Sen. Chris Coons endorses Joe Biden for president

After a speech laying out his support for, but also concerns with, the Obama administration’s Iran nuclear deal, U.S. Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del, backed a Joe Biden presidential campaign, citing the vice president’s foreign policy expertise and commitment to the middle class.

“I would support Joe Biden as a candidate for president,” Coons said after his speech on Iran, held Tuesday at the University of Delaware. “I think his senior and seasoned record on foreign policy and national security is unmatched.”

Coons consulted with Biden as he made his decision on the Iran deal. Coons said the vice president has been “very respectful of my role as a senator” and made clear that “my decisions are mine and mine alone.”

On a decision about a presidential race, Coons said Biden “deserves the time and the space to reach the decision that’s best for him and his family.”

Biden previously set an end-of-summer deadline for making a decision on the 2016 presidential race.

In a call with members of the Democratic National Committee last week, Biden questioned whether he had the “emotional fuel” to run a presidential campaign after the May 30 death of his son Beau Biden, the former Delaware attorney general.

Biden died of brain cancer nearly two years after his initial diagnosis. Before his death, Beau Biden reportedly urged his father to seek the presidency.

The vice president surprised Delaware Democrats on Saturday, turning up at the Sussex County Democratic Party’s annual Jamboree in Lewes, one of Delaware’s most important political events.

Biden stood on a picnic table as he thanked friends for their support after Beau Biden’s death. Delawareans stood in line for hours at viewings in Dover and Wilmington in June to pay respects to the Biden family.

“I came because Beau would want me to come,” Biden said on Saturday. “The reason is to say ‘Thank you.’”

Contact Jonathan Starkey at (302) 983-6756, on Twitter @jwstarkey or at jstarkey@delawareonline.com.