Array
Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) announced Monday that he will not seek re-election for a fifth term representing the First State — opening up a Senate seat that he has held for more than 20 years.
“If I ran for a fifth term in the Senate and won, it would be a record 15 statewide elections,” Carper, 76, bragged of his unblemished record during more than four decades in politics, starting in 1976.
But the former Navy officer — the only Vietnam veteran remaining in the Senate — said he decided to retire after “more than a few heart-to-heart conversations” with his wife, Martha.
Rather than “ride off into the sunset and call it a day,” he decided to “run through the tape over the next 20 months and finish the important work that my staff and I have begun on a wide range of fronts,” he said.
With his announcement, Carper becomes the fourth Democratic senator to forgo contesting their seat in 2024, following Ben Cardin of Maryland, Dianne Feinstein of California and Debbie Stabenow of Michigan.
