Delaware

Delaware has a plural executive of statewide elected officials: the Governor, the Lieutenant Governor, the Attorney General, the State Treasurer, the State Auditor, and the Insurance Commissioner. The Governor and Lieutenant Governor are elected separately rather than as a ticket, so the two can come from different parties, and the Lieutenant Governor presides over the State Senate. Delaware has no elected secretary of state — that office is appointed by the Governor and, fittingly for the corporate capital, oversees the Division of Corporations that registers the state’s vast roster of companies.

With several officers elected independently, the Governor leads the executive branch but shares authority with colleagues who answer to voters. The Governor appoints the heads of the executive departments not separately elected.

The Delaware General Assembly is bicameral and small: a 21-seat State Senate (four-year terms) and a 41-seat House of Representatives (two-year terms), with no term limits — fitting for the second-smallest state by area and one of the smallest by population. It is a hybrid legislature — sitting between full-time and part-time bodies, where members do substantial legislative work but most also hold outside jobs — with a salary of $51,692 a year (no session per diem) plus expenses.

The General Assembly convenes each January and, by the constitution, must adjourn by June 30, so its work is built around a roughly six-month annual calendar. A notable share of that work involves keeping Delaware’s General Corporation Law — the body of statute that governs how the nation’s companies are run — current and competitive, since corporate franchise fees and taxes are a major source of state revenue.

A bill is introduced, referred to committee, and — if it advances — voted on the floor of each chamber, with differences reconciled before final passage. The Governor can sign a bill, veto it, or let it become law, and holds a line-item veto over appropriations; a veto override takes three-fifths of each chamber.

Delaware is unique in how it changes its constitution. It is the only state where amendments do not go to the voters at all: the General Assembly can amend the state constitution on its own, by passing the change with a two-thirds vote in two consecutive sessions of the legislature, with an election in between. There is no statewide citizen initiative or referendum either, so in Delaware lawmaking — including fundamental constitutional change — runs entirely through elected representatives rather than the ballot box.

The Governor appoints the heads of the non-elected agencies (including the powerful Secretary of State), proposes the budget, can call special sessions, holds emergency powers, and wields a line-item veto. On clemency, the Governor cannot act alone: a pardon or commutation requires a favorable recommendation from the Board of Pardons — chaired by the Lieutenant Governor — before the Governor may grant it.

The main internal checks are the independently elected Attorney General, Treasurer, Auditor, and Insurance Commissioner, and the three-fifths legislative override. Much of what makes Delaware nationally consequential, though, happens in its courts rather than the governor’s office.

Delaware’s judiciary is the source of its outsized national influence. The Court of Chancery — a rare surviving court of equity, sitting without juries — hears corporate and business disputes and has become the most important business court in the country: because so many companies are incorporated in Delaware, its decisions effectively set the ground rules of American corporate law, and the Delaware Supreme Court above it is the final word on those questions. Delaware’s judges are appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the Senate, not elected, and the state uniquely requires partisan balance on its major courts, so neither party can dominate the bench. The Supreme Court sits at the top, with the Court of Chancery and the Superior Court below.