DELAWARE - Two Delaware voters have filed a federal lawsuit seeking a second seat for the state in the U.S. House of Representatives, arguing the longstanding 435-member limit leaves Delawareans with less representation per person than voters anywhere else in the country.
Plaintiffs David Redlawsk and Kevin Price filed the complaint Nov. 11 in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The lawsuit names Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Census Bureau official George Cook, and House Clerk Kevin McCumber in their official capacities.
According to the suit, the plaintiffs are asking the court to declare the House’s 435-seat limit unconstitutional in light of the 2020 census and give Congress a deadline to address Delaware’s representation.
If Congress does not act, they ask the court to expand the House to 436 members and award the additional seat to Delaware, leaving every other state’s allocation unchanged.
The complaint specifically points to a comparison with Montana. Under the 2020 census figures used to allocate House seats, Delaware had 990,837 people and one representative, according to the suit. The census estimated Montana, with two representatives, had about 95,000 more people with a total population of 1,085,407.
The plaintiffs argue that arrangement gives Delaware voters barely more than half the representation per person that Montana voters receive.
According to more recent Census Bureau data, estimates put Delaware’s population at 1,059,952 as of July 1, 2025, compared with Montana’s 1,144,694. That leaves an even smaller population difference of 84,742, while Montana has twice as many House seats.
Between April of 2020 and July of 2025, the census estimates Delaware’s population grew by just over 7% while Montana’s grew by 5.6%.
The lawsuit traces the dispute to Congress’s decision to establish a 435-seat House more than a century ago. A law enacted in 1929 created an automatic process for redistributing the existing seats after each census.
The plaintiffs argue that keeping the House at that size despite population growth violates constitutional protections for equal representation and the requirement that seats be distributed among states according to population.
They also argue the disparity affects more than elections, leaving Delaware’s single representative responsible for constituent services and oversight on behalf of nearly one million people under the census figures used in the complaint.
Five other states are allocated one U.S. House representative, with none of them having yet surpassed a population of one million like Delaware, according to census data. Including their 2025 US Census Bureau population estimates, they are as follows:
-Alaska: 737,270
-North Dakota: 799,358
-South Dakota: 935,094
-Vermont: 644,663
-Wyoming: 588,753
The lawsuit seeks expedited consideration before a three-judge panel, with the goal of securing an additional seat for the 2028 election, or a later election that the court determines can accommodate the change.
Should Delaware receive a second seat, the state would need to establish two congressional districts, each electing one representative, according to the complaint.
Delaware’s sole U.S. Representative is Congresswoman Sarah McBride, who recently won reelection over Republican challenger Joe Arminio. WBOC has reached out to McBride’s office for comment on this lawsuit and will update this article.
