Delaware’s most prominent elected official, President Joe Biden, may have upended the presidential race in July when he dropped his bid for a second term, but it’s the impending departures of two other prominent Democratic officeholders, Gov. John Carney and U.S. Sen. Tom Carper, that are having ripple effects throughout the ballot in Tuesday’s state primaries.

Carney will leave statewide office next year after two terms as governor, two terms as lieutenant governor and three terms as the state’s lone representative to the U.S. House. His departure has set off contested primaries for both the Democratic and Republican nominations.

The Democratic candidates are Lt. Gov. Bethany Hall-Long, New Castle County Executive Matt Meyer and National Wildlife Federation CEO and former state Natural Resources Secretary Collin O’Mara. The Republican candidates are retired police officer Jerry Price, state House Minority Leader Michael Ramone and small business owner Bobby Williamson.

Hall-Long has Carney’s endorsement and is the only candidate in the race to have previously won statewide office. But the two-term lieutenant governor has had a difficult summer after a state-ordered forensic audit of her campaign finances revealed improprieties over an eight-year period.

Emails reviewed by the Associated Press also showed that members of the lieutenant governor’s staff engaged in campaign activity on her behalf during government work hours, which is prohibited by state law. Hall-Long has disputed the findings of the forensic audit, saying the issues identified in the report were the result of minor bookkeeping errors. Nonetheless, Meyer, her primary rival, has called for a federal investigation into the matter.

Carney is barred from running for a third term as governor but will still appear on some ballots in the state as a candidate for mayor of Wilmington, Delaware’s most populous city. His opponent in the Democratic primary is another former statewide officeholder, Velda Jones-Potter, who was appointed state treasurer in 2009 and served about two years before losing her bid for a full term.

Long-Hall is also term-limited as lieutenant governor, and four women have lined up to replace her. State Rep. Sherry Dorsey-Walker, state Sen. Kyle Evans-Gay and state party vice chair Debbie Harrington are running for the Democratic nomination. Former state Rep. Ruth Briggs King is unopposed for the Republican nomination.

Carper’s announcement in 2023 that he would not seek a fifth term created the state’s first open-seat U.S. Senate race since 2010, when U.S. Sen. Chris Coons was elected to the seat Biden had vacated to assume the vice presidency. Democratic U.S. Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester looks to replace Carper, as does Republican former Walmart executive Eric Hansen. Both are unopposed for their parties’ nominations and will not appear on Tuesday’s ballot.

With Blunt Rochester running to replace Carper in the U.S. Senate, both Democrats and Republicans will hold contested primaries to take over the seat she has held since 2017. Democratic state Sen. Sarah McBride is the best-known and best-funded candidate across both primary fields. She has the backing of Carper, Coons and Rochester, and had $1.7 million in the bank as of the end of June. Her only competitor from either party to disclose any funds raised was Republican Donyale Hall, who reported a campaign war chest of just shy of $7,500. If elected, McBride would become the first openly transgender member of Congress.

Although control of both the U.S. Senate and House may come down to just a small handful of competitive races, the seats in Delaware are expected to remain firmly in the Democratic column. Once a reliable bellwether in presidential races, Delaware has shifted heavily Democratic since the 1990s. Republicans have not won the governorship since 1988, a U.S. Senate seat since 1994 or the U.S. House seat since 2008.

About half of Delaware’s 21 state Senate seats and all 41 state House seats are up for election 2024, although only 12 districts will hold contested primaries on Tuesday. Democrats hold about two-to-one majorities in each chamber.

Here’s a look at what to expect on Tuesday:

Primary day

Delaware’s state primaries will be held Tuesday. Polls close at 8 p.m. ET.

What’s on the ballot

The Associated Press will provide vote results and declare winners in contested primaries for governor, lieutenant governor, U.S. House, state Senate, state House, insurance commissioner and mayor of Wilmington.

Who gets to vote

Delaware voters who are registered with a political party may only participate in that party’s primary. Democrats may not vote in the Republican primary or vice versa. Independent or unaffiliated voters may not participate in either primary.

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For the last 13 years, a simple metal sign on a telephone pole has marked the spot where a Delaware police officer was stabbed to death.

