Michael Castle, former Delaware governor and congressman, dies at age 86

Niels Lesniewski, CQ-Roll Call on Aug 15, 2025

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WASHINGTON — Republican Michael N. Castle, a fixture in Delaware politics for a half-century who previously served as governor and a member of Congress, died Thursday at age 86.

“During his time as governor, Mike Castle visited every single school in our state, including mine, where he spoke to my high school class with the same warmth, humility, and commitment to public service that defined his career,” Delaware Gov. Matt Meyer, a Democrat, said in a statement directing that flags be lowered to honor Castle. “That moment, among others, demonstrated what a good man he was and how deeply he cared about Delaware’s future.”

Castle served as governor for two terms before being elected to the House in 1992, where he went on to serve nine terms. In 2010, he entered the Republican primary for a special Senate election to fill the remainder of Joe Biden’s term after Biden became vice president. But amid the anti-establishment “tea party” fervor in the Republican Party at the time, the moderate Castle lost the primary to Christine O’Donnell, who proved to be an unsuccessful general election candidate, with a campaign ad proclaiming that she was “not a witch.” Democratic Sen. Chris Coons won the general election and continues to hold the seat.

“Over the arc of the more than 40 years that I knew him — I met him when I was 16 — he repeatedly provided his knowledge and expertise to help me along my own way,” Coons said in a statement. “When he was a congressman and I was county executive, we worked together often, including some important investments into the C&D Canal greenway. When we eventually ran against each other, I did my absolute best to run a respectful, positive, policy-based campaign.”

In Congress, Castle was a senior Republican on what’s currently known as the Education and the Workforce Committee. He was a lead sponsor of the 2001 education law known as “No Child Left Behind,” initiated by President George W. Bush to tie federal education aid to improvements in student test scores.

Also a senior member of the Financial Services Committee, Castle long fought for his home state’s banking industry. He also promoted the creation of new, collectible U.S. coins. He was the lead House sponsor of a 2005 law that authorized the minting of a series of $1 coins bearing the likenesses of all the U.S. presidents, and he was a leading champion of initiatives like the 50-state quarters program.

The 6-foot-4-inch Castle was a basketball star in high school. He graduated from Hamilton College in upstate New York in 1961 and went to Georgetown University Law School, “sort of because I didn’t know what I was doing,” he said at a Hamilton College commencement address in 2004.

In private practice, he worked for a former Delaware attorney general who encouraged him to take the part-time position of deputy attorney general, a post he assumed at age 26. In 1966, he ran for the state House in a Democratic-leaning district. He won and later ousted an incumbent state senator. After 10 years in the General Assembly, he won election as lieutenant governor for one term and governor for two terms.

“There’s one word that comes to mind when I think of Mike Castle: dignity,” former President Joe Biden posted Thursday on X. “Riding the train back and forth together to Washington for nearly two decades, I got to know Mike as a thoughtful and kind man — a colleague who became a true friend.”

Speaking at his undergraduate alma mater’s commencement ceremony in 2004, Castle looked to the future — and some of his prognostications have already come true.

“Broadband will take us places we cannot even imagine,” Castle said. “Will we have in-person meetings or will telecommuting become the norm? Instead of a 20-hour plane ride to Tokyo, we will see planes that ‘skip’ in and out of the atmosphere.”