Chris Coons

Coons was born in Greenwich, Connecticut, in 1963 and grew up in Hockessin, Delaware.⁠[1][2]

He earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and political science from Amherst College in 1985, spending a semester at the University of Nairobi in Kenya during college. After college he returned to Africa to work with the South African Council of Churches in the anti-apartheid movement.⁠[1][2]

In 1992 he received an M.A. in Religion from Yale Divinity School and a J.D. from Yale Law School. As a law student he founded the Delaware chapter of the “I Have a Dream” Foundation.⁠[1][2]

Coons then worked at the national office of the “I Have a Dream” Foundation, where he launched and ran its AmeriCorps program, which recruited and trained volunteers to mentor students in 15 cities. He later worked for W.L. Gore & Associates, a Delaware manufacturing company.⁠[2]

Coons was president of the New Castle County Council in Delaware from 2001 to 2005 and New Castle County executive from 2005 to 2010.⁠[1][2]

After Joe Biden resigned from the Senate to become vice president, Coons ran in Delaware’s special Senate election on November 2, 2010, defeating Republican Christine O’Donnell with 56.6% of the vote. He took office on November 15, 2010.⁠[1][3]

On November 4, 2014, Coons defeated Republican Kevin Wade with 55.8% of the vote. In 2020 he defeated Jessica Scarane 72.9% to 27.1% in the September 15 Democratic primary and defeated Republican Lauren Witzke with 59.4% in the November 3 general election.⁠[1]

In the Democratic primary on September 15, 2026, Coons defeated three challengers with nearly 80% of the vote.⁠[3][1]

In the November 3 general election Coons defeated Republican nominee Mike Katz, a physician who had previously been a Democrat and a state lawmaker and who won the Republican nomination over military veteran John Shulli. The Associated Press declared Coons the winner at 8:00 p.m. EST.⁠[4][3]

It was Coons’s fourth consecutive Senate election victory and his third full term. During the campaign he listed raising wages, protecting Delawareans from threats at home and abroad, and rooting out corruption in Washington as priorities; he criticized President Donald Trump’s tariffs and described the war with Iran as illegal.⁠[3][4]

Coons serves on the Senate Appropriations, Foreign Relations, Judiciary, Small Business and Entrepreneurship, and Ethics committees; he is vice chair of the Ethics Committee and the ranking Democrat on the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee.⁠[2][1]

Senator Christopher Coons: Official website: https://www.coons.senate.gov/ (opens in a new window).⁠[2]

X: Public account: https://x.com/ChrisCoons (opens in a new window).⁠[2]

YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is Google’s video-sharing and creator platform, founded in 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim and acquired by Google in 2006. Built around video uploading, viewing, and creator earnings, the platform has developed Shorts, YouTube Music, Premium, YouTube TV, and products for children, and is headquartered in San Bruno, California, United States.Open the full entry: Public channel: https://www.youtube.com/senatorchriscoons (opens in a new window).⁠[2]