Coons is the junior senator from Delaware and is a Democrat. He has served since Nov 15, 2010. Coons is next up for reelection in 2026 and serves until Jan 3, 2027. He is 59 years old.
![Photo of Sen. Christopher Coons [D-DE]](/static/legislator-photos/412390-200px.jpeg)
Analysis
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Coons is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot is a member of the Senate positioned according to our ideology score (left to right) and our leadership score (leaders are toward the top).
The chart is based on the bills Coons has sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 2019 to Jan 24, 2023. See full analysis methodology.
Enacted Legislation
Coons was the primary sponsor of 18 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:
- S. 4662: Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2023
- S. 270 (117th): Brown v. Board of Education National Historical Park Expansion and Redesignation Act
- S. 3975: Victims of Child Abuse Act Reauthorization Act of 2022
- S. 3075 (117th): Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2022
- S. 1813 (117th): Accelerating Access to Critical Therapies for ALS Act
- S. 1359 (117th): Partnerships for Energy Security and Innovation Act of 2021
- S. 799 (117th): SCALE Act
Does 18 not sound like a lot? Very few bills are ever enacted — most legislators sponsor only a handful that are signed into law. But there are other legislative activities that we don’t track that are also important, including offering amendments, committee work and oversight of the other branches, and constituent services.
We consider a bill enacted if one of the following is true: a) it is enacted itself, b) it has a companion bill in the other chamber (as identified by Congress) which was enacted, or c) if at least about half of its provisions were incorporated into bills that were enacted (as determined by an automated text analysis, applicable beginning with bills in the 110th Congress).
Bills Sponsored
Issue Areas
Coons sponsors bills primarily in these issue areas:
International Affairs (28%) Commerce (18%) Labor and Employment (13%) Science, Technology, Communications (10%) Education (9%) Public Lands and Natural Resources (8%) Health (7%) Energy (7%)
Recently Introduced Bills
Coons recently introduced the following legislation:
- S. 32: A bill to increase the number of landlords participating in the Housing Choice …
- S. 5339 (117th): Platform Accountability and Transparency Act
- S. 5320 (117th): A bill to suspend the collection of income taxes and related interest …
- S. 5243: U.S. Hostage and Wrongful Detainee Day Act of 2022
- S. 5191: SCORE for Small Business Act of 2022
- S. 5134: United States Foundation for International Conservation Act of 2022
- S.Res. 846: A resolution designating November 2022 as “National College Application Month”.
View All » | View Cosponsors »
Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.
Voting Record
Key Votes
Missed Votes
From Nov 2010 to Dec 2022, Coons missed 87 of 3,963 roll call votes, which is 2.2%. This is on par with the median of 2.4% among the lifetime records of senators currently serving. The chart below reports missed votes over time.
We don’t track why legislators miss votes, but it’s often due to medical absenses, major life events, and running for higher office.
Primary Sources
The information on this page is originally sourced from a variety of materials, including:
- unitedstates/congress-legislators, a community project gathering congressional information
- The House and Senate websites, for committee membership and voting records
- GPO Member Guide for the photo
- GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills
