U.S. Senator Chris Coons Urges ‘Opportunity, Security and Justice’ at Whittington Lecture
The annual Whittington Lecture and Scholarship allow the Georgetown University community to remember Professor Leslie Whittington, who tragically died on 9/11.
At the McCourt School of Public Policy’s 2025-2026 Whittington Lecture, U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-DE) offered what he sees as a forward-looking policy framework designed to speak to a frustrated and divided citizenry.
Britney Cheung (MPP’26), the 2025-2026 Whittington Scholar, introduced Senator Coons.
“We have both an opportunity and a challenge in front of us, a challenge to figure out how to reimagine our relationship with the world,” said Senator Coons.
Addressing an audience of students, faculty, staff and guests, his lecture centered on three pillars: opportunity, security and justice, as foundations for understanding what government should help make possible. Together, he argued, they form a moral and practical framework for rebuilding trust in institutions and ensuring that public policy reflects the priorities of everyday Americans.
Senator Coons addressed attendees at the McCourt School of Public Policy’s Capitol View Convening Space on Georgetown University’s Capitol Campus.
The senator asserted that restoring faith in opportunity is central to rebuilding trust. He pointed to a core national promise: the belief that “your future isn’t determined by your zip code” and that if people “work hard and play by the rules,” they and their families should be able to get ahead. He warned that when Americans feel overlooked, trust in leaders and institutions erodes.
Senator Coon’s second pillar, security, highlights his view that it is necessary to adopt a broader understanding of the term. Security, he said, is not solely about national defense, but also whether people feel stable in their everyday lives — able to pay their bills, care for their families and feel safe in their communities. “If folks don’t believe you care about their security and their kids’ security,” he said, “they don’t listen to you about anything else.” Economic anxiety, public safety and long-term stability, in his view, all shape how people experience government.
Senator Coons addressed an audience of Georgetown University students, faculty and staff.
Opportunity and security, Senator Coons stressed, must be grounded in justice. He described justice as both a moral and practical guide for policymaking, encompassing core freedoms as well as fairness. Justice, he said, is ultimately what should “win us the hearts and minds of the people of America.”
Throughout the lecture, the senator wove reflections from his own path into public life, describing how formative experiences, including an undergraduate study-abroad program in Kenya he participated in, expanded his understanding of the world.
“The radical hospitality I experienced among the families that I lived with, the dramatically different worldview, the profound faith that I experienced among Kenyans who I lived with and spent time with, really genuinely transformed my life.”
Senator Coons also participated in a discussion moderated by McCourt Chair Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach and answered students’ questions on a variety of subjects, from the role of faith in policymaking to what the U.S. represents to the world in today’s climate.
McCourt School Chair Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach moderated a discussion with Senator Coons on top-of-mind public policy questions in today’s political and social climate.
In answering a question about what the U.S. symbolizes globally, he concluded his remarks with a message of hope.
“Don’t let this moment define us,” said Coons. “I was brought into politics in Delaware in no small part by a Tuskegee airman, whose willingness to believe in America despite all evidence to the contrary growing up in an apartheid Delaware, challenged and inspired me every day.”