While my last article reported eight Democrats in the running, the number is now up to nine with the addition of Cory Booker. My last article discussed four of the political unknowns running. There’s been plenty of media buzz around five of the candidates, who include Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, Tulsi Gabbard, Kirsten Gillibrand and new comer, Cory Booker.
Elizabeth Warren, Senator from Massachusetts, has made waves in the press recently for her tussle with President Trump. He gave her the racial epithet of “Pocahontas” because she claimed to have Native American ancestry. In the past year, she took a highly controversial DNA test to prove her Native American heritage, yet drew ire because being a Native American has more to do with culture and spirit, not blood. She recently apologized to the Cherokee Nation privately for her insensitive behavior. Trump has yet to apologize for anything.
The basis of Warren’s platform focuses on income inequality in America and protecting the middle class from corruption and corporations. She supports taxing ultra millionaires, but she favors a wealth tax of 2% on those who have a household net worth of $50 million. She is the first Democratic candidate to support a tax program of this nature, but she is far from the first, with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez making waves for supporting a tax of 70% on those making $10 million a year or more.
Kamala Harris is a senator from California and previously was a district attorney and general attorney there. If she were to win she would be the first South Asian American president, and the first female African American president. While her senatorial career has been considerably progressive, her prosecutorial career was not. She has a questable track record about sex work and police and prison reform, refusing to investigate inappropriate police actions and by fighting against the decriminalization of sex work. She has stated that in her prosecutorial career she fought for survivors of sexual assault and prison diversion. Her senatorial career received a lot of attention because of her tough questioning of Brett Kavanaugh, Trump’s Supreme Court nominee. She has fought for civil rights and for a middle class tax cut.
Tulsi Gabbard has created a lot of buzz recently as her spotty political background has come to light. Gabbard is a Hawaii congress member, Iraq War veteran and first Hindu in Congress. She has come under fire for agreeing to meet with Trump when he was elected, meeting with Bashar al-Assad, Syria’s dictatorial president who has commited many human rights violations, and she has a long previous history of advocating against the LGBTQ+ community and the right to marry. She has since apologized for discriminatory behavior towards the LGBTQ+ community. Her platform is opposing overseas American military intervention. Recently, there have been accusations that Russia is meddling in the 2020 election in her favor, but she has strongly denounced these claims that come from NBC.
Kirsten Gillibrand has also gained a lot of attention recently for her previous conservative views. The New York senator and congress member once held a 100% approval rating from the NRA and opposed amnesty for illegal immigrants. Now she has reversed both of these views, and she holds an F rating from the NRA. She has always fought for women’s rights and has fought against sexual assault. She has become very progressive in recent years and is considered “one of the Senate’s leading liberal voices.”
Cory Booker, the newest to confirm his run for president, would be the second African-American president. He has been compared to President Obama for running a campaign and his senatorial and mayoral careers based on unity and love. Booker is considered a gifted orator and a leader on criminal justice reform. Booker stated, “not to meet hate with hate, but meet it with love. Not to meet darkness with darkness, but meet it with light.” Clearly, he practices what he preaches because when someone tweeted that their elderly father needs help, Booker was out shoveling his driveway, and he also saved a woman from a fire. Booker has also called for Medicare-for-all, a common platform among his fellow candidates, and raising the federal minimum wage to $15.