John Delaney (D-MD-6)

John Delaney

Campaign links: John Delaney (D-MD-6)

John K. Delaney

John Delaney Congressional Candidate Maryland District 6

Biography of John Delaney from Friends of John Delaney

As the son of a union electrician, John learned at a young age the importance of hard work. He also saw first-hand how stable, good-paying jobs didn’t just support one person, they gave an entire family a chance and made communities stronger. While his parents never had the privilege of attending college, their commitment to education – together with critical scholarships from his father’s IBEW Local 164 – paved the way for John to attend Columbia University. That opportunity led John to Georgetown Law School and began his journey as a business builder, job creator, and non-profit community leader.

John has been driven by an entrepreneurial spirit. By the age of 40, he had founded two New York Stock Exchange listed companies, each headquartered in Montgomery County, Maryland. John’s work with CapitalSource, founded in 2000, created thousands of jobs. John’s companies have lent money to nearly 5,000 small to mid-sized companies. Most recently, building on his commitment to helping small businesses grow, John started BancAlliance, a cooperative of community banks whose mission is to pool the resources of local banks, so that they can compete with the big banks. Because community banks know their local environments better, they are often more willing to lend, putting more money back into the economy.

Concerned about the future of Maryland’s economy, in 2011 John founded Blueprint Maryland, a non-profit focused on fostering private sector job creation in the state. As one of the first voices to speak about the need to diversify Maryland’s economy, John brought business, education, labor, and community leaders together in the search for innovative, bipartisan, ways to spur job growth.

Frustrated by Washington’s inability to solve the jobs crisis, John wants to bring the perspective of an entrepreneur to a grid-locked Congress. John would represent the people of Maryland by being a voice for hard-working Americans who want both economic growth and respect for core democratic values such as fairness and equality.

Community and Family

John’s business activities are matched by a deep commitment to public service, where he has contributed his expertise and resources to educational institutions, local charities, and non-profit organizations. In 2007 he was honored as one of the three outstanding individual philanthropists by Catholic Charities.

John and his wife, April McClain-Delaney, met as law students at Georgetown. Dedicated to community service, they have focused much of their attention on education and the public interest. They are generous supporters of the public interest law initiatives at Georgetown University, where they have created the Delaney Family Professorship in Public Interest Law. John is a member of the Board of Directors of Georgetown University, on the Board of Directors of the National Symphony Orchestra and a member of the Board of Trustees of the Potomac School. He is the immediate past Chairman of the Board of St. Patrick’s Episcopal Day School, a past member of the Board of Directors of the International Center for Research on Women, a supporter of the mentoring non-profit Visible Men, and a former board member of the Boys & Girls Clubs of America.

Raising four girls, April and John are especially concerned about promoting healthy and positive images of women in the media. April is the head of regulatory and outreach efforts for Common Sense Media’s Washington office. Common Sense Media is dedicated to educating families on media content and use. In addition to Common Sense Media, April has supported Girl Scouts USA’s Healthy Media Commission and the Alliance for Women in Media. April is also a past board member of Discovery Creek Children’s Museum in Washington. John and April have also been dedicated supporters of Catholic Charities, Innocents at Risk, the Children’s Hospital Medical Center, and the Community Foundation of the National Capital Region. Finally, John and April also serve on the National Advisory Council of Bridges of Understanding, a non-profit dedicated to promoting greater communication and understanding between Americans and the Arab world.