Maryland Rep. John Delaney is not a household name like some of the Democrats running or thinking about running for president in 2020, but he thinks there is space for his moderate and positive message.
He’s a wealthy business owner with a working class background, he has a detailed health care plan and he’s focusing on Iowa, the first state to make its choice in the Democratic primary next year.
It’s taken a leap of faith to join the race, he told David Axelrod on the Axe Files, a podcast from the University of Chicago Institute of Politics and CNN.
Here’s John Delaney’s stance on three issues ahead of the 2020 Election:
1. Immigration
Delaney urges “a little shared humanity” toward immigrants coming to start their life here, and he accuses President Donald Trump of “creating a villain” out of the immigrant population “that isn’t really the villain.”
“It was an easy villain for him to frame and point to, particularly in communities where people haven’t had a lot of experience with immigration, or don’t live side-by-side with a lot of immigrants, or have this perception that immigrants are taking their jobs,” Delaney said.
He described immigrants as entrepreneurial and and said, “They are kind of the beating heart of this nation.”
2. Health Care
Delaney has his own plan to remake the health care system. He would take away the tax advantage companies get for providing care to make health insurance independent of employment.
“Health care is really three things: It’s access, quality and cost. I think the problem we have in our health care debate now is we talk exclusively about access.” Delaney said.
If health care were not a perk for employees, but the government provided basic care, the market would provide supplemental plans.
“Then you’d have a system where everyone gets a basic health care plan when they’re born until they’re 65,” he says.
3. Worker’s Rights
Delaney recently passed through Lordstown, Ohio, where 5,000 people are losing their jobs following GM’s plan to close its production plant there.
“We gotta have real policies that actually create jobs in these places. But what we really have to do is stop fighting politically and actually start getting some of this done because the cost of doing nothing is not nothing for huge parts of the country,” Delaney said.
In addition to job creation and retention, Delaney is also focused on supporting workers’ unions, His father’s union, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, awarded Delaney a college scholarship that covered half of his tuition, allowing him to attend Columbia University.
Delaney’s mission to make it easier for workers to organize has roots in the benefits he saw as the son of a union worker. But there are also potential benefits for non-union workers as well.
“Everything that’s positive that’s happened to a worker in this country has largely been because of the labor movement. … If you drive down the highway these days and you see someone on the side of the road with a helmet and a vest, they’re probably not in a union but they’re wearing the helmet and the vest because some union fought for those rights.”
