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1976: When Republican Senator Mike Castle left the Senate district 1 seat open, McDowell won the 1976 Democratic primary and won the November 1976 general election with 5,806 votes (52.2%) against Republican nominee Kermit Justice.[3]
1980: McDowell won the 1980 Democratic primary and won the November 1980 general election with 6,354 votes (56.4%) against Republican nominee Sandra Kaufmann.[4]
1982: McDowell won the 1982 Democratic primary and won the three-way November 1982 general election with 7,239 votes (62.5%) against Republican nominee Richard Bugbee and Libertarian candidate Susan Bissell.[5]
1986: McDowell was unopposed for both the September 1986 Democratic primary and the November 1986 general election, winning with 5,946 votes.[6]
1990: McDowell won the 1992 Democratic primary and won the November 1990 general election with 5,467 votes (59.2%) against Republican nominee Paul Parets.[7]
1992: McDowell and Parets were both unopposed for their September 1992 primaries, setting up a rematch; McDowell won the November 1992 general election with 8,808 votes (63.5%) against Parets.[8]
1996: McDowell won the September 1996 Democratic primary with 2,368 votes (66.2%) against Thornton Carroll,[9] and won the November 1996 general election with 7,883 votes (61.6%) against Republican nominee Gary Linarducci.[10]
2000: McDowell was unopposed for the September 2000 Democratic primary and won the November 2000 general election with 8,970 votes (63.6%) against Republican nominee Lee Murphy.[11]
2002: McDowell won the September 2002 Democratic primary with 1,388 votes (63.7%),[12] again against his 1996 challenger Thornton Carroll. Lee Murphy was unopposed for his primary, setting up a rematch; McDowell won the November 2002 general election with 7,646 votes (64.1%) against Murphy.[13]
2006: McDowell won the four-way September 2006 Democratic primary with 1,477 votes (49.5%) against a field that included Charles Potter Jr. and Thornton Carroll, his challenger from 1996 and 2002.[14] McDowell won the three-way November 2006 general election with 8,300 votes (64.6%) against Republican nominee Gregory Chambers and Independent candidate Tyler Nixon.[15]
2010: McDowell was unopposed for both the September 2010 Democratic primary and the November 2010 general election, winning with 11,862 votes.[16]
2012: McDowell won the three-way September 2012 Democratic primary with 2,342 votes (52.2%) against former state representative David Brady and another challenger.[17] McDowell won the three-way November 2012 general election with 15,155 votes (85.3%) against Independent candidate Robert Clark and Libertarian candidate Brian Lintz.[18]
^"1996 Election Results"(PDF). Dover, Delaware: Delaware Commissioner of Elections. November 5, 1996. p. 26. Archived from the original(PDF) on May 12, 2013. Retrieved November 15, 2013.
^"1996 Election Results"(PDF). Dover, Delaware: Delaware Commissioner of Elections. November 5, 1996. p. 3. Archived from the original(PDF) on May 12, 2013. Retrieved November 15, 2013.
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