At an old electricity substation in north-west Washington, perhaps fittingly for the Donald Trump era, colourful murals of John F Kennedy have disappeared behind wooden boards for months, due to construction work. But a few minutes’ walk away, past a Metro station, a bland shopping mall and the Maryland border, is the new election campaign headquarters of a man working hard and spending big in an attempt to assume the Kennedy mantle.

Elizabeth Warren, Tulsi Gabbard and Julián Castro may now have stolen his thunder, but former congressman John Delaney was the first Democrat with national political experience to formally announce a 2020 presidential campaign. Hoping to prove that the early bird catches the worm, he did so all the way back in July 2017. He has been hustling for votes ever since, with a Kennedy-inspired message of common purpose. Critics, opinion polls and his campaign Twitter account (with just 12,000 followers) suggest he is more Don Quixote, embarked on a romantic but doomed quest.

Delaney has made 21 trips to Iowa, the first caucus state, visiting all 99 counties and making 214 stops. He has also made 10 trips to New Hampshire, the first primary state, visiting seven counties and making 96 stops. Having spent $3.5m, recruited staff and opened offices, he has become Exhibit A for America’s never-ending campaign, in stark contrast to the UK and other countries where general elections take a month or two, four or five years apart.

Who’s going to be our nominee in 2020 and how do we beat Trump is something every Democrat wants to talk about

“I do think our election cycles are very long and I don’t think that’s great,” admits the affable Delaney. But he reasons: “The presidency of the United States is a very unique elected position. So if anything merits a longer vetting process, the presidency does to some extent. In general our election cycles are too long, but this job is so consequential that I don’t think it’s a bad thing to give people more time to get to know you.”

Weren’t people sick of politics after the traumatic 2016 election? Not a bit of it.

“People were totally excited to talk about 2020,” he says. “Democrats are quite excited to turn the page on the current president, so for most it’s not too early to talk about 2020. Most Democrats are not saying, ‘Well, let’s give this guy a chance.’ They’re way past that. The notion of who’s going to be our nominee in 2020 and how do we beat him is something every Democrat in this country really wants to talk about.”

‘A sense of stewardship’

Another much scrutinised quirk of the American electoral system is the arbitrary power of Iowa and New Hampshire, neither representative of the country’s racial diversity. Warren, a Massachusetts senator and the first major candidate to enter the contest after announcing an exploratory committee, earlier this month campaigned in Iowa until she went hoarse. There are still more than 650 days until election day.

Again, Delaney defends a process that requires politicians to meet voters in their living rooms and coffee shops rather than run nationally.

“If you had a primary on one day and everyone voted the same day they” – he points to a big flatscreen TV showing cable news – “would determine the nominees. So I think there’s a valuable role for a few states to go early and the states have to be of a size that you can actually campaign in them. You can’t campaign in California in a grassroots way. It’s too big.

“Iowa and New Hampshire fit that size, and you get the sense that the people who are engaged in politics in Iowa and New Hampshire carry a sense of stewardship with them of the role they play. They don’t actually think they pick the president. They think they ask the right questions and there’s a valuable role for that.”

Delaney backed Hillary Clinton last time but offers an unexpected criticism: “Neither Hillary or Bernie [Sanders] campaigned in Iowa or New Hampshire the way you’re supposed to. They came and did big events. That’s not what the people expect. They expect to sit down in small group gatherings and ask you questions.”

John Delaney canvasses a neighborhood in Clinton, Iowa, in October. Photograph: ZUMA Press/Alamy Stock Photo

Recent research by the New York Times found that American elections have always been long, drawn out affairs by international standards. In 1960, Kennedy declared his candidacy 11 months before polling day. In 1992, Bill Clinton threw his hat in the ring more than a year ahead of the vote. For 2008, Republican John McCain formed his exploratory committee in November 2006. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton launched theirs in January 2007.

I have the right vision, but not enough people knew who I was and so the way to solve that problem is to get in early

For the epic 2016 election, it was December 2014 when Republican establishment favourite Jeb Bush said he would “actively explore” a bid. Senator Ted Cruz was the first major candidate to formally announce, in March 2015. Clinton entered the race a month later, followed in June by Trump’s now infamous descent on a Trump Tower escalator.

