election margin in years
Delaware law necessitates a ballot recount when the percentage difference in votes received by the top two candidates is less than 0.5% of the total votes cast. In this case, the seven-vote difference between Hudson and Bucher amounted to 0.35% of the total votes.
The Kent County Department of Elections completed the vote recount Wednesday evening, and confirmed the same vote count originally reported on election night.
The close margin between Hudson and Bucher was relatively consistent across machine votes on election day, absentee votes and ballots cast during early voting.
A Department of Elections spokesperson told Spotlight Delaware the state has not had to do a recount in any primary or general election in recent years.
The last recount mandated by the state law took place in a Newark-area district in the 2022 general election, when then-Rep. Mike Ramone edged out challenger Frank Burns by 35 votes. Burns later won the seat in 2024.
In another tight central Delaware Republican primary in 2024, Rep. Bryan Shupe (R-Milford) and Patrick Smith for House District 36 resulted in just a 12-vote victory for Shupe.
The margin was 0.52% of the total votes cast, so it did not trigger a state-mandated recount. Both Shupe and Smith requested a recount at the time, but the Department of Elections did not grant the request.
Turnout in Tuesday’s District 33 Republican primary accounted for 31.4% of registered Republicans in the district, which was substantially higher than the 21.75% primary voter turnout recorded statewide.
Still, Hudson said she had hoped for a higher voter turnout, and she plans to push for more district residents to get to the ballot box in the November election, where she will now face Democrat Joshua Pennington.
“Trying to get people to come out and vote is going to be our biggest hurdle this time around for the general [election],” she said.
Primary dynamics
Campaign priorities and funding differences provide some insights as to why Hudson’s platform narrowly resonated with more voters than Bucher.
Despite Hudson’s lower profile campaign, she raised $15,000 throughout her 10-month primary campaign, which was among the highest sums in a Republican primary this year.
Hudson’s donations mostly came from individual donors, though she did receive notable maximum individual contributions from the First State First PAC, a fundraising committee run by former Republican state lawmaker Greg Lavelle, and a couple of Milford-area developers.
Hudson previously sought the same seat in 2016, and was decisively defeated by Postles in the Republican primary.
Bucher raised $11,825, including donations from some Republican elected officials, such as House Minority Leader Tim Dukes (R-Laurel) and retiring State Rep. Kevin Hensley (R- Odessa).
Neither candidate received outside spending from third-party advertisers.
In a pre-primary election interview with Spotlight Delaware, Bucher said his election platform was focused on retaining local control and containing development.
Hudson said on Thursday she has primarily heard concerns from voters about high electric bills and other cost-of-living challenges, which will remain her campaign focuses heading into the November election.
As of Sept. 1, the 33rd District had 19,949 registered voters, 6,444 or 32% of whom are registered Republicans, and 6,100 or 30.6% are registered Democrats.
The number of registered Republican voters in the district has climbed slowly since 2018, when the district had a Democratic majority, but it is still among the closest partisan margins of representative districts in the state.
