Chris Coons

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Chris Coons (2011)

Christopher Andrew "Chris" Coons (born September 9, 1963 in Greenwich , Connecticut ) is an American lawyer and politician of the Democratic Party . Coons was on November 2, 2010 in a by-election, the same time as the regular Senate election , was conducted for the United States Senator for the State of Delaware selected. He was sworn in to succeed Ted Kaufman on November 15, 2010 in Washington, DC .

Life

Coons was born the second of three sons to Ken and Sally Coons. His mother taught at an elementary school. His father worked in a company that made kitchen appliances. When Chris Coons was four, his parents moved to Baltimore because his father had started work for a food company there. Two years later the family moved again to Hockessin , where Ken Coons had taken over the management of a canning factory. He then went into business for himself with a company for kitchen equipment. The oil crisis in the 1970s and the subsequent economic recession and the resulting housing crisis also drove Chris Coon's father into bankruptcy. These burdens led, among other things, to the divorce of Sally and Ken Coons. When Chris Coons was 14 years old, his mother Sally was second married to Robert W. Gore, president of WL Gore & Associates , in Newark .

Coons attended Tower Hill School , a private school in Wilmington . He then went to Amherst College in Amherst , where he got a BA in Chemistry and Political Science in 1985 . In 1984, in the early stages of his student days at Amherst College, he studied for a semester at the University of Nairobi in Kenya .

In 1985 he described his early political beliefs as being heavily influenced by the Republican Party. He had worked for Delaware Republican Senator and Congressman William V. Roth and Ronald Reagan in the 1980 election campaign . In 1983 he and other fellow students founded the Amherst College Republicans . Professors and classes at Amherst made him question his views. The confrontation with the different American living conditions of the African population then resulted in a change in his political attitudes.

In an article for the university newspaper The Amherst Student entitled Chris Coons: The Making of a Bearded Marxist. The then 21-year-old described that his stay in Africa brought him into contact with poverty and political oppression and that after his return he critically reconsidered his ideas. In 1992 he received an MA in ethics from Yale Divinity School and a JD from Yale Law School at the same time .

After graduating from college, Coons worked for the Investor Responsibility Research Center (IRRC) in Washington DC During that time, he wrote a book on South Africa and the Disinvestment from South Africa campaign. He then worked as a volunteer for the South African Council of Churches (SACC) and as a development worker in Kenya. He returned to the United States to work for the National Coalition for the Homeless in New York.

Coons first took part in Delaware politics when he participated in the election campaign for the Democratic Party candidate, physics professor Shien Biau Woo, in the Senate elections of 1988 (the opposing candidate was then incumbent Senator William V. Roth ) . He then worked for Jane Richards Roth (the wife of William V. Roth), federal judge for the third circuit (3rd Circuit) at the United States Court of Appeals , based in Philadelphia. He returned to Delaware in 1996 and worked as a lawyer at WLGore & Associates, his stepfather's company, through 2004.

In 2000 he won a seat in New Castle County Council, the northernmost of the three counties in the US state of Delaware . The New Castle County , with the county seat Wilmington, has, according to 2000 United States Census about 500,000 inhabitants (about 64% of the population of Delaware). In 2004 he was elected chairman ( county executive ) of the county council and in 2008 he was elected for another four years in this office.

On February 3, 2010, Coons announced his candidacy for the seat of Delaware in the US Senate. The mandate had Joe Biden after the US Vice President was elected, resigned. The seat was held by Ted Kaufman from January 2009 until the Senate election on November 2, 2010. Coons kicked the candidate of the Republican Party , Christine O'Donnell in, that the congressman Michael Castle in the Primary defeated. Castle was the favorite for the November election, but polls gave O'Donnell's candidacy little chance against Coons. Karl Rove , deputy chief of staff to former President George W. Bush and political advisor to the Republicans, had already lost the Senate seat on Fox News: We had hoped for eight to nine seats in the Senate. Now it's only seven to eight.

In the November 2, 2010 election, Coons won with 56.6 percent of the votes cast against 40 percent for Christine O'Donnell. O'Donnell won Kent and Sussex Counties , but New Castle County , where the vast majority of the population of Delaware lives, voted for the majority of Coons. Between 2010 and 2015, Coons ended the term for which Joe Biden was originally elected. In 2014 he was then re-elected for six years with 55.8 percent of the vote versus 42.2 percent for Republican Kevin Wade. His current term of office runs until January 3, 2021.

Private

Chris Coons married Annie Lingenfelter in November 1996. Annie Lingenfelter (Coons) worked from 1989 to 1997 for New Castle County Executive Dennis Greenhouse - the predecessor of Christ Coons. The couple have three children - the twins Michael and Jack (* 1999), the daughter Maggie (* 2001).

Membership in organizations

  • “I Have a Dream” Foundation (Board Member)
  • National Coalition for the Homeless
  • Council for the Homeless (Board Member)
  • Bear / Glasgow Boys and Girls Club (Board Member)
  • Investor Responsibility Research Center
  • Better Business Bureau of Delaware
  • First State Innovation (Advisory Board)
  • Wilmington Riverfront Development Corporation
  • Delaware College of Art and Design (Board Member)
  • Hearts and Minds Film organization (Advisory Board)
  • South African Council of Churches

Web links

Commons : Chris Coons  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ America punishes the Democrats . In: Spiegel Online , November 3, 2010, accessed November 3, 2010
  2. ^ Delaware politics: Chris Coons' journey from divinity school to county executive . ( Memento of the original from October 15, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Delaware.online  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.delawareonline.com
  3. ↑ a b c Profile of Christopher Coons, Delaware US Senate Candidate ( Memento of the original from October 23, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. About.com  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / usliberals.about.com
  4. ↑ a b c Chris Coons: The Making Of A Bearded Marxist . (PDF; 402 kB) The Amherst Student , May 23, 1985
  5. ↑ IRRC - Homepage ( Memento of the original from January 10, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.irrcinstitute.org
  6. ^ Coalition for the Homeless - Homepage
  7. ^ A b New Castle County, Delaware: Chris Coons, County Executive ( Memento of March 9, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) ( archive.org )
  8. ↑ Castle vs. Coons Delawaretoday.com
  9. ^ Right-wing populists help Obama . ( Memento from September 17, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) In: Financial Times Deutschland , September 13, 2010
  10. ↑ US Election: Winners and Losers - Tears and Triumphs / Losers: Christine O'Donnell . Süddeutsche Zeitung Online , November 2, 2010
  11. ^ Coons defeats O'Donnell in US Senate race .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Delaware.online, November 2, 2010@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.delawareonline.com  
personal data
SURNAME Coons, Chris
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Coons, Christopher A. (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American lawyer and politician (Democratic Party)
DATE OF BIRTH September 9, 1963
PLACE OF BIRTH Greenwich , Connecticut