Mike Castle To Run For Senate, According To Politico

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday October 06, 2009 · 7:46 AM PDT

2009/10/06 · 07:46

Delaware Representative Mike Castle will announce a Senate run today according to Politico. Castle has called a press conference for noon today to make his announcement.

Rep. Mike Castle (R-Del.) will be running for Vice President Joe Biden’s old Senate seat in Delaware, according to a source connected to the congressman, instantly giving Republicans the opportunity to flip a traditionally-Democratic seat in their column.

Castle will be making a formal announcement at noon in his hometown of Wilmington. Castle had been debating whether to run for higher office, or retire after serving nine terms in the House.

Castle has let several deadlines pass without making an announcement. Castle's likely opponent is Vice President Joe Biden's son Beau Biden, who just returned from serving in Iraq and is Delaware's Attorney General. This will make the race automatically top tier. This also means it clears the main obstacle for former Lt. Governor John Carney to win Castle's House seat. Delaware has absolutely no bench of Republicans. Castle is the only Republican who won statewide last year. The others got crushed.

Rasmussen recently polled the Senate race with Biden, and Castle had a small lead, 47%-42%, which is pretty small for a multi-year incumbent like Castle. Castle has not faced a real race in many years, winning against no-name, underfunded candidates. I'm actually quite surprised Castle is running considering his age (70) and the relatively poor polling numbers. This will be a real race, though.

Update: Confirmed, Castle is running for Senate.

This content was created by a Daily Kos Community member.

Make YOUR voice heard!

Comments are closed on this story.