A Maryland congressman who is the first official Democratic presidential candidate for 2020 says his party must “start talking about what people really care about.” “Their jobs, the dignity of work, their pay and their opportunity for their children — that’s what people overwhelmingly care about. The Democratic Party has to be the party that stands for those things.” John Delaney has served three terms in the U.S. House, but is not seeking reelection in 2018. Instead, he’s visiting the states that host the first voting events in the 2020 presidential campaign and Delaney plans to visit Iowa twice a month over the next year. He was in Audubon Sunday afternoon and spoke by phone with Radio Iowa Sunday evening.

“The reason I entered this race so early is I think the Democratic Party has to have a very important conversation about our future and how we start winning elections,” Delaney says, “and I think I’m the person to, ultimately, lead that conversation, but really what I need to do is listen to people, make sure I’m focused on what they care about and give people an opportunity to get to know me.”

Delaney, who is 54 years old, is a former banker. He founded two companies and is worth about 90 million dollars according to the Associated Press. During his FIRST campaign for congress in 2012, Delaney promised voters he’d bring “the perspective of an entrepreneur to a gridlocked congress.” Delaney’s prescription for the Democratic Party in 2017? Figure out how to appeal to Americans who’ve been “left behind by the pace” of economic change.

“In the last election, we kind of created the wrong villain,” Delaney says. “The villain, they said, was globalization, but in reality it was government’s failure to respond to changes that were ultimately positive for the economy, but they weren’t positive for everyone and we watched it happen and we did nothing about it.” During his meeting with Democrats in Audubon on Sunday, Delaney didn’t mention Trump’s remarks about N-F-L players taking a knee during the National Anthem.

Delaney says Americans ARE looking for “civility” in their politics, but he says competence is the more pressing concern. “The Democratic Party has to be the party of good government,” Delaney says. “We need to be the party that actually gets government working again for the American people…They want to start believing in their government again because it’ll help them believe more in themselves.” Delaney was in Iowa last month and visited the Iowa State Fair.

Today (Monday) at 8 a.m., he’ll be at Duncan’s Cafe on Main Street in Council Bluffs to greet and talk with breakfast-hour customers.

(Radio Iowa)