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John Delaney from MD announces 2020 Presidential run, first to challenge Trump.

K

KSweeley

Member
Maryland's John Delaney, a U.S. House of Representatives member has announced a 2020 Presidential run, according to the Baltimore Sun, he is the first to be a challenger to Trump: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/ma...s-md-delaney-announcement-20170728-story.html

Rep. John Delaney, a former Potomac businessman who has cultivated a reputation for bipartisanship during three terms in Congress, announced Friday that he will run for the Democratic nomination for president — making him the first candidate to challenge President Donald J. Trump.

The centrist Democrat, little known outside his district, will face a steep climb in building a credible national campaign. His departure from Maryland, meanwhile, could alter the landscape in the state’s looming governor’s race and its most competitive congressional district.

Delaney, one of the only members of Congress to have run a public company, appears to center his presidential campaign on an economic message that the nation is poised to rebound if Washington embraces a “new economy” that is more entrepreneurial and forward-looking.

“There have been moments in history where big ideas have really changed things, and I think I have some big ideas,” Delaney, 54, said in an interview. “I think I have something to say.”

Delaney’s decision comes two years after another Marylander, former Gov. Martin O’Malley, launched an unsuccessful bid for the Democratic nomination.

O’Malley faced many of the same challenges awaiting Delaney: He was virtually unknown on the national stage, and he was seeking to appeal to the party’s liberal base after spending much of his time in office as a centrist.

The congressman, who announced his campaign in a Washington Post op-ed, said he knows the race will be a challenge, and said that is why he is beginning work on it now, nearly three years before the Iowa caucuses.

“I know what I’m getting into,” Delaney said. “I want to do all the hard work to earn people’s trust, to listen to them, and I feel like as I run this campaign over the next couple of years people will get to know me.”

Ron Klain, a Washington attorney who was Vice President Joe Biden's chief of staff and who has known Delaney for a decade, warned against underestimating the congressman.

“I think that we’re going to see in 2020 a pretty broad array of people putting themselves forward, given the fact that someone who had a zero percent chance three years ago is now our president,” Klain said. “Every presidential campaign is a long shot.”

Several Democratic colleagues in the state’s congressional delegation praised Delaney’s work in Congress but were noncommittal on his plan. Rep. Steny Hoyer, the Southern Maryland lawmaker and No. 2 Democrat in the House, predicted that Delaney would “bring an important perspective to the national debate.” Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger of Baltimore County described Delaney as a “smart, thoughtful legislator” and predicted he would be a “great candidate.”

Delaney’s decision not to run for governor next year could ease the path for other candidates, including incumbent Republican Gov. Larry Hogan, by taking some of the pressure off the race for money. Delaney, the third-wealthiest member of Congress with a net worth of at least $90 million, has invested heavily in his past campaigns.

In the Democratic gubernatorial primary, Delaney’s absence could also benefit centrist candidates by clearing the field of a like-minded politician.

“It opens up space for another moderate,” said Mileah Kromer, director of the Sarah T. Hughes Field Politics Center at Goucher College. “What we’ve seen so far is a real focus on the hard left. With him deciding not to run, the race is wide open for the center.”
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A

ApharmdX

Banned
Good luck. Delaney is my rep but he's a bog-standard establishment Dem, and unknown besides. I mean it's an open field at this point but I probably won't vote for him in the primary.
 
Link

Link

The Autumn Wind
Stupid move to announce this early. All this does is give plenty of time for Trump and the GOP to find whatever they can to smear him constantly for the next three years.
 
J

johnsmith

remember me
BarneyItBegins.png
 
B

Betty

Banned
I thought Trump would get to run uncontested from the GOP? Is that not how it works?

You mean a sitting president's own party can try and run one of their own against the president?
 
S

Stumpokapow

listen to the mad man
Link said:
Stupid move to announce this early. All this does is give plenty of time for Trump and the GOP to find whatever they can to smear him constantly for the next three years.
Click to expand...

He's not announcing because he thinks he can or wants to win, he's announcing to raise his profile, drum up a couple bucks, turn his district from a marginal D to hopefully something a little safer, and probably push some pet issue. There's maybe a 10-15% chance he'll make it to the first primary and a 0% chance he'll be the nominee. And even Trump's people aren't dumb enough to bother giving this guy what he wants.

