John Delaney (Maryland politician)

John Delaney
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Maryland's 6th district
Assumed office
January 3, 2013
Preceded by Roscoe Bartlett
Personal details
Born John Kevin Delaney
(1963-04-16) April 16, 1963
Wood-Ridge, New Jersey, U.S.
Political party Democratic
Spouse(s) April McClain
Children 4
Education Columbia University (BS)
Georgetown University (JD)
Website House website

John Kevin Delaney (born April 16, 1963) is an American politician and businessman who has been the United States Representative for Maryland's 6th congressional district since 2013 and is running for President of the United States in 2020.[1] The district, the state's second-largest, includes nearly the entire western portion of the state, but the bulk of its vote is cast in the outer suburbs of Washington, D.C. He is a member of the Democratic Party.

On July 28, 2017, Delaney became the first major Democrat to announce he is running for president in 2020.[2]

Early life and education

Delaney grew up in Wood-Ridge, New Jersey, the son of Elaine (Rowe) and Jack Delaney, an electrician. He has Irish ancestry.[3] Delaney spent part of his youth working at his dad's construction site[4]

Scholarships helped him attend college thanks to his father's labor union (IBEW Local 164) as well as the American Legion, VFW, and the Lions Club. He is a graduate of Bergen Catholic High School,[5] Columbia University and Georgetown University Law Center.[6][7] In February 2015, Delaney received an honorary doctor of laws degree from Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland.[8]

Business career

Delaney has co-founded two companies, both of which are publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange. He has won the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2004.[9]

In 1993, he co-founded Health Care Financial Partners, to make loans available to smaller-sized health care service providers purportedly ignored by larger banks.[10] HCFP became public in 1996, and became an NYSE company in 1998.[11] Health Care Financial Partners was acquired by Heller Financial in 1999.[12]

In 2000, Delaney co-founded CapitalSource, a commercial lender headquartered in Chevy Chase, Maryland; the company provided capital to roughly 5,000 small and mid-size businesses before his departure.[13] In 2010, during Delaney’s tenure as 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.[14] In 2005, CapitalSource was named one of Washingtonian Magazine’s best places to work for its company culture and employee benefits.[15]

CapitalSource continued to be publicly traded on the NYSE after Delaney's election, making him the only former CEO of a publicly traded company serving in the 113th United States Congress.[16] In 2014, the lender was absorbed by PacWest Bancorp.[17]

U.S. House of Representatives

2012 election

After redistricting, Delaney decided to run for the newly redrawn 6th District against 10-term Republican incumbent Roscoe Bartlett. The district had long been a Republican stronghold, but it had been significantly reconfigured. The Maryland General Assembly shifted heavily Republican Carroll County and a mostly Republican section of Frederick County to the heavily Democratic 8th district. It shifted Republican-tilting sections of Harford and Baltimore counties into the already heavily Republican 1st district. Taking their place was a heavily Democratic spur of western Montgomery County, which ended just two blocks from Delaney's home in Potomac.

On paper, this dramatically altered the district's demographics, turning it from a heavily Republican district into a Democratic-leaning district. While John McCain carried the 6th with 57 percent of the vote in 2008,[18] Barack Obama would have carried the new 6th with 56 percent.[19] 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 Governor Martin 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."[20]

During the primary, Delaney was endorsed by former President Bill Clinton, U.S. Congresswoman Donna Edwards, Comptroller Peter Franchot, the Washington Post, and the Gazette.[21][22][23]

On April 3, 2012, Delaney won the five-candidate Democratic primary field with 54% of the vote. The next closest opponent, State Senator Robert J. Garagiola, received 29% of the vote, 25 points behind Delaney.[24][25]

In the November 6, 2012 general election, Delaney defeated Bartlett by 59%–38%, a 21-point margin. A nearly 56,000-vote margin in Montgomery County accounted for almost all of the overall 58,900 margin of votes.[26]

2014 election

Delaney faced a closer-than-expected contest for reelection against Republican Dan Bongino, the Republican candidate for Senate in 2012. He ultimately won by just over 2,200 votes, due mainly to swamping Bongino in the Montgomery County portion of the district by over 20,500 votes.[27] Larry Hogan carried the district in his successful run for governor.

2016 election

Delaney won a third term in 2016, taking 56 percent of the vote to Republican Amie Hoeber's 40 percent.

