Why Should Delaware Care?
Voters are heading to the polls now for early voting ahead of a consequential election. But one local race in Wilmington will no longer be decided in the primary after one of the two candidates withdrew from the election following a state investigation.
Branden Fletcher-Dominguez, one of two Democrats vying to represent Wilmington’s West Side in the Delaware legislature, withdrew from his race Friday after state investigators probed whether he truly lived in the district he sought to serve.
While the withdrawal comes too late to remove his name from the ballot, elections officials said his decision means his primary opponent, Josue Ortega, will automatically advance to the general election, where he will run unopposed.
“Although the office appears on the primary election ballot, any votes cast for either candidate will not be tallied, canvassed, or reported,” said Department of Elections spokeswoman Cathleen Carter.
Carter cited “candidate residency issues” as the reason Fletcher-Dominguez withdrew from the race.
State law requires elected officials to live in the district they represent. As a result, public scrutiny of candidates’ true residencies is often intense prior to an election. Such scrutiny ultimately led to the resignation of Rep. Melanie George Smith, D-Bear, from the Delaware General Assembly in 2018.
When filing as a candidate earlier this year, Fletcher-Dominguez listed as his address an apartment on Washington Street in Wilmington. But, Eric Ames, the owner of that building, said the progressive Democrat hasn’t lived there since he was evicted in early 2022.
Court records confirm that a judge levied a default judgment against Fletcher-Dominguez in a 2022 landlord/tenant dispute with Ames’ management company.
Ames further said that an investigator from the Delaware Attorney General’s office recently stopped by his Washington Street apartment along with two Wilmington police officers to question whether Fletcher-Dominguez lived at the residence he had reported.
“From what I gather, the issue is the fact that he indicated that he lived as the address, lived in the same district that he’s running for state representative, and he doesn’t live in the district,” Ames said.
A spokeswoman for the Attorney General said the office has been helping the Department of Elections by investigating a complaint regarding Fletcher-Dominguez residency.
Branden Fletcher-Dominguez withdrew from his race after state investigators probed whether he truly lived in the district he sought to serve.
Fletcher-Dominguez declined to comment for this story.
In a message posted on his campaign Facebook page Thursday, he said he dropped out of the race after the the Department of Elections sought documents from him that he could provide. He did not divulge details about those documents.
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