Sean Barney has announced his candidacy for Congress, in competing for a seat that will becomes available as incumbent John Carney’s runs for governor.
Barney joins State Sen. Bryan Townsend, state Rep. Byron Short and former state Labor Secretary Lisa Blunt Rochester in a crowded field of Democratic candidates.
Delaware is one of a few states with only one member of Congress.
Barney took the unusual step of pushing for accepting Syrian refugees in this country after an outcry by Republicans and some Democrats in public office
Earlier, Barney was defeated a race for the post of State Treasurer by Republican Ken Simpler.
Barney was hurt by a fractured Democratic party hurt by long-running battles between then-Democratic State Treasurer Chip Flowers, legislators and the administration of Gov. Jack Markell.
Flowers later pulled out of a race for re-election and moved to Massachusetts. It has been widely speculated that Flowers’ die-hard supporters stayed on the sidelines or voted for Simpler in the heavily Democratic state.
“Times like this define the character of who we are as a nation. We must choose whether we respond to a threat or let a threat undermine who we are. We must choose whether we succumb to cheap politics or hold true to our core values,” Barney wrote in a letter announcing his candidacy and advocating acceptance of Syrian refugees.
His website also noted that “as policy director to Delaware’s governor, Sean helped raise the minimum wage, end mandatory consecutive sentencing, create universal background checks for gun sales, pass marriage equality, and establish civil rights protections for transgendered Delawareans.”
Barney describes himself as a “Progressive Democrat,” a term that typically denotes a left of center philosophy. Incumbent Carney is generally viewed as a centrist Democrat.
Barney, who enlisted in the Marines after 9/11 was wounded in Iraq. He went on to work in the Markell administration and now heads a Delaware venture capital firm.
