Delaware can be an easy state to hate on.
Frequently, I-95 drivers complain about paying tolls to drive 14 or 15 miles through the First State, from the Maryland state line to Pennsylvania or New Jersey.
And left-wing business skeptics have long lashed Delaware as a haven of corporate chicanery and greed for its generous tax shelters. After all, about 50% of publicly-traded companies in the United States, and more than 60% of Fortune 500 companies are incorporated in Delaware.
Many simply know Delaware as the address to which they send credit card payments each month, a reflection of its longtime home to the industry known for charging high interest rates and exorbitant fees.
In 2002, the New Republic Jonathan Chait blasted the nation’s second-smallest state over these and other transgressions in “Rogue State: The Case Against Delaware.”
But during the Democratic National Convention this week, Delaware will get more positive attention. Favorite son Joe Biden, President Barack Obama’s two-term vice president and previously a 36-year Delaware senator, on Thursday night will accept his party’s nomination — a prize he’s been seeking on-and-off for 33 years over three White House runs.
Biden will deliver his acceptance speech from the Chase Center in Wilmington. His running mate, California Sen. Kamala Harris, will also address the virtual Democratic convention from Delaware.
And on Tuesday night, Delaware’s lone House member, Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester, will address the virtual Democratic convention. Rochester, elected in 2016 and the first black person or woman to represent Delaware in Congress, was part of a four-person committee that vetted vice-presidential prospects for Biden before he ultimately settled on Harris.
Delaware usually has a low profile in presidential politics. Back in the 1988 cycle, former Gov. Pete du Pont sought the Republican nomination but dropped out after a poor showing in the New Hampshire primary. That was months after Biden, in his first presidential bid, withdrew from the Democratic primary race over plagiarism charges.
Before that, it had been more than a century since Delaware was a factor in presidential politics. In 1884, Sen. Thomas F. Bayard, a Democrat, made the last of his three attempts to win the White House.
Though Bayard lost the Democratic nomination, the race still worked out well for him. The eventual winner, Democratic President Grover Cleveland, in 1885 appointed Bayard secretary of state, an office he held for four years.
