U.S. Senator Tom Carper Endorses Congresswoman Lisa Blunt Rochester for U.S. Senate

U.S. Senator Tom Carper (D-Del.) released the following statement after Congresswoman Lisa Blunt Rochester announced her 2024 campaign for Delaware’s United States Senate seat. This endorsement comes after Senator Carper announced that he is not running for re-election following the end of his term in 2024. 

“Lisa Blunt Rochester will make an excellent U.S. Senator for the people of Delaware! Almost three decades have passed since Lisa, then a University of Delaware graduate student, joined a congressional townhall meeting that I was hosting in Wilmington, Delaware. With an infant son in her lap and daughter on the way, she lit up the room and joined in a vibrant conversation that touched on many issues of the day. I was impressed! 

“When that townhall meeting concluded, she stayed on to share with me her heartfelt interest in public service and in making a difference with her life. Several weeks later, she became an intern in my Wilmington office and, later that year, a valuable member of our constituent services team after completing her graduate studies. 

“With my election as governor in 1992, I asked Lisa to ride point in the Governor’s office on what would become a centerpiece of my Administration: strengthening families. It was a passion that she shared and would help us pursue first as Deputy Secretary of Health and Social Services and, later, as Secretary of Labor. 

“Throughout those years, I would encourage Lisa to consider running for elected office and to begin by running for Mayor of Wilmington where her family was well-known and admired. She demurred. 

“And after serving in the cabinet of my successor, Governor Ruth Ann Minner, Lisa and her husband relocated to Asia and, then, eventually to New England before returning to Delaware where we met over breakfast to talk about her future. 

“Over time, she warmed to the idea of seeking elected office in the First State – but not as Mayor of Wilmington. Instead, she set her sights on running for Delaware’s At-Large seat in the United States House of Representatives and declared her candidacy in a highly contested race that she won handedly. And she has been winning ever since.

“Today, Lisa serves on three subcommittees of the highly sought-after House Energy and Commerce Committee. She is admired by Democrats and Republicans alike for her boundless energy and her ability to build bipartisan coalitions and get things done on issues as diverse as climate change, health care, and workforce development.

“Lisa is a person of deep faith and she is guided by that faith in all that she does. She is the embodiment of the Golden Rule – to treat others as we would want to be treated. She can be tough when she needs to be, but she is one of the most caring people I have ever known and worked with. 

“She believes that there is dignity in work, and, as she believes in the ancient proverb: ‘If you give a person a fish, you feed them for a day. But if you teach a person to fish, you feed them and their family for a lifetime.’ Serving the people of Delaware alongside Lisa has been one of the great joys of my life. She is just the kind of leader that we’ll need in the U.S. Senate in the days ahead, and she will make us proud. Indeed, she already has!”