T-R PHOTO BY SARA JORDAN-HEINTZ Former U.S. Congressman and Democratic presidential hopeful John Delaney made a campaign stop Tuesday evening at the Marshalltown Public Library, dropping in on a Marshall County Democratic Party Central Committee meeting.

Presidential hopeful John Delaney said he’s the best choice among Democrats because he doesn’t make impossible promises and has a diverse background during a stop Tuesday in Marshalltown.

“I have a very different background. I’ve been a leader in the private sector and a leader in the government sector,” Delaney said. “I’ve got real solutions to all these issues and that makes me really different.”

The former U.S. Congressman visited a Marshall County Democratic Party Central Committee meeting at the Marshalltown Public Library, where about 30 people were in attendance.

Chairwoman Jeannine Grady of the local committee said candidates are welcome to attend meetings and typically lead things off with staffers from all the presidential candidates giving updates later.

Delaney, the son of a union electrician and stay-at-home mom, is a lawyer and businessman. He was the youngest CEO in the history of the New York Stock Exchange and the first person in his family to go to college.

“But 10 years ago, I decided to dedicate the rest of my life to public service,” he said. “That’s what led me to run for congress where I won in 2012 and flipped a seat that had been held by a Republican for 20 years.”

He said the Democrats’ number one goal this election season should be to vote President Donald Trump out of office.

“We need to become the party the American people are looking for — which is a party that is civil and decent, focused on bringing us together and getting real things done that matter to the average American at their kitchen table,” he said.

Delaney wants to reform the immigration system, expand health care as a right and tackle climate change. He said young adults today are at a disadvantage compared to when their parents were starting out a generation ago. One of his proposed policies is to create a new Workers’ Tax Credit by expanding and almost doubling the existing Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) program.

“Last year 80 percent of the money for new businesses went to 50 counties. There are 3,000 counties in this country,” he said. “But 1.6 percent of them got all the money. We should have done things a long time ago to change those trends — which is why I don’t believe the American people need more partisanship, gridlock or ideology.”

Delaney represented Maryland’s Sixth District in congress from 2013 to 2019. He announced his candidacy over two years ago and has visited all 99 counties in Iowa.

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Contact Sara Jordan-Heintz at 641-753-6611 or sjordan@timesrepublican.com