Delaney: Democratic 2020 front-runners ‘vulnerable for different reasons’

Presidential candidate and former Rep. John Delaney (D-Md.) said the front-runners in the Democratic primary are “vulnerable for different reasons.” 

Delaney told CNN on Monday that the Democratic Party needs a “pragmatic idealist” as its candidate and said he doesn’t believe the three candidates leading in the polls — former Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) — fit the bill.

“I think what we need in this election is we need new ideas for the challenges we face, which are very significant,” Delaney said. “But we need someone who can actually craft solutions to these challenges in ways a majority of American people can get behind them.”{mosads}

Delaney said that Sanders and Warren lean too much toward being idealistic without pragmatism, and said it could be “dangerous” if either became the nominee.

The former representative cited their goals to ban private insurance and decriminalize border crossings as unlikely to gain the needed public support.

“I just don’t think a significant majority of the American people are behind these things, and that’s a problem,” he said. 

Delaney added that the former vice president hasn’t presented many new solutions.

Polls have repeatedly shown Biden leading, followed by Sanders and Warren in either second or third place, depending on the survey.

Delaney failed to qualify for the debate set to take place this week, but said he does not intend to drop out any time soon.

“I don’t have any pressure — financial pressure or political pressure — to drop out of the race,” Delaney told The Hill last month.