Delaney, however, has broken all records for hitting the ground running. His logic is simple: name recognition.

“I think I’m the right person for the job,” he said, “and I have the right vision, but not enough people knew who I was and so the way to solve that problem is to get in early. To some extent the race is starting now and I had to almost run a pre-race so that I was in the game when the race started.”

Even so, it appears he will soon be joined by enough Democratic candidates to constitute a football team and a Broadway chorus. When Delaney finds himself on a crowded debate stage, how will he try to stand out? “You have to have tremendous clarity as to why you’re running for president,” he said.

And why are you? “The central issue facing this country is how deeply divided we are and someone has to bring us together so that we can actually do the kind of things we need to do to prepare our country for the future. The world is changing so fast and we’re just sitting on our hands and unless we actually get back to this notion of common purpose – which doesn’t mean we agree with each other on everything, far from it, we should have great debates – but some notion of common purpose, I really worry about our future.”

Among his ideas is getting the president to debate on the floor of the House of Representatives four times a year, similar to prime minister’s questions in the UK.

“That would fundamentally change how the American people think about these issues and think about their leaders and think about common ground,” he says. “Everything can change. We’ve seen that across history. Trends that you think are unshakeable get shaken, so we can change these trends. We just have to be committed to do it.”

Delaney is the author of a book, The Right Answer, the title of which refers to a 1958 speech in which Kennedy said: “Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer but the right answer.” He is hoping to provide the antidote to the current hyperpartisan malaise.

Viable candidates also need a personal narrative and Delaney has one. “I think I have the perfect background,” he insists, while admitting he is hardly objective. Born and raised in New Jersey, the son of an electrician, he describes himself as “a blue-collar kid, first in the family to go to college”, who went on to found two financial companies, becoming the youngest chief executive on the New York stock exchange.

In 2012 Delaney “rolled up my sleeves and went into the Congress”, showing willingness to work across the aisle. “I’ve had the experiences you need,” he says. “I’ve lived the American dream. I know how the private sector works, but we should never elect someone who’s never done public service as our our president, and I think we’re seeing that with our current president.”

A hard sell to the left?

A father of four daughters who enjoys watching the Washington Capitals ice hockey team, Delaney was the sixth-richest member of Congress with an estimated net worth of $93m. He is friends with Tom Steyer, the billionaire philanthropist seeking Trump’s impeachment. His plush new campaign HQ in Friendship Heights, with campaign posters decorating cubicles for 35 staff, shares a floor with RBC Wealth Management.

Elizabeth Warren speaks at a house party in Concord, New Hampshire, on Saturday. Photograph: Brian Snyder/Reuters

All of which means that the white, male 55-year-old centrist is a hard sell to the left. The progressive group Democracy for America’s first presidential pulse poll was led by Sanders on 36.14%, followed by former vice-president Joe Biden at 14.87%. Delaney limped in 22nd, on 0.09%.

Asked if Sanders or Warren can win the nomination, he replies carefully: “I think that someone who comes forth and wants to build a big tent party has a better chance of winning.

“If we as a Democratic party say we’re going to become the party the American people are looking for, which is a party that’s honest, civil, respectful, focusing on common ground, positive, optimistic and has big ideas about the future and welcomes progressives, centrists and disaffected Republicans, I think we’ll run the table in 2020. If we step forward and say we’re going to be the party of ‘half the country is wrong about everything they believe’ and drive further divisions, then we’re not going to win.”

Delaney is likely to be up against African American candidates such as senators Cory Booker and Kamala Harris. There are some who argue that a person of his gender and race is the last thing the party, which just elected its most diverse contingent to the House, needs in 2020.

“If people feel that way, I respect their views,” he says. “I think their reasons for feeling that way are good intentions. Do I think that is where the whole party is? No, and that’s for the Democratic voters. I tend to think that the American people in general and the Democratic party voters in particular make a deeper analysis of who they’re looking for.

“You could have someone who’s an African American running for president who doesn’t stand for any of the things that the Democratic party stands for. I just don’t think the Democratic party is going to vote for someone because of the colour of their skin. They care about their values. They care what they’re going to fight for. They care about their vision for the future.”