Rep. John Delaney, a political moderate and former banker, gave serious thought to running for governor, keeping tabs on Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan’s campaign operation well into the spring. | Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo | AP Photo Democratic Rep. Delaney eyes 2020 presidential run

Rep. John Delaney (D-Md.) plans on bypassing runs for governor and reelection and has told associates he is seriously considering a bid for president in 2020, according to two Democratic sources.

Five Democratic sources in the state said buzz about Delaney's intentions for 2018 and 2020 has been building for weeks, with increasing chatter about a presidential bid. Delaney, who could self-fund a run for governor, will skip a challenge against popular GOP Gov. Larry Hogan. He will also leave Democrats to defend his district, which he nearly lost in 2014. Democrats in the state believe he will announce his plans in a Washington Post op-ed on Friday.


Delaney, a political moderate and former banker, gave serious thought to running for governor, keeping tabs on Hogan’s campaign operation well into the spring. It was clear Delaney was looking beyond his district, which stretches from wealthy D.C. suburbs to Maryland’s far western edge. He had given Democratic state legislators eyeing his seat permission to start raising money for potential campaigns, and has formed a leadership PAC he could use to curry favor with his congressional colleagues.

A presidential bid would seem quixotic: Delaney is little-known even among Democratic operatives, and his moderate stances and background in finance don’t match a left-leaning Democratic primary electorate.

Delaney spokesman Will McDonald did not respond to an email and a phone call seeking comment.

Delaney, is worth about $90 million after founding two commercial banks and taking them public, making him one of the House’s wealthiest members. In the House, he has sought to build bipartisan coalitions around legislation to improve the nation’s infrastructure. He won his seat in 2012, upsetting a prominent Democratic state legislator in a primary and then ousting GOP Rep. Roscoe Bartlett in the general election.

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Three Democratic state legislators — Dels. Aruna Miller and Bill Frick, and state Sen. Roger Manno — are running for Delaney’s seat. Miller raised just over $350,000 in the second quarter, while Frick pulled in a tad more than $200,000.

Delaney’s decision to skip the governor’s race against Hogan, whose approval rating often tops 70 percent in public polling, removes a self-funder from the mix in the Democratic primary and leaves the moderate lane wide open for other candidates. Prominent Bernie Sanders supporter and former NAACP President Ben Jealous, former Obama State Department official Alec Ross, lawyer Jim Shea, Prince George’s County Executive Rushern Baker, state Sen. Rich Madaleno and Maya Rockeymoore-Cummings, the wife of Rep. Elijah Cummings, are all actively campaigning or considering runs.