Chris Coons is the senior United States Senator from Delaware, having served in the Senate since November 2010. A member of the Democratic Party, he was appointed and then elected to fill the Senate seat vacated when Joe Biden resigned to become Vice President of the United States. Coons was born in Greenwich, Connecticut, in 1963 and grew up in Hockessin, Delaware. He graduated from Amherst College, earned a law degree from Yale Law School, and holds a master's degree in ethics from Yale Divinity School. Before his Senate career, he served as chief executive of New Castle County.
Coons serves on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, where he is the ranking member, and on the Senate Judiciary Committee. He is known as one of the Senate's most committed bipartisan dealmakers and a leading voice on foreign policy, particularly on U.S. engagement with Africa and on international human rights. He was a close ally and confidant of President Biden in the Senate, and has worked across party lines on criminal justice reform, energy innovation, and foreign aid. He chairs the Senate Democracy Technology Partnership Caucus.