---
type: "Bill"
title: "AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 15 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO CHANGING CANDIDACY TO A DIFFERENT OFFICE."
description: "This Act eliminates the ability of a candidate to change their candidacy to become a candidate for a different office after the deadline for notification of candidacy has passed."
jurisdiction: "us/states/de"
legislature: "Delaware General Assembly"
session: "151"
identifier: "HB 29"
citation: "Delaware HB 29 (151)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Bryan Townsend", "David L. Wilson", "Michael F. Smith", "Paul S. Baumbach"]
version_count: 1
action_count: 7
vote_count: 2
first_action: "2020-12-11"
last_action: "2021-09-15"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/ee8b8862-a0f1-4d6d-a29e-e3f1498164e2"
source_url: "https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=48212"
source_hash: "deb0163dc178a7d2509fd175d8b1c4699d1dcae9815c60d7d571c9e64be92dbe"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-de"]
---

# Delaware HB 29 (151) — AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 15 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO CHANGING CANDIDACY TO A DIFFERENT OFFICE.

This Act eliminates the ability of a candidate to change their candidacy to become a candidate for a different office after the deadline for notification of candidacy has passed.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **Bill Text** (committee substitute) — [source](https://legis.delaware.gov/json/BillDetail/GenerateHtmlDocument?legislationId=48212&legislationTypeId=1&docTypeId=2&legislationName=HB29)

## Votes

- SM — **20–0** (pass) · upper
- SM — **40–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Bryan Townsend — primary (person)
- David L. Wilson — primary (person)
- Michael F. Smith — primary (person)
- Paul S. Baumbach — primary (person)
- Brian Pettyjohn — cosponsor (person)
- Edward S. Osienski — cosponsor (person)
- Eric Morrison — cosponsor (person)
- Gerald L. Brady — cosponsor (person)
- Ronald E. Gray — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2020-12-11** Introduced and Assigned to Administration Committee in House `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2021-01-13** Reported Out of Committee (Administration) in House with 4 Favorable `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2021-04-22** Passed By House. Votes: 40 YES 1 ABSENT `passage`
- **2021-04-22** Assigned to Elections & Government Affairs Committee in Senate `introduction, referral-committee`
- **2021-05-13** Reported Out of Committee (Elections & Government Affairs) in Senate with 4 On Its Merits, 1 Unfavorable `committee-passage, committee-passage-unfavorable`
- **2021-06-23** Passed By Senate. Votes: 20 YES 1 NOT VOTING `passage`
- **2021-09-15** Signed by Governor `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/ee8b8862-a0f1-4d6d-a29e-e3f1498164e2`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Delaware legislature records).