01Constitutional Renewal
The Delaware Plan: a Union Jubilee
Secure liberties for the next 250 years.
Read the priority
Parchment & iron gallNext 250
Delaware · U.S. Senate · 2026
Delaware will elect, not acquiesce.
Turn down the temperature. Enshrine liberties in the Constitution. Secure this 250th and write the fundamental law we will wish we had 250 years from today. We have the power, and I can help us put it to work.
“it resides in the people, as the fountain of government”
James Wilson, Pennsylvania Ratifying Convention, Dec. 4, 1787 · Elliot’s Debates, vol. 2, p. 456 · Law Library of Congress
Constitutional RenewalAI: Economy & LearningForeign LeadershipCare That LastsFaith & The Public Sphere
Delaware · the people sovereigncan take back Constitutional control.
More agency. More capacity. A Union worth renewing.
At a turning point in human history, we need both the bird’s-eye view of powerful systems and the worm’s-eye view of ordinary life. The systems shaping work, learning, health, energy, and war have become powerful without becoming accountable. We get scared; we get made small. Delaware has proved that a small state can hold a large Union to a common bargain.
Here’s something refreshingly old: one person thinking in public; the people test and refine the ideas; together, we build the government we want.
After sixteen years, Chris Coons is asking Delaware for six more. I believe we deserve a choice.
One source · five lines
Five lines into the next 250 years.
From the wage bargain to the classroom, from the hospital to the grid, and from foreign commitments to Constitutional change, the test is the same: Can Americans today find the generational unity to build the next 250 years of American history? I think we can.
Rather than tell you what to think for the next few weeks, I'll use the teacherly gift to show you why we feel off and put some different answers on the table.
Delaware can convene the work. Put human agency at the center of technology, government, care, and citizenship. Then let the five priorities below show what that means.
02AI: Economy & Learning
AI: Economy & Learning
AI will reorganize capital, labor, learning, and public power. Meet it on constitutional ground, not sand or clay.
Read the priority03Foreign Leadership
Foreign Entanglements & Global Solutions
No blank checks. No personal bargains. American judgment, lawfully used.
Read the priority04Care That Lasts
Medical & Old-Care
Make care reliable across every stage of life.
Read the priority05Faith & The Public Sphere
Faith & Reason in the Public Sphere
Let faith speak in public without letting government decide who belongs.
Read the priorityCommitments on day one
How constitutional change worksSome changes require legislation. One begins with my own conduct.
Public office, public trust.
Before taking office, I will remove individual securities, commodities, and similar covered instruments from the investment accounts I control. I will keep market exposure in diversified mutual funds and diversified ETFs, and I will support S.1498 or a successor congressional stock-ban bill.
MEDICARE FOR ALL · BREAK UP BIG MEDICINE
Medicare for All guarantees the care. Break Up Big Medicine breaks the choke points.
Let the public share AI's wealth.
I agree with Sanders's principle that the public should share in wealth generated by AI. I will test S.4825's ownership, governance, effects on innovation, and distribution mechanics before endorsing the bill.
Protect Social Security without cutting benefits.
I support Warren and Moreno's objective: remove the Social Security payroll-tax cap, extend solvency, and protect earned benefits without cuts. They are still writing the bill, and I will judge the text when introduced.
I’m not even supposed to be here today.
Meet Jeff · teacher · PhD historian · A curious nerd about things old and new—and someone who gets good at them.
Jeff Appelhans
Teacher. PhD historian. A curious nerd about things old and new—and someone who gets good at them..
I take the work seriously. I try not to take myself too seriously.
That generational "ugh, fine, we'll just take care of it ourselves" has been making its way to Washington for a few years now. But this spring augured a new and dangerous future: coders are heading to monasteries, philosophers are hitting AI labs, and this historian is heading to Washington to stake humanity’s future on constitutional ground.
One of the great gifts of studying history is that you're able to imagine very different configurations of life: where change can be scary, history shows it is constant and okay and sometimes the best principled and simplest solutions are medieval or ancient—that's real conservatism.
I came to Delaware with purple Colorado politics; after the GOP nominated Trump, I became an independent; this spring, a Democrat. The label changed; my rights-first spine did not.
AI will reshape the wage bargain. Humans—and, might I offer, this seasoned humanist—must shape that future. It is time to stake humanity’s future on the bedrock of the Constitution, with human persons first in this new order for the ages.
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