Betty said:
I thought Trump would get to run uncontested from the GOP? Is that not how it works?

You mean a sitting president's own party can try and run one of their own against the president?
Click to expand...

Uh, yes (this happens pretty frequently), but this guy is a Democrat.
 
D

Deleted member 80556

Unconfirmed Member
Betty said:
I thought Trump would get to run uncontested from the GOP? Is that not how it works?

You mean a sitting president's own party can try and run one of their own against the president?
Click to expand...

That's how democracy works in the USA, but it's almost impossible to win in primaries against a sitting president. Well I can't recall any case at least where that happened.
 
V

VendettaRed07

Member
Betty said:
I thought Trump would get to run uncontested from the GOP? Is that not how it works?

You mean a sitting president's own party can try and run one of their own against the president?
Click to expand...
Yeap. They just normally don't out of respect

Even if trump makes it 4 years no way he isn't primary challenged
 
S

Stumpokapow

listen to the mad man
Juan29.zapata said:
That's how democracy works in the USA, but it's almost impossible to win in primaries against a sitting president. Well I can't recall any case at least where that happened.
Click to expand...

LBJ dropped out in 1968 because he was going to lose. Ted Kennedy almost beat Carter in 1980.
 
K

KojiKnight

Member
Stumpokapow said:
He's not announcing because he thinks he can or wants to win, he's announcing to raise his profile, drum up a couple bucks, turn his district from a marginal D to hopefully something a little safer, and probably push some pet issue. There's maybe a 10-15% chance he'll make it to the first primary and a 0% chance he'll be the nominee. And even Trump's people aren't dumb enough to bother giving this guy what he wants.
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I disagree... Trump has already put on at least one or two 2020 run fund raisers. I think his pride is such that he'll use some of that money to put out smear efforts. If nothing else, it'll be the talk on twitter as soon as he sees a Fox segment on it.

Never underestimate the pride contained in Trump.
 
B

Betty

Banned
Stumpokapow said:
Uh, yes (this happens pretty frequently), but this guy is a Democrat.
Click to expand...
Robdraggoo said:
It says he's a Democrat
Click to expand...
Juan29.zapata said:
That's how democracy works in the USA, but it's almost impossible to win in primaries against a sitting president. Well I can't recall any case at least where that happened.
Click to expand...

Ah, I thought he was a Republican.

But I didn't know it was possible for a party to try to run another against their own party's sitting president, that would be bonkers.

I feel 2020 is going to be a bigger circus than 2016

VendettaRed07 said:
Yeap. They just normally don't out of respect

Even if trump makes it 4 years no way he isn't primary challenged
Click to expand...

I'd love it if a Republican went far enough to split the GOP vote between themself and Trump to get a Democrat win.
 
M

monchi-kun

Member
adamsappel said:
He's my rep, too. I honestly can't tell you a thing about him. He's not an inspirational firebrand that Democrats seem to need to get out the vote.
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I'm kind of tired of "inspirational firebrand" after this last cycle. I just want someone competent at this point who actually gives a shit about people's lives
 
T

theWB27

Member
adamsappel said:
He's my rep, too. I honestly can't tell you a thing about him. He's not an inspirational firebrand that Democrats seem to need to get out the vote.
Click to expand...

Ill beat this drum till the cows come home... while y'all look for that inspiration the opposition will keep steadily stacking.
 
K

KojiKnight

Member
Betty said:
Ah, I thought he was a Republican.

But I didn't know it was possible for a party to try to run another against their own party's sitting president, that would be bonkers.

I feel 2020 is going to be a bigger circus than 2016
Click to expand...

The problem for someone running against an incumbent is that they have all of the momentum and the party leaders aren't likely to just give money to someone else in the party to run against them and split the vote (and take money away from attacking the other party).

So you have to have a terrible incumbent, and another candidate that is essentially reborn Ronald Reagan if you wanted that to work out.
 
