COLUMBIA, SC – This evening, John Delaney discussed his blue-collar roots and called for Democrats to put workers at the center of their efforts in 2020. Earlier today, Delaney released his Living Wage Plan, which includes doubling the Earned Income Tax Credit, raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, and creating universal paid family leave.
Delaney’s remarks are available on video here and transcribed below:
Delaney Remarks at Clyburn Fish Fry
Thank you, Jim Clyburn! Let’s hear it for Jim! The incomparable, the extraordinary, the one of a kind Jim Clyburn. Thank you, South Carolina!
I tell you, the one thing that always struck me about Jim, so I grew up in a working-class family, my dad was an electrician, he was a union electrician. And we didn’t have any fancy conversations around the dinner table about politics. But what he would tell me, all the time, “If you care about workers, you vote for the Democrats!” And I tell you, if we get can back to that lesson, we’re going to win every election. And Jim Clyburn doesn’t let anyone forget about that lesson in the Congress of the United States.
My friends, together we are on a mission. A mission to find the America that has been lost. Lost through inaction, lost through incivility, lost through a President that lacks a moral compass. We are better than this. Every one of us is better than this. As a country, we are a country of faith, of goodness, of strength and ambition. We saved the world. We created the American Dream for millions of people, including people like myself, who grew up in a blue-collar family, had a successful career in business, and then had the privilege to serve my country.
But we did it with real solutions, not impossible promises. And we gotta do that again. Whether it’s fixing health care, improving public education, building infrastructure, or creating jobs. We got to do it with real solutions and put the worker at the center of those solutions. That’s what I promise to do as your president. I’ve done it my whole life.
I don’t want to just be your president, I want to do the job. God bless you all. Thank you, Jim Clyburn, thank you South Carolina, and thank you for soon sending Jamie Harrison to the Senate of the United States of America.
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