Presidential candidate John Delaney, a Potomac resident, is ending his 2020 presidential campaign.
“This decision is informed by internal analyses indicating John’s support is not sufficient to meet the 15% viability in a material number of caucus precincts,” his campaign wrote in a press release on Friday morning, “but sufficient enough to cause other moderate candidates to not to make the viability threshold, especially in rural areas where John has campaigned harder than anyone.
Delaney, a former congressman who represented Maryland’s 6th Congressional district from 2013 to 2019, was the first to announce his candidacy for the 2020 elections in July 2017 — nearly a year earlier than his competitors. A moderate Democrat, Delaney centered his campaign on what he framed as “bipartisan solutions.”
“This approach – which is what successfully won back the House in 2018 – beats Trump, unifies our nation and gets things done,” Friday’s campaign statement says.
That often put him at odds with current Democratic frontrunners such as Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, who have successfully campaigned on promises to eliminate private health insurance and implement a higher tax on the country’s wealthiest residents.
Delaney endorsed universal health care coverage for residents younger than 65 while maintaining Medicare and private health insurance. He also criticized Warren’s plans for a wealth tax, suggesting that it could be unconstitutional. He supported increasing the capital gains tax and raising corporate income taxes while keeping them lower than rates before 2017.
Delaney was one of the wealthiest candidates in the field, with a net worth estimated at $200 million. According to filings with the Federal Elections Commission, he loaned his campaign roughly $24.4 million of his own money and contributed more than $110,506.55. In total, he spent roughly $11.4 million campaigning.
That included millions in Iowa, where Delaney visited every one of the state’s 99 counties. In November, he unveiled a series of 30-minute infomercials on his policies, which were scheduled to run in the months leading up to the state’s caucuses on Monday.
In the statement on Friday morning, Delaney said he left the race with “a profound sense of gratitude” to the voters he met while campaigning. He called for an end to “unrealistic and divisive campaign promises,” calling on fellow Democrats to “be the party the American people need.”
“While we have significant challenges and too many Americans are struggling, the world gets better every year and the United States of America has driven much of this progress,” he said. “Let’s keep it that way.”
With Delaney’s exit from the race, there are 11 Democrats and three Republicans running for president. The Maryland primaries will take place on April 28.
