As the 2020 Election approaches, some of us will be new voters, and excitingly, 2020 has the most diverse pool of Democratic candidates and the most female representation yet!
Night One of the Democratic Debates
Elizabeth Warren
- Experience: Senator from Massachusetts, helped create the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
- What is the greatest Geopolitical threat to the US: Climate Change
- Most significant idea: Focused on Inequality, proposed an “ultra-millionaire tax” of 2% on net worth over $50 million and 3% over $1 billion
- Who funds the Candidate: 26% small donations, no PAC contributions
Cory Booker
- Experience: Senator from New Jersey, 38th Mayor of Newark
- What is the greatest Geopolitical threat to the US: Nuclear War and Climate Change
- Most significant idea: criminal-justice reform including the legalization of marijuana and his gun licensing plan to increase restrictions on firearms
- Who funds the Candidate: 10% small donations, mostly funded by large individual donations
Julian Castro
- Experience: Mayor of San Antonio, Texas and Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under Barack Obama
- What is the greatest Geopolitical threat to the US: Climate Change and China
- Most significant idea: Immigration plan to reverse Trump’s Travel Ban and provide a path to citizenship for immigrants as well as aid Central American countries
- Who funds the Candidate: 34% small donations, no PAC contributions
Tim Ryan
- Experience: U.S. Representative for Ohio’s 13th congressional district
- What is the greatest Geopolitical threat to the US: China
- Most significant idea: Help the manufacturing companies in America
- Who funds the Candidate: 38% Labor Unions, Law firms, large individual donations
Amy Klobuchar
- Experience: Senator from Minnesota since 2007
- What is the greatest Geopolitical threat to the US: China and Iran
- Most significant idea: Plan to revamp the infrastructure in America and reverse Trump’s corporate tax rate cut
- Who funds the Candidate: 21% small donations, Law firms, food and drug companies
Tulsi Gabbard
- Experience: Hawaii’s House Representative of the Second District since 2013, served in Iraq with the NAtional Guard
- What is the greatest Geopolitical threat to the US: Nuclear War
- Most significant idea: A noninterventionist foreign policy to promote peace
- Who funds the Candidate: 27% small donations, no PAC contributions
Jay Inslee
- Experience: Second-term governor of Washington, previously served in the House
- What is the greatest Geopolitical threat to the US: Donald Trump
- Most significant idea: Climate change plan to switch to electric vehicles by 2030 and provide incentives to states to build and utilize electric charging stations
- Who funds the Candidate: 34% small donations, climate action groups, and tech companies
John Delaney
- Experience: Former four-term congressman from Maryland
- What is the greatest Geopolitical threat to the US: China and Nuclear War
- Most significant idea: Build public and private international coalition against China’s intellectual property theft
- Who funds the Candidate: 0.6% small donations, almost entirely self-funded
Bill de Blasio
- Experience: Mayor of New York City
- What is the greatest Geopolitical threat to the US: Russia
- Most significant idea: Economic focus to reverse Trump’s tax cuts
- Who funds the Candidate: Workers’ Unions and Democratic PACS
Beto O’Rourke
- Experience: Former U.S. representative from El Paso
- What is the greatest Geopolitical threat to the US: Climate Change
- Most significant idea: Climate change plan to rejoin the Paris Climate Accords, implementing a carbon tax, and end tax breaks on oil companies
- Who funds the Candidate: 59% small donations, no PAC contributions
Night Two of the Democratic Debates
Kamala Harris
- Experience: First-term senator from California and was the Attorney General for California
- The first issue to tackle: Tax cuts for working families
- Most significant idea: Teachers’ pay plan that proposes a $13,500 pay raise for the average teacher as well as expanding the estate tax
- Who funds the Candidate: 33% small donations, entertainment industry, attorneys, financiers
Pete Buttigieg
- Experience: The openly gay mayor of South Bend, Indiana and Afghan War veteran
- The first issue to tackle: Restoring Democracy
- Most significant idea: Supreme Court expansion from nine justices to 15, with five Democrats, five Republicans and five nonpartisan justices to maintain non-partisanship
- Who funds the Candidate: 64% small donations, local businesses, CEOs, large individual donations
Bernie Sanders
- Experience: Vermont senator and a runner-up in the 2016 Democratic primary
- The first issue to tackle: Political revolution
- Most significant idea: Medicare for All plan with a single-payer health care system where the government provides insurance coverage to all Americans
- Who funds the Candidate: 74% small donations, Liberal advocacy groups, UCLA employees, unions
Joe Biden
- Experience: Vice president during Obama’s presidency, a Senator from Delaware
- The first issue to tackle: Defeating Donald Trump
- Most significant idea: Climate change plan consisting of investing in clean energy research, building new electric car charging stations, expanding high-speed rail, and rejoining the Paris Climate Accords as well as eliminating Trump’s tax cuts and subsidies for the oil industry
- Who funds the Candidate: Law firms, insurance companies, and large individual donations
Kirsten Gillibrand
- Experience: Senator from New York since 2009, served in the House
- The first issue to tackle: Family Bill of Rights
- Most significant idea: Paid family leave plan with up to 12 weeks of paid leave for any family illnesses
- Who funds the Candidate: 4% small donations, law firms, Wall Street banks
Michael Bennet
- Experience: Senator from Colorado since 2009
- The first issue to tackle: Climate change/economy
- Most significant idea: Medicare X and private healthcare
- Who funds the Candidate: Finance and law industry
John Hickenlooper
- Experience: Governor of Colorado until January and was the mayor of Denver
- The first issue to tackle: Climate change
- Most significant idea: Reduce the costs of doing business but increase compliance with regulations
- Who funds the Candidate: 10% small donations, real-estate firms, lobbyists, energy companies
Marianne Williamson
- Experience: Inspirational author and speaker
- The first issue to tackle: Make America the best place for a child to grow up
- Most significant idea: Pay $10 billion in slavery reparations every year for ten years to the African American community
- Who funds the Candidate: Unclear but could be self-funded, and Republicans have donated to Marianne to keep her appeal of “harness love” in the debates.
Eric Swalwell
- Experience: U.S. representative from California’s Bay Area
- The first issue to tackle: Gun violence
- Most significant idea: Expanding access to college by providing interest-free federal loans
- Who funds the Candidate: Finance and real estate industry, no PAC contributions
Andrew Yang
- Experience: Tech entrepreneur who created the company Manhattan Prep and Venture for America
- The first issue to tackle: Freedom Dividend/Universal Basic Income
- Most significant idea: A $1,000 per month universal basic income for every American adult.
- Who funds the Candidate: 81% small donations, tech companies
