John Delaney | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait, 2013 | |
| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromMaryland's6th district | |
| In office January 3, 2013 – January 3, 2019 | |
| Preceded by | Roscoe Bartlett |
| Succeeded by | David Trone |
| Personal details | |
| Born | John Kevin Delaney (1963-04-16)April 16, 1963 (age 62) Wood-Ridge,New Jersey, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 4 |
| Education | Columbia University (BA) Georgetown University (JD) |
| Website | Campaign website |
John Kevin Delaney (born April 16, 1963) is an American politician, businessman, and former attorney who was theUnited States representative forMaryland's 6th congressional district from 2013 to 2019.[1] He was a candidate in the2020 Democratic presidential primaries.
On July 28, 2017, Delaney became the first Democrat to announce hisrun for president in 2020.[2] Delaney did not run for re-election to Congress in 2018, choosing to focus on his presidential campaign. In November 2018, fellow DemocratDavid Trone was elected to succeed Delaney in Congress, and subsequently endorsed him forPresident in 2020. Delaney suspended his campaign on January 31, 2020, citing low poll numbers and wanting to avoid pulling support from other candidates.[3][4] He later endorsedJoe Biden for president. He is the husband of U.S. congresswomanApril McClain Delaney.
Delaney grew up inWood-Ridge, New Jersey, the son of Elaine (Rowe), and Jack Delaney, an electrician. He is the nephew of formerAetnaCEOJohn Rowe.[5] He is of three quarters Irish and one quarter English descent.[6][7] Delaney spent part of his youth working at his father's construction sites.[8]
Delaney graduated fromBergen Catholic High School.[9] Scholarships from his father's labor union (IBEW Local 164) as well as theAmerican Legion,VFW, and theLions Club helped Delaney attend college; he earned aB.A. degree fromColumbia University in 1985, and aJ.D. degree fromGeorgetown University Law Center in 1988.[10][11][12]
Delaney co-founded two companies that were publicly traded on theNew York Stock Exchange. He won theErnst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2004.[13]
In 1993, Delaney co-founded Health Care Financial Partners (HCFP), to make loans available to smaller-sized health care service providers said to be ignored by larger banks.[14] HCFPwent public in 1996, and its stock began trading on theNew York Stock Exchange in 1998.[15] Health Care Financial Partners was acquired byHeller Financial in 1999.[16]
In 2000, Delaney co-foundedCapitalSource, a commercial lender headquartered inChevy Chase, Maryland; the company provided capital to roughly 5,000 small and mid-size businesses before his departure.[17] In 2010, while Delaney was CEO, CapitalSource was awarded a Bank Enterprise Award from the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund by the U.S. Treasury Department for its investment in low-income and economically distressed communities.[18] In 2005, CapitalSource was named one ofWashingtonian magazine's best places to work for its company culture and employee benefits.[19]
CapitalSource continued to be publicly traded on the NYSE after Delaney's election, making him the only former CEO of a publicly traded company to serve in the113th United States Congress.[20] In 2014, the lender merged withPacWest Bancorp.[21]
After redistricting following the 2010 census, Delaney decided to run for the newly redrawn 6th district against 10-term Republican incumbentRoscoe Bartlett. The district had long been a Republican stronghold, but it had been significantly reconfigured. TheMaryland General Assembly shifted much of heavily RepublicanCarroll County and the more rural sections ofFrederick County into the heavily Democratic8th district. It also shifted Republican-tilting sections ofHarford andBaltimore counties, as well as another section of Carroll, into the already heavily Republican1st district. Taking their place was a heavily Democratic spur of western Montgomery County previously in the 8th District. The redrawn district's share of Montgomery County ended just two blocks from Delaney's home inPotomac. The redrawn district, the state's second-largest, included nearly the entire western portion of the state, but the bulk of its vote came from the outer suburbs ofWashington, D.C.
On paper, this dramatically altered the district's demographics, turning it from a heavily Republican district into a Democratic-leaning district. WhileJohn McCain carried the 6th with 57 percent of the vote in 2008,[22]Barack Obama would have carried the new 6th with 56 percent.[23] The Montgomery County share of the district has three times as many people as the rest of the district combined.
