Former Maryland congressman John Delaney touted his efforts to find common ground with GOP colleagues during three terms in the House of Representatives in his first nationally televised town hall Sunday night.
“I don’t think bipartisanship is a dirty word,” Delaney said during a nearly hour-long CNN session at the annual South by Southwest conference in Austin, Texas.
Delaney, of Potomac, was the first Democrat to enter the 2020 presidential race nearly two years ago and he said Sunday he has visited all 99 counties in Iowa, where the state’s party caucuses are seen as an early barometer of the strengths of candidates.
The Iowa Poll from The Des Moines Register, CNN and Mediacom, published Saturday, confirmed what analysts have been saying about his chances of overtaking a crowded Democratic field: Delaney had 1 percent support among Democrats likely to attend the caucuses.
Former Vice President Joe Biden, who has not announced if he will run, led the poll with 27 percent, followed by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders at 25 percent. Polling was conducted earlier this month.
The former Sixth District congressman talked of his family’s blue-collar roots and the importance of access to education, themes he has sounded for months.
“We have to start investing in people, we have to start investing in education,” he said. “We are a capitalist country that has strong social programs.”
The millionaire businessman discounted a “Green New Deal” being advanced by the party’s progressives to protect the environment and said he would push for a carbon tax in his first year as president.
“We … have to put our shoulder behind things that can actually get done,” Delaney said of the aggressive environmental proposal. “We have to have a goal around climate that is realistic.”
