Hello, r/politics.

Here is the preposterous but true thing about this race: Delaware is choosing one one-hundredth of the United States Senate—and that one one-hundredth can determine America’s direction on Gaza, Israel, and Iran, and whether AI broadens human freedom or concentrates still more power in private hands.

I’m Jeff Appelhans, PhD, a Democratic candidate for the United States Senate challenging nearly sixteen-year incumbent Sen. Chris Coons. For twenty-seven years, I have worked in classrooms, archives, and positions of public trust. I’m a historian, a teacher, and an AI systems builder. I study AI hands-on because lawmakers cannot responsibly govern machinery they know only through briefings.

This race offers a flat-out different set of skills: a humanist’s sensitivity and sensibility, a historian’s judgment, a teacher’s attention, and a builder’s discipline.

I regard what is happening in Gaza as a genocide, and I would not keep supplying weapons for it. No ally gets a blank check, and AIPAC does not get to decide who counts as a loyal Democrat.

I am beholden to no prince or principality. My campaign accepts no PAC or party-committee contributions. I bring no political baggage, and I am nobody’s mouthpiece.

Ask me about:

• Gaza, AIPAC, Iran, Israel, and Congress’s responsibility for war;
• AI, education, privacy, and concentrated power;
• wages, housing, Medicare for All, and breaking up Big Medicine;
• faith, Christian nationalism, and equal citizenship;
• campaign finance and constitutional reform, including overturning Citizens United;
• Delaware, my background, or anything else political.