John Delaney to air TV ads in Iowa for 2020 presidential bid

The 2020 presidential campaign will art Sunday on Iowa TV screens.

John Delaney, a Maryland congressman who declared his candidacy for president last year, will begin advertising in the first-in-the-nation caucus state with a Super Bowl ad this Sunday.

In an interview with the Des Moines Register on Tuesday, Delaney said the Super Bowl spot will kick off a million-dollar ad buy that will run for four weeks on stations across Iowa. Delaney is a Democrat.

The ad touts Delaney’s commitment to bipartisanship, suggesting the term is a "dirty word" in Washington, D.C., but showing clips of him uttering it in Davenport, Des Moines and Sioux City during his various campaign stops in Iowa over the last year.

Here’s the ad:

"This is about winning Iowa and John knows that to win Iowa, voters here need to get to know you," Delaney campaign senior adviser John Davis said, noting the candidate will make his sixth trip to Iowa next weekend. "We're on the ground, we're on the air and we're talking about new issues in a new way. John stands out because he isn't afraid to embrace bipartisanship. John is focused on our future rather than refighting political battles from the past.”

Delaney said his campaign will air additional spots over the course of the four-week buy, which will air in the Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, Davenport and Sioux City markets.

Running a presidential campaign ad in February of the midterm election year before the presidential election may well be unprecedented in Iowa caucuses history — certainly one amounting to $1 million.

Delaney, a relatively unknown congressman in what is sure to be a vast Democratic presidential field, is banking on an early roll-out to compete with far better-known rivals.

He has held dozens of events in Iowa already, and says he plans to hold 400 to 500 events before January 2019, when the 2020 race is expected to begin in earnest.