October 7, 2026

We have been notified today by John Atkins that he will not participate in the RD41 Forum. As a nonpartisan organization,  by law the League cannot hold a forum with only one candidate in attendance. Therefore, the October 15, 2026 RD41 Candidate Forum is cancelled. Further information is below.

On October 3rd, the League had notified both Mr. Ryan Stuckey and Mr. John Atkins that the announcement below would be read at the 10/15 RD41 Forum:

“There have been concerns raised regarding the lack of online question submission for this particular League of Women Voters of Sussex County forum. When agreeing to participate in the Forum in June, Mr. Atkins wrote on the media agreement form the condition that ‘All questions submitted by way of the index cards and no online submissions permitted.’ The League noted his response and subsequently did not provide any way to submit questions online for the RD41 forum. Mr. Stuckey was not apprised of this request at that time.

When the public learned that there would not be any submission of online questions for this forum, they noted that this was inconsistent with the League policy applied to all other forums and candidates during this election season. Despite our best efforts and communication with the candidates, these circumstances unfortunately resulted in our being unable to facilitate the public’s submission of online questions for this forum.. We apologize for any misunderstanding. …In future, the League anticipates including online questions for all forums.”

While we still believe that the best result under these circumstances would have been to host the RD41 forum so that the public could learn from and hear from both candidates in order to make an informed decision at the polls, the forum cannot be held with only one candidate and so the forum is cancelled.

--Tiffany Lydon, League of Women Voters of Delaware President