Jeff Appelhans

Jeff Appelhans is a teacher, PhD historian, and self-described polymath running as a Democrat for U.S. Senate in Delaware. Born and raised in Colorado, he earned a BA in history with secondary social studies certification at the University of Colorado Boulder, an MA in history at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs as a James Madison Memorial Fellow, and a PhD in history at the University of Delaware in 2018. He taught preservice teachers and a course on the Gilded Age and Progressive Era at the University of Delaware, and since 2019 has worked at the American Philosophical Society in postdoctoral research and project roles, including an NEH-supported book project on the creation of American Catholicism. He describes himself as "rights-first," with Colorado-purple politics who became an independent after the GOP nominated Trump and, in spring 2026, a Democrat.