Chris Coons
Christopher Andrew " Chris " Coons ( born September 9, 1963 in Greenwich, Connecticut ) is an American lawyer and politician of the Democratic Party. Coons was elected for the State of Delaware on November 2, 2010 in a by-election, which was carried out simultaneously with the regular Senate election for United States Senator. On 15 November 2010 he was in Washington, D.C. sworn in as successor to Ted Kaufman.
Life
Coons was born the second of three sons of Ken and Sally Coons. His mother taught at a primary school ( elementary school ). His father worked in a company that manufactured kitchen appliances. When Chris Coons was four years old, his parents moved to Baltimore because his father had taken up here working at a food company. Two years later forced to move his family to Hockessin, where Ken Coons took over the management of a cannery. He was then self-employed with a company for kitchen appliances. The oil crisis in the 1970s and the subsequent economic recession, the resulting housing crisis also drove Chris Coons father into bankruptcy. These pressures have resulted in the divorce of Sally and Ken Coons. When Chris Coons was 14 years old, his mother Sally married his second wife Robert W. Gore, president of the company WL Gore & Associates, Newark.
Coons attended Tower Hill School, a private school in Wilmington. Then he went to Amherst College in Amherst and made here in 1985 with a BA degree in chemistry and political science. 1984, in the initial phase of his student days at Amherst College, he studied one semester at the University of Nairobi in Kenya.
In 1985, he described his early political beliefs as strongly influenced by the Republican Party. He had worked for the Republican Senator and Congressman from Delaware, William V. Roth, as well as in the 1980 election campaign for Ronald Reagan. In 1983 he had founded with fellow students the Amherst College Republicans.
Professors and teaching classes in Amherst led him to put his views in question. The confrontation with the U.S. of different conditions of life of the African population then led to a change in his political attitudes.
In an article for the university newspaper, The Amherst Student titled Chris Coons: The Making of a Bearded Marxist. described the 21 -year-old that his Auftenthalt in Africa brought him to poverty and political oppression in touch and on his return his previous ideas about critical thought.
In 1992, he also made it a M. A. in ethics at Yale Divinity School and a JD at Yale Law School.
After graduating from college, Coons worked for the Investor Responsibility Research Center ( IRRC ) in Washington DC During this time he wrote a book about South Africa and the Disinvestment from South Africa campaign. Subsequently, he worked as a volunteer for the South African Council of Churches ( SACC ) and as a development worker in Kenya. He returned to the U.S. to work here for the National Coalition for the Homeless in New York.
In the policy of Delaware to Coons participated for the first time when he ( was rival candidate, the then incumbent Senator William V. Roth ) cooperated in the Senate elections of 1988, in the election campaign of the candidate of the Democratic Party, Physics Professor Shien Piao Woo. He then worked for Jane Richards Roth ( wife of William V. Roth ), federal judge for the third judicial district (3rd Circuit) on the United States Court of Appeals, based in Philadelphia. In 1996 he returned to Delaware and worked until 2004 as a lawyer at WL Gore & Associates, the company of his stepfather.
In 2000, he gained a seat on the New Castle County Council, the northernmost of the three counties of the State of Delaware for the first time. The New Castle County, with the county seat Wilmington, has, according to census of 2000, about 500,000 inhabitants (about 64 % of the population of Delaware). In 2004 he was elected chairman ( County Executive ) of the County Councils elected and confirmed in 2008 for another four years in this office.
On 3 February 2010 Coons announced his candidacy for the seat of Delaware in the U.S. Senate. The mandate had Joe Biden, after he was elected to the U.S. Vice- President, resigned. The seat has been since January 2009 - held by Ted Kaufman - until the Senate election on November 2, 2010. Coons kicked the candidate of the Republican Party, Christine O'Donnell, to which had defeated Congressman Michael Castle in the Primary. Castle was considered a favorite for the election in November, but O'Donnell's candidacy was granted against Coons in the polls have little chance. Karl Rove, deputy chief of staff to former President George W. Bush and Republican political consultant was, in Fox News in advance the Senate seat lost: we had made our hopes for eight to nine seats in the Senate. Now it 's just about seven to eight.
In the election on November 2, 2010 Coons won with 56.6 percent of the vote against 40 percent for Christine O'Donnell. O'Donnell won the Kent County and Sussex, but the New Castle County, where the great majority of the population of Delaware lives, chose majority Coons.
Private
Chris Coons married in November 1996 Annie Lingenfelter. Annie Lingenfelter ( Coons ) From 1989 to 1997, the New Castle County Executive Dennis Greenhouse - the predecessor of Christ Coons. The couple has three children - the twins Michael and Jack (* 1999), 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