WILMINGTON, Del.- A decade after winning a special election to fill Joe Biden's seat in the U.S. Senate, Democrat Chris Coons faces a challenge in his latest re-election bid from conservative Lauren Witzke.
During the campaign season, Coons (D-Delaware) has argued to voters he is able to get results for Delawareans in an often divided Senate, a quality he said is important as the country struggles with the COVID-19 pandemic.
"I've had the experience of helping with the response to the Ebola pandemic and other public health challenges. In county government and in the Senate, I've worked tirelessly on the response to the '08-'09 recession and now this most recent recession," he said during a candidates forum hosted by the Jewish Federation of Delaware.
Opposite Coons in the Nov. 3 general election is Witzke, of Sussex County, who has pushed for an "America First" platform that calls for a ten-year moratorium on immigration. She has said the issue of immigration enabled an opioid epidemic that left many Americans, including herself at one point, seeking recovery.
"We have to build a merit-based system," she said during the JDF forum. "We're bringing in anybody—bringing in people who are currently bringing drugs across our southern border and people that are 100 percent legally. We're bringing in cartel members and as a result we are seeing a mass epidemic of opioid abuse."
Witzke has been criticized at times for her social media activity, particularly tweets about race and abortion that some have deemed offensive. Her attention in recent weeks has focused on claims of corruption involving Biden that are tied to content on a laptop allegedly belonging to his son, an issue she has sought to associate with Coons.
"I think it's a shame that people have mailed in their ballots who later found out about Hunter Biden's laptop and the contents of it," she said. "However, we are not worried about it because President Trump's party and people will come out to vote for me on Nov. 3—in person."
Coons, a frequent critic of President Trump, has maintained that Witzke's rhetoric doesn't reflect Delawareans' values and that the bipartisan approach he has taken in the Senate will get results for the First State.
"I don't think Delawareans are looking for someone representing them in the Senate who is more divisive—who follows President Trump's lead," he said. "But I'm going to keep campaigning up until Nov. 3."