Tenure

Since his election to Congress, Delaney introduced legislation to end partisan gerrymandering. The Open 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.[28]

Delaney was ranked as the 53rd most bipartisan member of the U.S. House of Representatives during the 114th United States Congress (and the most bipartisan member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Maryland) in the Bipartisan Index created by The Lugar Center and the McCourt 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).[29] In 2015, a similar ranking by the nonpartisan site GovTrack ranked Delaney third highest for bipartisanship among all House Democrats.[30]

2020 presidential bid

Despite a rumored bid to run against incumbent governor Larry Hogan in 2018, Delaney plans to bypass the 2018 elections altogether. On July 28, 2017, Delaney announced he is running for president in 2020 in a Washington Post op-ed.[2]

Committee assignments

Caucus memberships

Legislation sponsored

Key legislation which Delaney has sponsored:

  • Medical Leave for Disabled Veterans Act (H.R. 5165; 114th Congress) – a bill that would relax the criteria for eligible veterans to qualify for FMLA to seek medical treatment for their service-connected disabilities.[35]
  • Veterans' Advisory Committee on Education Improvement Act of 2013 (H.R. 2011; 113th Congress) – a bill that would extend through the end of 2015 the Veterans' Advisory Committee on Education and change its membership.[36]
  • Partnership to Build America Act of 2013 (H.R. 2084; 113th Congress) – a bill that would establish the American Infrastructure Fund (AIF).[37]
  • Infrastructure 2.0 Act (H.R. 1670; 115th Congress) – a bill that uses revenue from international tax reform to fund an infrastructure bank and the Highway Trust Fund.[38]
  • Medical Foods Equity Act of 2013 (H.R. 3665; 113th Congress) – a bill that would extend coverage of medical foods, vitamins, and amino acids to those with metabolic disorders.[39]
  • Open Our Democracy Act (H.R. 2981; 115th Congress) – a bill proposed to make election day a federal holiday, make all congressional primary elections open elections so all eligible voters can participate in them, and to end gerrymandering by requiring independent commissions to draw the districts in each state.[28][40]

Political views

Delaney has been frequently referred to as a "moderate". However, he does not entirely identify as such.[41] 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.[41]

Personal life

Delaney and his wife April (née McClain) met at Georgetown University Law Center and have four daughters. His wife is the Washington, D.C. Director for Common Sense Media, a non-profit organization dedicated to educating families on social media. Two of his daughters attend Northwestern University.

He was a member of the Board of Directors of several organizations: St. Patrick's Episcopal Day School (Chairman), Georgetown University, National Symphony Orchestra, and the International Center for Research on Women.[16]