That sign, on a residential street in the Penn Acres neighborhood near New Castle, reads, “Never Forgotten. Always Remembered” in honor of New Castle County Police Lt. Joseph Sczerba. The plaque says Szczerba “gave his life to protect” residents of Delaware’s largest county.

Down the block, a county park is named for Sczerba, who was 44 when a man using “bath salts” drugs took his life. Szczerba had responded with other officers to a late-night report of a man who had broken into cars and stabbed one victim. He chased the suspect and caught him, but was killed while trying to take him into custody.

Over Labor Day weekend, someone defaced the sign with words that a police spokesman calls “very obscene.” With maroon spray paint, the vandal wrote “PIG” and “ASS” and crossed out the words on the sign with a large X.

Someone saw the vandalism and contacted police Monday. Detectives are investigating and trying to determine a motive.

While the crime appears to be misdemeanor criminal mischief, a relatively minor offense, the vandal’s act has infuriated police, especially since it occurred a couple of weeks before the 13th anniversary of Szczerba’s killing. His killer is serving a life sentence.

“It’s very unsettling,’’ said Sr. Cpl. Richard Chambers, the county police spokesman, singling out the words the vandal used.

“Not only are you doing something against us, but you’re also disparaging his family, as well. It’s very inappropriate what happened and very obscene, is what it was.”

SAO PAULO, Brazil − The Eagles held a press conference for Brazilian media members Thursday, featuring some of their key players like quarterback Jalen Hurts and running back Saquon Barkley.

But it was Eagles’ third-string quarterback Tanner McKee, who has never played a down in an NFL game, who stole the proverbial show.

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McKee was already well known in Brazil because he spent nearly two years in the South American country, from 2018-20, on a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ and Latter-Day Saints.

He became fluent in Portuguese during that time. And it made the media’s day when McKee took a question in Portuguese from a reporter, then answered in Portuguese, then translated it into English, even though the NFL had supplied a translator.

This is how the exchange went after the question came in:

McKee said to the crowd of about 50 media members: “You want me to do it in Portuguese?”

The translator said the question in English: “Basically, we wanted (to know what it’s like) to be back in Brazil again and be back here after years of living here.”

McKee responded: “So you want me to say it in Portuguese and you’ll translate it? I can translate for myself.”

After a long answer in Portuguese, McKee says in English: “It’s great to be back.”

Then there was a long pause for effect, followed by laughter, before McKee continued: “It’s pretty fun because I always try to keep up with my Portuguese. I try to say things on Whatsapp or Instagram with people that I’ve met and had friendships with down here.

“But it’s different (today) because we can actually talk to someone face to face. I have family that’s here. My wife’s here. My parents are here. And they’re going to Rio and places that I lived and served in … So it’s really fun to just kind of be back in the culture.”

McKee was asked another question in Portuguese about some players’ fears about crime in Brazil, which has been reported over the past week. And if McKee has talked to those players to allay their fears.

Again, McKee answered in Portuguese, then translated for himself: “I was just saying, a lot of guys haven’t been here before, so it’s a lot of things they don’t really know. So they’re asking me, ‘How’s the crime rate? How’s this?’ We have a lot of things that we do whenever we travel to any city: We’re going to have to be safe. We’re not going to walk out on the street, whether we’re in the United States or outside of the United States.

“It’s not necessarily specific to here. It’s just a) people don’t really know the culture, and b) it is a big city … The people are great. The (players) are excited for the game. There’s nothing to be scared of. It’s pretty cool.”

The Brazilian media also asked McKee a football question, about what the offense will look like under new coordinator Kellen Moore.

And here, McKee provided some clues for what the offense might look like Friday night.

“A lot of pre-snap motion, a lot of changing things on defense,” he said. “I think it is more quarterback friendly of just being able to go through progressions. I think with football, we have a lot of good players, and you don’t want to slow down by having to think too much.

“You just want to go out and play fast, and have a kind of clean edge and go out and play. I think that’s kind of what they’re giving us this year – go out and play football, let’s not over-complicate things … We’re going to run what we run. I’m just excited to see it, and I’m just as excited for you guys to see AJ (Brown) and (DeVonta Smith) and Jalen and Saquon go do their thing.”

Contact Martin Frank at mfrank@delawareonline. Follow on X @Mfranknfl, on Threads and Instagram @martinfrank1.