Sen. Tom Carper to Retire, Vacating Solidly Democratic Delaware Seat.

Senator Tom Carper, a veteran Democrat from Delaware, announced that he would not seek re-election next year, opening up a seat in a deep-blue state that he said he hoped would go to his handpicked successor, Representative Lisa Blunt Rochester. Mr. Carper, 76, is in his fourth term in the Senate and is the last surviving Vietnam veteran to serve there. He has held public office since the 1970s, first as Delaware’s treasurer, then for a decade as a congressman, then as governor and, since 2001, as a senator.