John Delaney 2020 presidential campaign

Delaney is a three-term congressman, representing Maryland's 6th district.[7] He has a background as a businessman and entrepreneur.[7][8]

Before Delaney announced that he was running for the presidency, he was considered a potential candidate for Maryland's 2018 gubernatorial election.[7]

Delaney had said that he began considering a presidential run following Hillary Clinton's surprise defeat by Republican nominee Donald Trump in the 2016 election.[7]

In May 2017, Chris Matthews, host of MSNBC's program Hardball and the husband of Maryland Democratic Party Chair Kathleen Matthews, said that Delaney had set up an office in Maryland that he speculated might be for a presidential run.[9] At the time, Delaney's office denied this speculation.[9] Later that month, Delaney said, "I am not running for president."[9]

Delaney launched his campaign announcement with the publication of an op-ed column on the Washington Post's website, which coincided with the launch of a campaign Twitter account and YouTube account, as well as a Tumblr account, on which he posted a five-minute video outlining his plans.[10] Rumors of Delaney's campaign arose the day before the publication of his op-ed.[11]

In order to focus on his run for the presidency, Delaney did not run for reelection to Congress in 2018.[4][12][13][9]

It is highly unusual for a serious presidential candidate to announce so early. Previously Republican Pete du Pont had held the record of the earliest announcement; du Pont announced his campaign for the 1988 election in 1986, 615 days before the start of the Iowa caucuses.[14]

Delaney had said that launching his campaign at such an early date was in order to gain name recognition,[7] and to elevate his national stature.[8] Voicing his objection to playing coy about his intentions in an interview with Business Insider, Delaney said,

Time struck me as an asset, not a liability. I also have never liked the cat-and-mouse games that some politicians play about running — running, not running, running when everyone knows they're running. So my view is I came to the decision to do it. I'd like to spend a lot of time working to achieve it, and I felt that was the right thing to do to achieve that.[8]

Delaney has also said of his strategy,

In many ways I'm running an old-fashioned kind of style campaign. The best analogy to what I'm doing is what Jimmy Carter did in 1976. In 1974, the New York Times wrote a story about the 35 people likely to be the Democratic nominee for president and Jimmy Carter wasn't on the list. But what he did was get in really early and spend a lot of time in the really important states.[15]

In another interview, Delaney said of his campaign's approach,

At this point, it’s a very personal campaign, it’s focused on meeting as many people as possible... I am pursuing a bit of an old-fashioned strategy in some ways, which is meeting the voters.[16]

Delaney recognized that his campaign faced difficult odds, saying,

I know what I'm getting into. Obviously, this is a very significant undertaking but I really do believe I have something to say. So just like [the] guy in Tiananmen Square when he stood in front of the tank didn't really quite know how he was going to beat the tank. I understand running for president is a huge challenge but, you know, I'm ready for it.[9]

In his campaign, Delaney promoted himself as, "a leading voice in Congress on 21st century jobs, education, veterans issues, and infrastructure."[37]

In the op-ed announcing his candidacy, Delaney wrote,

The Democratic Party cherishes opportunity over birthright; wants people to earn a good living; offers a helping hand to the poor, the immigrant and those left behind; wants all Americans to have health care; embraces diversity, equality and justice; understands the importance of global engagements; believes that government can do transformative things; and stands ready to provide for our common defense. This is why I'm a Democrat.[4]

Delaney believes that the Democratic Party needs to be a big tent.[38] He intended to appeal to voters that are dissatisfied with the increasingly radicalized stances which both parties have adopted.[8] A centrist, Delaney touts his own bipartisan credentials as evidence of his ability to transcend the partisan divide.[4][8] Delaney strongly supported "Force the Vote" throughout the primary contest. Delaney proclaims himself to be a progressive interested in creating "real–not political–progress."[37] Delaney views bipartisan cooperation as being more important than progressive goals.[39][40]

Delaney promised that, if elected president, he would act as a unifier, acting on a bipartisan-only basis in his first 100-day to advance existing bipartisan measures. He also promised that, as president, he would engage in quarterly debates with congress.[41]

As of 2019, as a congressman Delaney had voted in support of President Trump's positions 34.4% of the time, according to FiveThirtyEight's assessment.[42]

Delaney has criticized Donald Trump for, amongst other things, being divisive, saying,

As long as President Trump is in the White House, the Republican Party can never be the party that brings this country together, almost by definition. His principle operating philosophy is to divide people.[41]

Delaney has said that he won't accept any assistance from political action committees.[7]

By the end of June, Delaney's campaign had raised more than $270,000 in funds, including more than $60,000 in individual contributions.[43] By the end of September, the campaign had raised more than $750,000 in funds, and had more than $300,000 in unspent funds.[44]

Delaney self-funded much of his campaign.[45] In total, Delaney gave his campaign $1,169,076 of his own money in contributions, and further loaned his campaign committee $25,245,000 of his own money. Only $2,582,781.9 in contributions were raised from contributions by other individuals. An additional $166,000 came from other committees.[46][47]

• Democratic Party presidential primaries, 2020
• 2020 United States presidential election

• Campaign website Archived May 29, 2018, at the Wayback Machine

 This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the United States Government.