John Delaney’s Presidential Campaign Focuses on Uniting Pragmatic And Progressive Solutions

June 4, 2019 by TWN Staff
John Delaney’s Presidential Campaign Focuses on Uniting Pragmatic And Progressive Solutions
Congressman John Delaney campaigns at the Shady Grove Metro station in a file image from 2014. Delaney is running for president, but polling at zero. (Kim Hairston/Baltimore Sun/TNS)

Candidate: John Delaney

State of Residence: Maryland

Campaign Website: https://www.johndelaney.com

Congressman John Delaney campaigns at the Shady Grove Metro station in a file image from 2014. Delaney is running for president, but polling at zero. (Kim Hairston/Baltimore Sun/TNS)

Short Bio: John Delaney grew up in a blue-collar family in Wood-Ridge, New Jersey. His father was a hardworking, 60-year member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, while his mother stayed home to raise Delaney and his sister.

Delaney’s grandparents came to the United States from Ireland and England, and found jobs in Jersey City, NJ, where one grandfather worked in a pencil factory and the other was a dockworker. Delaney said in a campaign bio that his parents instilled that same value of hard work in him.

“I can’t remember a time as a kid when I wasn’t working during a break from school. I’ve spent summers as a mason and excavation laborer, painter, landscaper, and most often, an electrician’s assistant, working side by side with my dad,” Delaney said.

After law school, Delaney decided to take a chance and start my own businesses from scratch. By the time he turned 40, he launched and led two companies that created thousands of jobs, and were publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange.

With his first company, Delaney became the youngest CEO on the New York Stock Exchange.

His second company, CapitalSource, headquartered in Montgomery County, Md., focused on providing loans to small and mid-sized companies, the kind of businesses too often ignored by the big banks. For nearly twenty years, Delaney said, his firm helped more than 5,000 small and mid-sized companies across the United States and employed nearly 2,000 people.

After two decades as a successful entrepreneur, innovator, and business and nonprofit leader, Delaney decided to run for Congress, and he’s said his campaign commitments then were the same as they are today: advance progressive values, find solutions and common ground, bring new ideas, and create forward-looking policies that help everyday Americans.

Since taking office in 2012, Delaney has introduced large-scale bipartisan legislation on infrastructure, tax reform, social security, and impact investing. He described himself as a proud champion for veterans, public education and pre-kindergarten, bringing jobs to underserved rural and urban communities, and combating the opioid epidemic. On foreign policy, his work has centered on a strong national defense, strengthening our alliances, and cutting sources of terrorism funding. He also said he believes the best policy making focuses squarely on the future, and that he’s acted on those beliefs by founding the Artificial Intelligence Caucus and am a founding member of the bipartisan Climate Solutions Caucus. [Official Website]

Fun Fact: Delaney has been in the race longer than any major Democratic candidate running for president. He officially filed and launched his campaign in July 2017, over a year before any other major Democratic presidential contender. [PBS]

On the Issues

Health Care: As President, he would roll this plan out to the American people after we fix the damage that the GOP has done to the Affordable Care Act and improve upon it. This way, Americans would once again get the benefits of the ACA while the nation and Congress have the time it takes to reform health care. Tying access to health insurance to employment forces workers to stay in jobs they don’t like, distracts entrepreneurs from their main focus of running their businesses, and prevents wages from increasing.

  • Create a new public health care plan for all Americans under the age of 65 while preserving traditional Medicare. The new plan would protect the reforms delivered by the Affordable Care Act, including guaranteed coverage of preexisting conditions and essential health benefits, and would make access truly universal. At 65, people would transition into Medicare. Medicaid would be absorbed by the new plan. The highly trusted Medicare provider network could be used for the new plan.
  • Guarantee universal coverage. Individuals would be automatically enrolled in the new public plan, with no complicated procedures to follow. People would be allowed to opt-out and receive a tax credit to buy their own insurance policy if they choose.
  • Keep private insurance options. Individuals and employers will be able to purchase and negotiate supplemental coverage from private insurers to cover additional health needs. These supplementals could merge into the basic plan to make it easier for the user.
  • Employers would be encouraged to negotiate group rate supplemental plans that would merge with the basic governmental plan so that employees would be able to keep similar health care plans, many of which are very popular and important to American families.
[Official Website]

Jobs/Economy/Taxes: To ensure that everyone has an opportunity to live the American Dream, John Delaney proposes making significant investments in the areas that have been left behind by globalization and providing the necessary resources to prepare for the future of work.

  • Direct investment in communities that have been left behind by globalization and technological change:
    • Delaney will give priority in government contracting to companies with a majority of employees located in economically struggling communities. Ensuring that the government supports businesses that are not in already-prosperous areas will promote economic growth in areas that have suffered due to globalization and automation.
    • Delaney supports opportunity zones, which encourage private investment in distressed communities by providing tax incentives on certain long-term investments. Investment from the private sector, supported by the right incentives, can turn around economically-struggling communities.
    • Making an investment to rebuild our infrastructure will create jobs in hard-hit communities and encourage economic growth. This includes transportation, high speed internet, and clean water systems.
  • Developing a national strategy to address Artificial Intelligence will allow every sector of our economy to benefit from technological change. By understanding the true effects of AI and other forms of innovation, our government can help manage the transition into the increasingly automated modern economy and minimize the disruption for American workers.
  • Guaranteeing free Pre-K through 14 public education will give everyone the opportunity to succeed and ensure that students learn the skills they need.
  • Doubling the Earned Income Tax Credit will help hardworking families make ends meet. The EITC has lifted millions of people out of poverty, including 2.8 million adults and nearly 3 million children in 2016 alone. Delaney would also expand EITC eligibility for childless adults to increase the incentive to work and stop our tax code from burdening low-wage earners.
[Official Website]

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