Delaney, who served three terms in Congress before leaving office in January 2019, announced his presidential candidacy in 2017. He previously owned a health care company and has campaigned as a moderate, focusing on a proposal to expand access to health coverage using Obamacare and existing insurance markets rather than upending the system.

Columbia University, B.S., 1985; Georgetown University Law Center, J.D., 1988

April 16, 1963

April Delaney

Roman Catholic

Summer, Lily, Grace and Brooke

Congressman from Maryland, 2013-2019;
Executive chairman of CapitalSource, 2010-2012;
CEO/executive manager of CapitalSource, 2000-2009;
Chairman of the Board, CEO and president of HealthCare Financial Partners, 1993-1997;
Co-owner of American Home Therapies, 1990-1992

DELANEY IN THE NEWS

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STANCES ON THE ISSUES

climate crisis

Delaney does not support the Green New Deal, the broad plan to address renewable-energy infrastructure and climate change proposed by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, calling it as “realistic as Trump saying that Mexico is going to pay for the wall.” Instead, Delaney has introduced a $4 trillion climate plan that includes a carbon fee on emissions producers like power plants, something he proposed while in Congress. He says the fee will reduce carbon emissions by 90% by 2050. Under the plan, the fee would be returned to Americans as a “dividend” they could use to pay for education or retirement. Delaney would try to directly counteract warming by investing $5 billion annually in technology to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and he supports a $20 billion plan to develop infrastructure for carbon dioxide capture and transport. He has also proposed starting what he calls the “Climate Corps.” It would give recent high school grads job opportunities to work in low-income communities to transition them “to a green economy, work on environmentally friendly projects, and fight climate change by working on the ground,” according to his website. Delaney says that on his first day in office, he would recommit the US to the Paris climate accord, a landmark 2015 deal on global warming targets that Trump has pledged to abandon. More on Delaney’s climate crisis policy

economy

Delaney has introduced a three-part “Living Wage Plan,” which would nearly double the Earned Income Tax Credit, raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour and index it to inflation, and establish an eight-week paid family leave program. To pay for it, he proposes rolling back Trump’s 2017 tax cuts as well as raising the capital gains rate for high earners. He also proposes taxing corporate investment in automation that displaces workers. As a congressman, Delaney was among the Democrats who supported the Trans-Pacific Partnership, an 11-nation trade deal negotiated under Obama that Trump withdrew from in one of his first acts as President. That agreement, which has gone ahead without the US, was designed in part to counter Chinese influence. Delaney has said he opposes Trump’s tariff-centric approach to negotiating trade with China, which Delaney argues is harming rural America. More on Delaney’s economic policy

education

As a congressman, Delaney introduced the Early Learning Act, which would provide free, universal pre-K paid for by a surtax of 1.5% on those who make more than $500,000 a year. He supports free public community college and technical training but is not in favor of providing universal tuition-free four-year college. He’s said he wants to allow student loan borrowers to refinance or discharge loans in bankruptcy, but has called loan forgiveness proposals “ridiculous.” In July 2019, Delaney proposed a mandatory national service plan that would provide two years of free tuition at a public college or university, and up to three years of tuition for those who extend their service periods. Tuition could also be applied to vocational or technical training. More on Delaney’s education policy

gun violence

Delaney supports universal background checks and a ban on AR-15-style weapons and high-capacity magazines. He’s also in favor of so-called “red flag” laws, which allow families and police to petition a judge to temporarily block someone’s access to firearms if there is credible concern they might hurt themselves or others. “We live in a country where we have the Second Amendment, which I support. So that gives the American people the right to bear arms, and under the Second Amendment, they have the right to bear handguns,” he said to The New York Times in June 2019. “But I do think that’s not an unlimited right.” More on Delaney’s gun violence policy

healthcare

Delaney has proposed enrolling all Americans in a public health insurance program he calls “BetterCare” that would replace the employer-sponsored insurance system. Individuals could opt out and receive a tax credit to buy their own policies. Americans and employers could also buy supplemental coverage from private insurers to cover additional services. Delaney would combat rising prescription drug prices by levying a 100% tax on pharmaceutical companies for the difference in the average price of a drug sold in the US vs. in other developed countries. He would also allow the federal government to negotiate drug prices with pharmaceutical companies. More on Delaney’s health care policy

immigration

Delaney supports providing a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, including some brought to the US as children. He would look to increase the number of refugees admitted to the US to 110,000 a year, he told The Washington Post. He would also work to enhance border security through “high-tech solutions, fencing, increased security personnel” and to increase security at ports of entry. More on Delaney’s immigration policy

LATEST POLITICAL NEWS

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