References

  1. ↑ Douglas, Danielle (March 19, 2012). "John Delaney's business record key to his congressional campaign — and his opponent's criticism". The Washington Post. Retrieved November 15, 2012.
  2. 1 2 Delaney, John (2017-07-28). "John Delaney: Why I'm running for president". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2017-07-28.
  3. ↑ "Congressman's Father Passes Away". WCBC Radio. June 30, 2016. Retrieved November 4, 2017.
  4. ↑ "NEW JERSEY NATIVE FIRST TO ANNOUNCE 2020 RUN FOR PRESIDENT". NJ 101.5. NJ 101.5. Retrieved 12 August 2018.
  5. ↑ "Dem Presidential Candidate Delnaey: American People Are 'Dying' for Someone to 'Bring Us Together'", Grabien.com from MSNBC, November 17, 2017. Accessed January 22, 2018. "DELANEY: 'Good to be here.' GEIST: 'I will forgive you for having gone to Bergen Catholic High School, which is my rival high school.'
  6. ↑ Staff (February 21, 2012). "Businessman focuses on job creation". Fredericknewspost.com. Archived from the original on April 6, 2012. Retrieved November 15, 2012.
  7. ↑ "John Delaney: Executive Profile & Biography". Investing.businessweek.com. January 1, 2010. Retrieved November 15, 2012.
  8. ↑ Washington College (February 20, 2015). "Convocation to Honor Irish Peacemaker Bertie Ahern and Maryland Congressman John Delaney". Chestertown, MD: Washington College.
  9. ↑ "EY Entrepeneur Of The Year". EOYHOF.com. 2004.
  10. ↑ Andy Shaughnessy (June 1, 1998). "David takes aim at the Goliaths of health care". Nreionline.com. Retrieved November 15, 2012.
  11. ↑ Staff (December 18, 1998). "HealthCare Financial to shift stock to NYSE". Articles.baltimoresun.com. Retrieved May 26, 2016.
  12. ↑ "Heller to pay $483 million for HealthCare Financial". tribunedigital-baltimoresun. Retrieved 2018-05-05.
  13. ↑ "Delaney Hosts Entrepreneurship Workshop in Rockville". Delaney.house.gov. April 7, 2014. Retrieved May 26, 2016.
  14. ↑ "CDFI Fund Awards Nearly $25 Million to Institutions for Increasing Lending and Investment in Economically Distressed Communities". cdfifund.gov. September 30, 2010. Archived from the original on October 22, 2010.
  15. ↑ "Great Places to Work: The List". Washingtonian.com. November 1, 2005.
  16. 1 2 "Biography". Delaney.house.gov. Retrieved May 26, 2016.
  17. ↑ "PacWest Bancorp Announces the Completion of Its Merger with CapitalSource Inc". PacWest Bancorp. Reuters. April 8, 2014. Archived from the original on April 17, 2016. Retrieved April 6, 2016.
  18. ↑ "Swing State Project: Presidential Results by Congressional District, 2000-2008". 16 October 2015. Archived from the original on 16 October 2015.
  19. ↑ "Daily Kos Elections 2008 & 2012 presidential election results for congressional districts used in 2012 & 2014 elections". Google Docs.
  20. ↑ Lake, Brett (June 1, 2017). "Lawsuit forces Maryland Democrats to acknowledge the obvious: Redistricting was motivated by politics". Baltimore Sun. Retrieved July 28, 2017.
  21. ↑ Ben Pershing (April 4, 2012). "Delaney, Md. Democrats work to show unified front after newcomer's primary win". The Washington Post. Retrieved November 15, 2012.
  22. ↑ Editorial Board (March 10, 2012). "John Delaney for Md.'s 6th District". The Washington Post. Retrieved November 15, 2012.
  23. ↑ "Delaney, Bartlett for Congress in 6th District". Gazette.Net. Archived from the original on July 9, 2012. Retrieved November 15, 2012.
  24. ↑ "MD District 06 - D Primary Race". Our Campaigns. April 3, 2012. Retrieved May 26, 2016.
  25. ↑ "Maryland State Board of Elections". Elections.state.md.us. Retrieved November 15, 2012.
  26. ↑ "MD - District 06 Race". Our Campaigns. November 6, 2012. Retrieved May 26, 2016.
  27. ↑ "Maryland House results". Politics. CNN. November 4, 2014. Retrieved November 4, 2017.
  28. 1 2 "Delaney Introduces Bill to End Gerrymandering, Reform Elections". United States Congress. Retrieved July 4, 2017.
  29. ↑ The Lugar Center - McCourt School Bipartisan Index (PDF), The Lugar Center, March 7, 2016, retrieved April 30, 2017
  30. ↑ John Delaney Report Card 2015, Govtrack.us, January 9, 2016
  31. ↑ "Members". New Democrat Coalition. Retrieved 5 February 2018.
  32. ↑ "Membership". Congressional Arts Caucus. Retrieved 13 March 2018.
  33. ↑ "Members". Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus. Retrieved 17 May 2018.
  34. ↑ "Members". Congressional NextGen 9-1-1 Caucus. Retrieved 11 June 2018.
  35. ↑ "H.R. 5165 - Summary". United States Congress. Retrieved May 4, 2016.
  36. ↑ "H.R. 2011 - Summary". United States Congress. Retrieved October 29, 2013.
  37. ↑ "H.R. 2084 - Summary". United States Congress. Retrieved January 14, 2014.
  38. ↑ "H.R. 3665 - Summary".
  39. ↑ "H.R. 3665 - Summary". United States Congress. Retrieved January 14, 2014.
  40. ↑ "Text - H.R.2981 - Open Our Democracy Act of 2017". United States Congress. Retrieved July 31, 2017.
  41. 1 2 Stevens, Taylor (January 26, 2018). "With nearly 3 years until 2020 election, deep-red Utah gets its first visit from a presidential candidate — a little-known Democrat". www.sltrib.com. Salt Lake Tribune. Retrieved January 30, 2018.
U.S. House of Representatives
Preceded by
Roscoe Bartlett		 Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Maryland's 6th congressional district
2013–present		 Incumbent
Current U.S. order of precedence (ceremonial)
Preceded by
Rodney Davis		 United States Representatives by seniority
261st		 Succeeded by
Elizabeth Esty
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