This is one of four Senate seats currently occupied by an appointed member and one of two special elections on tap next year. It is the only one of the four, though, occupied by a placeholder, an appointee who made it known from the start that he had no intention of running in the special election to fill the remainder of the six-year term. But, while this is essentially an open seat, the race to fill it is in a holding pattern.
Democrat Joe Biden was elected to the seat in 1972 and held it until January when he resigned to take the oath of office as Vice President. That 1972 contest was Biden’s toughest race; he won with just 51 percent of the vote, but was re-elected with healthy margins. In fact, Biden was on the Delaware ballot twice in 2008: as part of the presidential ticket and as a Senate incumbent running for a seventh term. The Obama-Biden ticket took 62 percent of the vote while Sen. Biden was re-elected with 65 percent.
The placeholder is Democrat Ted
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