John Delaney grew up in a blue-collar family in Wood-Ridge, New Jersey. My dad was a hardworking, 60-year member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, while my mom stayed home to raise my sister and me. Hard work runs in our family. My grandparents came to the United States from Ireland and England, and found jobs in Jersey City, NJ, where one grandfather worked in a pencil factory and the other was a dockworker. My parents instilled that same value of hard work in me.