The 2020 election is quickly approaching, and as the country prepares to elect a president, several prominent political figures have announced their candidacy for president. Frontrunners include Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren. There is a record number of Democrats in the running, with one Republican challenging President Trump for the Republican nomination. The many Democratic candidates have varying views on several important issues with an overlying message of party unity. To make any progress within America, we must move away from “old politics” and political divisions. Climate change must be at the forefront of this election because it will be detrimental to us and generations to come. In addition, universal healthcare, law enforcement reform and education reform should also be important. Keep watching candidates personal moves. Joe Biden, Cory Booker, Beto O’Rourke, and Kamala Harris, have already taken corporate money for their campaigns. Money shouldn’t be involved in this election – the welfare of the American people should be the only topic on anyone’s mind. Many students at WSHS now, seniors, juniors and sophomores, will be able to cast their vote during this election. Those votes will affect our future.

DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATES

Beto O’ Rourke 

Beto O’Rourke was a former Texas congressman. O’Rourke has made immigration the central topic of his campaign, according to The New York Times. He supports The Dream Act and a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. He has called for closing immigrant detention centers and is against Trump’s border wall. He supports passing more strict gun laws and wants to address climate change with legislation because he has stressed the financial impact of it. He wants to reform criminal justice and fix the issues within the system and prisons. He is also an advocate for blue collar workers and farmers.

Joe Biden

Joe Biden previously served as vice president under President Obama. Before that, he was elected to the Senate to represent the state of Delaware. “We’re in a battle for the soul of America,” states Biden’s campaign website. Biden promises to rebuild the middle class and fight for the Affordable Care Act. He also supports humane immigration policy and works development programs. One of the core messages of Biden’s campaign is a return to American values of hard work and responsible leadership. Equal representation for all is another one of Biden’s core issues and reinstating America as a respectable global leader is one of his main focus points. However, he’s already taking money from fossil fuel companies and wants a “middle of the ground” approach to climate change. That’s not a good sign.

Pete Buttigieg 

Pete Buttigieg is the mayor of South Bend, Indiana. He’s a gay man and would become the first openly gay president. He is a war veteran and can speak eight languages. Buttigieg supports “Medicare for All,” but his idea is to make it available for Americans who want it. He doesn’t think free college would be fair, but he wants to make it affordable. He has said the Green New Deal is a “very attractive framework” for dealing with climate change but also said it’s more of a “set of goals.” He wants to invest more in education and transportation infrastructure to provide opportunities for the poor and middle class.

Elizabeth Warren

Elizabeth Warren is a Democratic member of the U.S Senate from Massachusetts. Warren has laid out several plans to help the middle class including college debt relief, universal childcare, aid to fight the opioid epidemic and several measures that would challenge the power of the wealthy and well established. Warren is another supporter of the Green New Deal. She also supports abolishing the electoral college and replacing it with a popular vote.

Bernie Sanders

Bernie Sanders is an independent member of the U.S. Senate from Vermont. He has served as the mayor of Burlington, Vermont and as a Representative of the House for the state too. He has spearheaded his campaign on economic issues: Medicare for All, the Green New Deal, a $15 minimum wage, expanding the estate tax, tuition-free college, and limiting the power of banks. Sanders is also against corporate lobbyists and wants to put the power back into the hands of the people.

Amy Klobuchar 

Klobuchar is a Democratic member of the U.S. Senate from Minnesota. She has focused her campaign on making automatic voter registration, reducing the amount of money in politics, and reinstating climate regulations that were eliminated by the Trump administration. Her website states that she’s sick of “divisive politics.”

Cory Booker

Cory Booker is the Senator of New Jersey and is a member of the Committee on Foreign Relations. He supports Medicare for All, “environmental justice,” education reform in improving public schooling, tackling gun violence and legalizing marijuana. He is pro-choice and favors same-sex marriage. He introduced the Federal Jobs Guarantee Act, according to Elle.com, which would create a program which would choose fifteen areas across the country and provide every adult in the area a job that pays $15 per hour.

John Hickenlooper

John Hickenlooper was elected mayor of Denver before serving as governor of Colorado. He is known for his positive effect on the community and his campaigns that did not run any negative ads against his opponents. His long political career has been defined through expanded health coverage for Colorado as well as his fight for gun control legislation.

Kamala Harris

Kamala Harris is a senator from California. She previously served as Attorney General of California. Throughout her career in the Senate, Harris has advocated holding the current administration accountable through her work on several Senate committees. She also sponsored bills to raise the minimum wage and expand access to healthcare through Medicare for All. She supports criminal justice reform and wants to work on expanding opportunities for middle-class Americans.

REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES

Bill Weld 

William Weld previously served as Governor of Massachusetts. So far he is the only Republican to challenge Donald Trump in the Republican primary. Weld has previously stated that he wants to return the Republican party to “The Party of Lincoln.”

Donald Trump

He’s a billionaire and the current president. Despite making sexist, racist and inappropriate comments and saying over ten thousand lies since he entered the office, and illegally trying to mess with the last election’s results in the Muller Report, he hasn’t been impeached. He put hundreds of thousands of government workers without jobs for a month to make a wall. Trump has also tried to take the US out of the Paris Agreement and NAFTA. He has taken away many environmental policies and believes climate change is fake. Children have died in his ICE facilities on the border and he is strongly opposed to immigrants. These actions are all apart of his plans to “Make America Great Again.”