u/TheShittyBeatles

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.

Thanks, everyone, for the questions, and thanks to the moderators for hosting and keeping this open 24 hours!

I feel like we’ve been getting “heavy downpour” and “severe thunderstorm” warnings every… fucking… week! It’s mostly in the weekends too, which is really fucking annoying because I work weekends.

This week we’re set to have thunderstorms going almost all day for like 5 days. Yet, when I bring it up to my relatives or one of my coworkers they always say something like “Philly always gets thunderstorms around this time.” The news is equally vague.

I’ve lived in Philly my whole life. I know we get rainy season around this time, but I feel like it’s never been THIS bad or THIS constant. I like rain but this is getting infuriating.

Am I going crazy? I’m trying not to resort to climate change doomsday-ism, but this is insane. Dont get me started on the poor air quality and tornado warnings.