Source: United States Senator for Delaware Christopher Coons
WASHINGTON – In case you missed it, food publication Eater on Friday featured the Senate Bipartisan Barbecue Lunch, hosted by U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.) as well as Senators Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). A friend of the late Senator Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), who started the annual lunch, Senator Coons continues the tradition to remember Senator Isakson and build relationships across party lines as senators of both parties put their differences aside over ribs and brisket.
Eater: How 560 Pounds of Barbecue Unites Across-the-Aisle Senators Once a Year
One afternoon last week on Capitol Hill, a steady stream of the nation’s top elected officials paraded into the same marble-lined room atop the Russell Senate Office Building. It wasn’t for any sort of vote or debate, but rather to dig into good old-fashioned barbecue personally prepared by award-winning Georgia pitmasters.
The 12th annual bipartisan luncheon, held Thursday, September 29, was particularly poignant for its co-organizer Sen. Chris Coons. He was close friends with its founder, Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., who retired his seat in 2019 and passed away last December after a battle with Parkinson’s disease.
“Johnny was a remarkable bridge-builder between caucuses that had a hard time hearing each other all the time,” Coons tells Eater. “He fought fiercely for his state but routinely put his country over his party.”
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Sticking to tradition, Coons says he carried on Isakson’s sole rule of the annual bipartisan buffet: “Come in, get a plate, and sit next to someone you don’t know or ever talk to. That is your price of admission.”
The full article is available here.
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