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The First Democrat to Announce a 2020 Presidential Bid Is … John Delaney?

Posted on
July 31, 2017
by Agree Staff
If you don't like presidential campaigns that go on for years, then you won't like this one. Forty months before Election Day 2020 – more than two years until the Iowa caucus – we already have our first Democratic presidential candidate.

And it's Rep. John Delaney.

Who's that, you say? Well, maybe that's why Delaney is giving himself an extra 18 months before most other candidates jump into the ring. For a good while, he'll have the field all to himself.

Maryland Rep. John Delaney Speaks Bipartisanship to Democratic Partisans

The three-term congressman from Maryland launched his improbable bid with a 5-minute introductory video, depicting himself as a bipartisan problem-solver and businessman.

The video is traditional – in other words, not designed to go viral. No stunts, no gimmicks, no outlandish proposals and no crude comedy.

Delaney speaks to the camera, interspersed with images of Americans working in factories, construction sites and at desks behind computers. He critiques Trump soberly, and strictly on economic grounds, putting aside questions about Trump's divisiveness: "He's not doing the things we need to do structurally to make our economy more competitive, to make our country more entrepreneurial and position people to succeed in that new economy we all know is coming."

The bio spot also includes testimonials, touting Delaney's problem-solving abilities in terms might seem to be Trumpesque if not for the lack of histrionics. Katherine Bradley deems Delaney as "a force of nature, he can tackle things no one else can tackle ... [He] simply doesn't have an equal in his ability to tackle hard things." Bradley is identified on-screen as an "education advocate," but it is not said that she runs her own CityBridge Foundation that funds charter schools.

Can This Former Banker Win Populist Progressives?

Without mentioning his past support for the Trans-Pacific Partnership  trade deal, loathed by many populist Democratic primary voters, Delaney tries to walk a fine line on trade. "On balance, global trade reshaped and improved our country and the world, but it didn't help everyone, and no one stood up to make sure entire communities weren't decimated." And he seeks to establish working-class credibility with the help of his wife, who lets viewers know, "John grew up the son of a union electrician, hard work, decent pay, health care and pension, he understands what that means for a working family."

He taps a former employee of the lending company he founded, CapitalSource, to assure, "John's a progressive businessman. In building his companies, he always insisted on the highest of ethical standards [and] created jobs with good pay and benefits and always was giving back to the community."

But risking the ire of the populists, Delaney cautions against a confrontational approach: "Let's stand up for workers, instead of big companies and big banks... But attacking banks won't win the day. We need to lay out a new approach to economic growth." That statement is followed by another testimonial that could raise eyebrows among Democratic primary voters, a former Republican congressman named Richard Hanna, who promotes a bill Delaney wrote that pairs the "$2 trillion repatriation issue and our ailing infrastructure." While many progressives want investment in infrastructure, they consider repatriation – allowing profits parked abroad to come back to America at a low tax rate – to be a corporate giveaway.

"Haven't we had enough destructive partisan wars," asks Delaney, "where people put party over country?" That might be a fine general election message, but it's dicey when speaking to primary voters who are deeply partisan.
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