U.S. Senate candidate William McVay is suing Delaware’s election commissioner after the Department of Elections rejected nomination certificates he submitted on behalf of candidates with the Conservative Party of Delaware, with McVay arguing he is the party’s rightful representative.
McVay filed the complaint against State Election Commissioner Anthony Albence on August 18 in Delaware Superior Court. In a statement introducing the complaint, he said he would be representing himself and that his filing and service costs for the challenge were covered by contributions from Jon Roe, a candidate for attorney general this year, and the Libertarian Defense Fund PAC. Notably, McVay previously worked with the latter group to assist state Libertarian parties following the rise of the Mises Caucus at the 2022 Libertarian National Convention.
In a copy of the complaint shared with Independent Political Report, McVay wants the court to recognize his authority to represent the Conservative Party of Delaware and require Albence to accept nomination certificates he submitted earlier in the year naming himself for U.S. Senate and Roe for attorney general.
“This is not about my own ballot access,” McVay said. “The question is whether a political organization in Delaware actually has the right to determine who represents it, or whether the State can decide that someone else controls it without telling the organization, without identifying a lawful mechanism for transferring that authority, and without giving the existing representative an opportunity to contest it.”
McVay says he first established a Conservative Party political committee and certified the party name with Delaware election officials in 2022 in order to provide a ballot line for “candidates who wanted to identify as conservative without being part of the Republican Party.” He continued as its representative through the 2024 election cycle, when the Department accepted nominations submitted by McVay for Roe in the 2nd State Senate District and the presidential ticket of Vermin Supreme and Jonathan Realz.
However, in the year that followed, McVay said the state reassigned control of the party’s campaign finance account without his authorization or prior notice. The Department briefly restored his access at the beginning of this year so he could complete the party’s annual report. McVay then filed the updated organizational paperwork and submitted a nomination certificate naming himself for U.S. Senate, but Albence rejected the submissions in February on the grounds that McVay was still registered with the Nonpartisan Party, a different recognized minor party in the state, rather than the Conservative Party.
McVay changed his voter registration to Conservative the day after the rejection, blaming the discrepancy on an incomplete filing associated with paperwork from 2024. He later organized another Conservative Party nominating convention in Dover on July 1 and attempted later that month to submit new certificates naming himself and Roe for office, but the Department refused those filings as well.
Months before McVay held that second convention, a Conservative Party state committee led by James Sloven voted to formally affiliate with the American Solidarity Party, executing an agreement with the national organization on February 27. The American Solidarity Party in turn formally recognized the Delaware organization as an affiliate in the days that followed, making it the party’s 21st state chapter at the time.
Communications included as evidence with McVay’s complaint show that Albence justified the July rejection by pointing to Sloven, whom the Department recognized as the Conservative Party’s leader, as well as records of party meetings and gatherings at which members reached a consensus and took action. In contrast, he said McVay had not provided comparable evidence showing that his continued authority reflected similar action by party members.
McVay reads state law differently, countering that Delaware requires minor party candidates to be registered with the party they represent but does not impose the same requirement on the officers running their nominating conventions. He also points to a process in state law for resolving competing claims between party factions. McVay argues that process was never triggered in this case and that, without it, the Department had no authority to independently recognize a different group as controlling the party.
“The [Conservative Party’s] governing structure did not create automatic membership based on voter registration, an organizing convention, or a mechanism allowing outside members to replace its governing authority,” McVay explained in the statement. “This structure was deliberately created to ensure neutrality and fiduciary representation for the nearly 900 registered conservatives and the candidates seeking ballot access in the state while they remain ineligible for the filing fee-gated, taxpayer-funded, and state-operated primaries hosted on behalf of the major parties.”
The complaint also raises a similar question involving the Nonpartisan Party. McVay says that, with the cooperation of its previous leadership, he took over the existing committee associated with the party in 2022, renamed it Non-Partisan Delaware, and filed updated paperwork with the state. He attempted in July to likewise nominate Roe for attorney general on its ballot line; however, Albence rejected that filing as well, maintaining that McVay could not act on behalf of the Nonpartisan Party while he was registered Conservative.
McVay is asking the court to order Albence to accept the contested nominations submitted for both the Conservative Party and Non-Partisan Delaware and restore his access to the Conservative Party’s campaign finance account. He has also asked the court to move quickly because of approaching ballot access and write-in deadlines.
“Minor parties should not have to guess whether the ballot access they built yesterday will still belong to them tomorrow,” McVay said. “If there is a lawful way to transfer control of a political party, the State should be able to explain what that process is. If there isn’t, a person shouldn’t be able to acquire control simply by claiming that a convention happened.”
With thanks to Austin Cassidy for the news tip.
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