Don Delaney

Donald Samuel “Don” Delaney (born November 5, 1962) is an American politician and lawyer who served as the 55th Governor of Missouri from 2009 to 2017. He previously served as a Jugde of the Supreme Court of Missouri from 2001 to 2009 and as the Attorney General of Missouri from 1993 to 2001. He was the Republican nominee for President of the United States in 2016.

Early life and early career
Donald Samuel Delaney was born on November 5, 1962 in Niangua, Missouri to Samuel and Jean Delaney. His father was an alcoholic who had a history of domestic abuse. At ten years old Donald was sent to live with his maternal grandparents in St. Louis. He earned a bachelor of arts degree in political science from the University of Missouri-St. Louis in 1983 and received his J.D. in 1986 from the University of Virginia School of Law where he served as Executive Editor of the Virginia Journal of International Law. Following graduation, he returned to Missouri to become a law professor at Washington University in St. Louis, a private research university located in the St. Louis metropolitan area. He worked at the university for seven years before seeking public office.

Attorney General of Missouri
Delaney made his first run for public office in 1992 when he resigned his professorship to run for Attorney General of Missouri as the Republican nominee. He won the election with 53% of the vote. He won reelection in 1996 with 58% of the vote. As the state's Attorney General, Delaney worked to fight against domestic violence and supported the Violence Against Women Act of 1994. His aggressive actions in the Attorney General's Office earned him national recognition. In 1996 at the age of thirty-four, Barrister magazine named him one of the 20 outstanding young lawyers in the nation, and the Missouri Jaycees selected him one of Ten Outstanding Young Missourians.

Jugde of the Supreme Court of Missouri
After declining to run for a third term as state attorney general in the 2000 election then-Governor Lee Horner appointed him to the Supreme Court of Missouri on March 7, 2001, and he was retained by a vote of the people at the November 2002 election. During his tenure he was an advocate of strict constructionism and states’ rights but was respected across the political spectrum not just by fellow conservatives, largely due to his continued work to end domestic violence. He has stated skepticism about Missouri’s laissez-faire laws in regards to alcohol citing his own childhood but has largely been supportive because of economic growth resulting from the state brewing industry. In 2005, he voted to maintain the state’s lack of smoking regulations in the civil case of Bosley v. Missouri, where a man named Clarence Bosley of St. Louis sued the State of Missouri for endangering the health of its citizens with its smoking policies citing his own diagnosis of coronary heart disease from secondhand smoke. Judge Delaney voted with the majority, paying Bosley compensatory damages but no punitive damages against the state. He resigned from the bench on March 1, 2008 and filed to run for Governor of Missouri before the March 25 deadline.

Governor of Missouri
Judge Delaney won the Republican gubernatorial primary that was held on August 5, 2008 with 49.4% of the vote. He went on to win the general election on November 4, 2008 with 55%–45% against the Democratic nominee. Throughout his time in office, Governor Delaney made budget restrictions to account for lower-than-expected revenues, or statutory changes affecting the budget. Upon taking office, Delaney began cutting spending almost immediately and made repeated reductions to the budgets passed by the Legislature in subsequent years. In 2010, he was called the state's budget "cutter-in-chief" by the Associated Press for his efforts to reduce spending and the size of government. Delaney focused on creating jobs and investing in state businesses to strengthen the state's economy while keeping the budget in balance. Particularly controversial were provisions reducing coverage of programs created by state legislation to provide a social safety net, especially to families.

In 2012, Delaney and the Republican-controlled Missouri General Assembly enacted an overhaul of the state workers' compensation system, making it more difficult for employees to obtain workers' compensation benefits. The overhaul was supported by business interests and opposed by labor unions. He was elected to a second term as Governor on November 6, 2012 by 56%–43% with surveys showing his conservative stance on social issues and strong leads in the rural parts of the state helped him to victory. Throughout his second term he enacted programs to encourage university cooperation, tax relief, research funds and seed capital for "life science" start-up firms, and an innovative program to reward insurance companies and other large institutional investors for investing in funds that hold aerospace stocks.

2016 Presidential Campaign
Governor Delaney formally launched his 2016 presidential campaign on June 30, 2015, at The Gateway Arch in St. Louis. During the primary campaign he appealed to the establishment wing of the Republican Party as well as moderate Republican and independent voters. He ran on a platform of strengthening American national defense, stating that it would boost the economy and would protect America from foreign threats. His fiscal policy was described as “pro-growth” supporting fiscal conservatism, deregulation, and free trade. Governor Delaney diverged from his major primary opponent, conservative firebrand Senator Todd Kirkpatrick of Oklahoma on the issues of immigration, abortion, and the size and role of government. He supports comprehensive bipartisan immigration reform, opposes abortion except in cases of rape, incest, and to save the life of the mother, and opposed Senator Kirkpatrick’s calls to abolish a number of federal agencies.

He won forty-one contests with 50.2% of the vote, clinching the needed delegates to become the presumptive nominee after winning the Indiana primary on May 3, 2016. Delaney was officially nominated at the Republican National Convention on July 21, 2016 taking Florida Governor Carter Soto as his vice presidential running mate. Domestic issues dominated the general election campaign with healthcare policy, trade policy, social issues, and job growth among them. Governor Delaney supports returning control of the Medicaid program to the states as well as capping the program's funding, reducing trade barriers, restricting and reducing abortions, and believes same-sex marriage should be left to the states to decide, and would not support a federal ban. In foreign policy, he supported a neoconservative policy agenda that included the promotion of democracy and American national interest in international affairs, including by means of military force such as in Korristan.

Governor Delaney and Democratic nominee, former Senator Mark Hollis of Minnesota participated in three televised debates which had mixed reviews. Governor Delaney was consistently seen as more qualified in regards to foreign policy and national security but was criticized for his overall debate performance. Both candidates were seen unfavorably due to their use of negative campaigning. Hollis defeated Delaney, winning both the popular vote and the electoral college, with 297 electoral votes to Delaney’s 241. The Governor won the swing states of states of Iowa, North Carolina, and Florida. Hollis and his running mate, Jon Herrera won the popular vote by 51%–47% on November 8, 2016. Delaney conceded the following day and was term-limited as Governor of Missouri on January 9, 2017.