DietRob

DietRob

i've been begging for over 5 years.
Oh man for a few seconds there I was thinking of John Mulaney (the comedian) and because our political landscape is so fucked now I figured "Ok that makes sense"
 
E

Ether_Snake

安安安安安安安安安安安安安安安
2020 will be full of independents/third party candidates, full, all the way to the end. He's a Democrat, but expect an exponential number of people announcing they'll run. Trump's administration is so goofy anyone will take a shot and look credible. If you didn't like the 2016 race, 2020 will be a catastrophe.
 
B

Betty

Banned
KojiKnight said:
The problem for someone running against an incumbent is that they have all of the momentum and the party leaders aren't likely to just give money to someone else in the party to run against them and split the vote (and take money away from attacking the other party).

So you have to have a terrible incumbent, and another candidate that is essentially reborn Ronald Reagan if you wanted that to work out.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that doesn't seem likely given the current GOP's roster.
 
K

KojiKnight

Member
Ether_Snake said:
2020 will be full of independents/third party candidates, full, all the way to the end. He's a Democrat, but expect an exponential number of people announcing they'll run. Trump's administration is so goofy anyone will take a shot and look credible. If you didn't like the 2016 race, 2020 will be a catastrophe.
Click to expand...

We have that most cycles, the last one no different. The problem is they have no way of elevating themselves to stand a chance. The largest third party candidates this last cycle didn't even dent 10% combined.

Betty said:
Yeah, that doesn't seem likely given the current GOP's roster.
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Not an incumbent if he doesn't make it all the way through his term. Weird question... can an impeached president even run again? I assume one who resigns could but one of their terms would be used.
 
K

kevin1025

Banned
When Trump is already doing self-promotion/hype rallies, might as well start as early as possible and make a name for yourself.
 
Q

Qvoth

Member
“I think that we’re going to see in 2020 a pretty broad array of people putting themselves forward, given the fact that someone who had a zero percent chance three years ago is now our president,” Klain said. “Every presidential campaign is a long shot.”
Click to expand...

so that's at least 1 good thing that comes out of trump's presidency i guess?
 
E

Ether_Snake

安安安安安安安安安安安安安安安
KojiKnight said:
We have that most cycles, the last one no different. The problem is they have no way of elevating themselves to stand a chance. The largest third party candidates this last cycle didn't even dent 10% combined.
Click to expand...

Irrelevant, Trump won, that will make a big difference. The media and the people will pay attention, and they figured how to get attention. You'll have some celebrities, some radicals, and they'll get attention. It will be a big circus, good for ratings.
 
K

kirblar

Member
John Delaney, you can go home, we already had Martin O'Malley.

Martin O'Malley, you can go home, we already had an inanimate carbon rod.
 
A

AlexFlame116

Member
Hey I actually wanted to take a chance and try to become President myself when I was a kid! Then I realized that I had to be born in the United States. Dang me.
 
K

KSweeley

Member
AlexFlame116 said:
Hey I actually wanted to take a chance and try to become President myself when I was a kid! Then I realized that I had to be born in the United States. Dang me.
Click to expand...

Same boat I'm in. I'm a naturalized U.S. Citizen, was adopted when I was only 5 months old. I considered running for local political office when the whole Occupy movement was going on but thought "What's the point? If I made it to the federal level, I would be limited to being a Senator at the very least, can't be President because naturalized citizens cannot be President of the United States."
 
A

ApharmdX

Banned
Carl2282 said:
looks like he's mine too, holy freaking gerrymandered district!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maryl..._US_Congressional_District_6_(since_2013).tif
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Yeah, our district was gerrymandered to fucking hell in 2012 IIRC? Prior to Delaney we had Roscoe Bartlett, who was a Tea Party libertarian type before the TP actually came into being. Good riddance to Bartlett but now you have Delaney, who represents a split district of heavily-Democratic and wealthy Montgomery County and fairly- to heavily-conservative Western Maryland. It's no wonder he's a centrist, but he lacks the charisma to sell his centrism. His campaign is going nowhere.
 
N

Not

Banned
I will vote for anyone the Democratic party nominates to run against Trump.

Period.

Anyone who doesn't is out of touch with reality.
 
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