Chris Coons

Christopher Andrew Coons (born September 9, 1963) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the junior United States senator from Delaware since 2010.

His parents struggled financially and divorced in the mid-1970s.

He and his two brothers lived with their mother for a few years until 1977, when his mother married Robert W. Gore, the President of W. L. Gore and Associates.

As a 17-year-old, in 1980, he independently campaigned for Ronald Reagan's presidential run.

In 1983, Coons was awarded a Truman Scholarship.

During his junior year of college, he studied abroad at the University of Nairobi in Kenya through St. Lawrence University's Kenya Semester Program.

He graduated from the private Tower Hill School and then Amherst College in 1985 with a Bachelor of Arts in chemistry and political science.

While in college, he was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity (Sigma chapter) and a U.S. Senate intern.

In 1992, he earned a master's degree in ethics from Yale Divinity School and a J.D. degree from Yale Law School.

In 1992, he earned a J.D. degree from Yale Law School, and a master's degree in ethics from Yale Divinity School.

Coons clerked for Judge Jane Richards Roth on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, and then worked for the National "I Have a Dream" Foundation in New York.

He spent some time as a legal clerk in New York before returning to Delaware in 1996, where he spent eight years as in-house counsel for a materials manufacturing company.

In the interim he worked for several nonprofit organizations.

After returning to Delaware in 1996, Coons began his eight-year career as in-house counsel for W.L. Gore & Associates, Inc., Newark, Delaware-based makers of Gore-Tex fabrics and other high-tech materials.

There he was responsible for the ethics training program, federal government relations, e-commerce legal work, and for general commercial contracting.

He has also worked for several nonprofits, including the Coalition for the Homeless, the education-oriented "I Have a Dream" Foundation, and the South African Council of Churches.

Coons has served on several boards including First State Innovation, the Bear/Glasgow Boys & Girls Club, and the Delaware College of Art & Design.

Coons is on the Board of Selectors of Jefferson Awards for Public Service.

Coons first became involved in politics working on behalf of Republican politicians.

Coons served as president of the New Castle County Council from 2001 to 2005 and county executive of New Castle County from 2005 to 2010.

A member of the Democratic Party, Coons served as the county executive of New Castle County from 2005 to 2010.

Raised in Hockessin, Delaware, Coons graduated from Amherst College in Massachusetts, where he joined the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity.

He received graduate degrees from Yale Divinity School and Yale Law School.

He went to work as a volunteer relief worker in Kenya, where he had taken classes at the University of Nairobi, later returning to the U.S. to work for the Coalition for the Homeless in New York.

He balanced the county budget with a surplus in fiscal year 2010 by cutting spending and raising taxes, and the county maintained a AAA bond rating.

Coons contested the 2010 Senate special election for Delaware.

He defeated the Republican nominee, Christine O'Donnell, to succeed Ted Kaufman, who had been appointed to the seat when Joe Biden resigned to become Vice President of the United States.

He was elected to a full term in 2014.

Coons is the chair of the Senate Ethics Committee.

His other committee assignments include Appropriations, Foreign Relations, Judiciary, and Small Business and Entrepreneurship.

He previously served as ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on African Affairs and the Judiciary Subcommittee on Bankruptcy and the Courts.

Coons co-chaired the 2017 and 2019 National Prayer Breakfasts and co-chairs the weekly Senate Prayer Breakfast.

In 2018, Delaware State University named Coons as an Honorary Doctor in Humane Letters.

After college, Coons worked in Washington, D.C., for the Investor Responsibility Research Center, where he wrote a book on South Africa and the U.S. divestment movement.

He then worked as a volunteer for the South African Council of Churches and as a relief worker in Kenya, before returning to the U.S. to work for the National Coalition for the Homeless in New York.

The New York Times called him an "effective" emissary of Joe Biden to former and current Republican lawmakers in Biden's 2020 campaign for president.

Coons will become Delaware's senior senator in January 2025 when Tom Carper retires from the Senate.

Coons was born in Greenwich, Connecticut, the son of Sarah Louise "Sally" (née Ives) and Kenelm Winslow "Ken" Coons.

His ancestry includes English and Irish.

Coons grew up in Hockessin, Delaware, where he attended the public Yorklyn Elementary School and later H.B. DuPont Middle School.