Senior staff of 2020 Democratic presidential candidate John Delaney have reportedly asked him to drop out of the race for the White House by mid-August, according to Alexi McCammond for news website Axios.

Formerly a U.S. representative from Maryland, Delaney, 56, was the first Democrat to announce his presidential candidacy in July 2017. He opted not to run for reelection to Congress to focus on his presidential efforts.

Following two years of campaigning, Delaney has not managed to invigorate support. His campaign has reportedly spent upwards of $9.8 million and Delaney himself is said to have loaned $9 million of his own money. A report released on quarter two fundraising showed that Delaney's campaign was 96.5% self-funded.

Delaney's inner circle reportedly believes that the candidate should drop out of the race to stop the financial bleeding as they do not believe he will qualify for the third round of debates in September. Current polling shows Delaney at less than 1%, which he has maintained since the beginning of his candidacy.

Tensions are said to be high between Delaney and his staff who feel that the candidate is easily influenced by outside opinions, such as that of his wife April. Other former staff felt that Delaney would be better suited for a Cabinet position or governorship if he would agree to drop out by this summer.

Following the publication of this report, John Delaney released a statement saying, "Alexi McCammond’s report on our campaign this morning is incorrect. No one on my team asked me to drop out of the race and I have no plans to drop out of the race. In addition, anyone who spent any time actually reading the FEC reports would see clearly that we did not spend $19 million on the campaign - we spent $9 million since we launched my Presidential campaign. Ms. McCammond is including a large interparty transfer in her calculations. This easy to confirm error puts the accuracy of the whole story in perspective."