Delaware residents file lawsuit seeking second House seat

This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. End of dialog window. Two Delaware residents launched an attempt to add an additional House seat for the Diamond State in a Wednesday lawsuit against Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. The 21-page complaint was filed in the U. S. District Court for the District of Columbia by University of Delaware professor David Redlawsk and resident Kevin Price. Plaintiffs argue that the state’s one at-large House seat, currently occupied by Rep. Sarah McBride (D-Del.), is not enough for the state’s roughly 991,000 residents. The complaint names Lutnick because the Commerce Department oversees the Census, which is used to determine the number of House seats based on state population count. Commerce Deputy Undersecretary George Cook and House Clerk Kevin McCumber are also named in the lawsuit. Attorneys for Redlawsk and Price requested that a three-judge panel at the federal court declare the 435-seat limitation imposed under the Permanent Apportionment Act of 1929 unconstitutional in order to permit the body to grow to a total of 436 seats. “The 435-seat limitation imposes a severe and avoidable disparity on Delaware’s voters,” the lawsuit says. “A second Delaware seat would satisfy the Constitution’s requirements for whole seats, State boundaries, and at least one Representative for every State.” The Hill has reached out to the Commerce Department for comment. Delaware is one of five U. S. states with only one representative in the House, including Alaska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming. The lawsuit notes that “no state holds a smaller share of the House relative to its share of the Nation’s population.” The plaintiffs’ attorneys point to the fact that Montana, which has less than 100,000 more residents than Delaware, has two seats in the lower chamber of Congress. “Delaware’s allocation results from Congress’s retention of a House size fixed in 1911, when the Nation had less than one-third its present population,” the lawsuit says. “That retention lacks a sufficient justification.” Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.