John Delaney says his new RV proves he's not dropping out of the 2020 race

Former congressman John Delaney is staying in the 2020 race — if only to make use of his sweet new RV.

On Friday, Axios reported that the 2020 Democrat's team recently told him he should end his campaign by mid-August, as they feel that he "flopped" during the first Democratic debate and has "no chance" of qualifying for the debates once the qualification threshold is raised in September. Delaney, according to the report, has appeared "open to the idea" of dropping out this summer.

But Delaney is now denying that this is the case, in a statement on Friday saying that "no one on my team asked me to drop out of the race and I have no plans to drop out of the race," The Hill reports.

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Delaney also denied the report in a CNN interview on Friday afternoon, calling it an "entirely incorrect piece of reporting" and pointing to the fact that he recently filmed new television commercials and that he "just bought a new campaign RV, which we're having wrapped to roll out in Iowa" as evidence that he's not weeks away from ending his campaign. "I mean, what would I do with that if I was gonna drop out?" he asked.

Delaney went on to vow he'll stay in the race, which he believes "really hasn't started yet," at least until the Iowa caucus in 2020, although "if, for some reason" it "doesn't go well for me," he'll take that "into consideration." For now, he appears to be hoping the upcoming second Democratic debate will be a turning point in his campaign, predicting the event will be "great moment, particularly for me." Brendan Morrow