The shifts were quite controversial, as Republicans accused Democrats of shifting district boundaries in their favor, and former GovernorMartin O'Malley later admitted the redrawn districts would favor Democrats. "That was my hope," O'Malley told attorneys in a deposition. "It was also my intent to create ... a district where the people would be more likely to elect a Democrat than a Republican."[24]
During the primary, Delaney was endorsed by former PresidentBill Clinton, U.S. CongresswomanDonna Edwards, ComptrollerPeter Franchot,The Washington Post, and theGazette.[25][26][27]
On April 3, 2012, Delaney won the five-candidate Democratic primary field with 54% of the vote. The next closest opponent, State SenatorRobert J. Garagiola, received 29% of the vote, 25 points behind Delaney.[28][29]
In the November 6, 2012 general election, Delaney defeated Bartlett by 59%–38%, a 21-point margin. He won the Montgomery County share of the district by almost 56,000 votes, accounting for almost all of the overall margin of 58,900 votes.[30]
Delaney faced a closer-than-expected contest for reelection againstDan Bongino, the Republican candidate in 2012 for U.S. Senate from Maryland. While Delaney won just one of the district's five counties, that one county was Montgomery, which he carried by over 20,500 votes. Delaney ultimately won the race by just over 2,200 votes.[31]
Delaney won a third term in 2016, taking 56 percent of the vote to Republican Amie Hoeber's 40 percent.
Delaney introduced legislation to end partisangerrymandering. TheOpen Our Democracy Act of 2017 would appoint independent redistricting commissions nationwide to end partisan gerrymandering, make Election Day a federal holiday, and create an open top-two primary system.[32]
Delaney was ranked as the 53rd most bipartisan member of the U.S. House of Representatives during the114th United States Congress (and the most bipartisan member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Maryland) in the Bipartisan Index created byThe Lugar Center and theMcCourt School of Public Policy that ranks members of the United States Congress by their degree of bipartisanship (by measuring the frequency each member's bills attract co-sponsors from the opposite party and each member's co-sponsorship of bills by members of the opposite party).[33] In 2015, a similar ranking by the nonpartisan site GovTrack ranked Delaney third highest for bipartisanship among all House Democrats.[34]
Despite a rumored bid to run against governorLarry Hogan in2018, Delaney bypassed the2018 elections altogether. On July 28, 2017, he announced his run for president in 2020 in aWashington Post op-ed.[2]
Delaney favoreduniversal health coverage and proposed a public plan that would cover all Americans under the age of 65 (while leavingMedicare for those over 65 untouched).[40] He opposed Medicare-for-all, arguing that advocacy for the policy would help incumbent PresidentDonald Trump get re-elected.[41][42] During a June 2019 debate, Delaney claimed that hospitals will be shuttered underMedicare for All;Politifact, theWashington Post fact-checker, andKaiser Health News all found this claim to be false and unsubstantiated.[43][44][41]
Delaney dropped out of the presidential race on January 31, 2020. He cited his failure to gain traction in polls and wanting to avoid pulling support from other moderate candidates as reasons behind the suspension of his campaign.[45] On March 6, 2020, he endorsedJoe Biden.[46]
Delaney has been frequently referred to as a "moderate". However, he does not entirely identify as such.[47] Delaney has remarked,
People have a hard time labeling me. Some of the things they hear me talking about are on the total progressive or liberal end of the spectrum, and in other ways I'm kind of a solutions-oriented moderate who wants to get things done.[47]
However, statements made since then suggest he has embraced the moderate label. Appearing on PBS NewsHour on May 8, 2019, Delaney remarked, "I am probably the most moderate candidate" in the field of 2020 Democratic presidential candidates.[48]
He has received the top score of 100 from theHuman Rights Campaign for his support of equality-related legislation, with him stating "No one should be discriminated against because of who they are or who they love" in response to this recognition.[49][50]
Delaney has said he would support increasing thecorporate tax rate from 21 percent to 23 percent "to raise about $200 billion for infrastructure".[51]
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Delaney and his wifeApril (née McClain) met atGeorgetown University Law Center. They married inSun Valley, Idaho in 1989,[52] and moved to theWashington metropolitan area after graduating.[53] Together, they live inPotomac, Maryland[54] and have four daughters; Summer, Brooke, Lily, and Grace.[55] April served as deputy administrator of theNational Telecommunications and Information Administration from 2022 to 2023[54] beforerunning for Congress in Maryland's 6th congressional district in 2024.[56] Two of Delaney's four daughters attendNorthwestern University while his oldest daughter, Summer, worked as a video journalist and multimedia reporter forTribune Media andWPIX (PIX11) News.[citation needed]
Delaney is Catholic, and has said that "to some extent" his faith has guided his "social justice orientation".[57] He was also a member of the Board of Directors of several organizations: St. Patrick's Episcopal Day School (Chairman),Georgetown University,National Symphony Orchestra, and theInternational Center for Research on Women.[20]
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| U.S. House of Representatives | ||
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| Preceded by | Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromMaryland's 6th congressional district 2013–2019 | Succeeded by |
| U.S. order of precedence (ceremonial) | ||
| Preceded byas Former US Representative | Order of precedence of the United States as Former US Representative | Succeeded byas Former US Representative |
| International | |
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| National | |
| People | |
