With more than a dozen candidates running for the Democratic primaries, it is easy to get confused. Who stands for what? What matters to me? Who should I be supporting? These are all important questions anyone should be asking as election season approaches. The Democratic Party has a tougher decision of who will represent them because of the large number of candidates and the wide range of ideas supported. The website isidewith.com has created a policy quiz that will align your political beliefs with those of the candidates running. This is a great way to gage how much you agree with certain candidates on important issues.
Let’s breakdown who’s running and their core ideas…
Michael Bennet (54)
Bennet is a senator of Colorado. Bennet is focusing his campaign on modernizing the economy through fields like artificial intelligence and plans to increase infrastructure spending. He has stated plans to help fight climate change, the housing affordability crisis, secure our elections, high-quality affordable health care, and to equalize education.
Joe Biden (76)
Joseph Biden is the former vice president alongside President Barack Obama, and former senator of Delaware. Biden is focusing his campaign on restoring America’s standing at a global level. He also wants to strengthen the economic protections for low-income workers. Other issues Biden finds important are advancing community colleges, ending violence against women, ensuring LGBTQ equality, shaping foreign policy, strengthening the middle class, and supporting our military families.
Cory Booker (50)
Booker is a senator from New Jersey, and the former mayor of Newark, New Jersey. Booker as focused his campaign on criminal justice reform, and has proposed a government-run savings program called “baby bonds” to curb inequality. He also supports equality for LGBTQ and people with disabilities, ending the gun violence epidemic, providing affordable housing and healthcare, and restoring America’s global leadership.
Steve Bullock (53)
Bullock is the governor of Montana, and the former state attorney general. Bullock has emphasized campaign finance reform. He is also pushing for education reform and reducing economic inequality.
Pete Buttigieg (37)
Buttigieg is the mayor of South Bend, Indiana. Buttigieg is focused primarily on climate change and building economic opportunity. He has also called for criminal justice reform, disaster preparedness, gun reform, and enhancing opportunities for Native people. Mayor Pete served as a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy Reserve and took an unpaid seven-month leave during his mayoral term to deploy to Afghanistan. He is also the first openly LGBT presidential candidate. According to Pete, “I’m definitely the only left-handed Maltese-American-Episcopalian-gay-millennial-war veteran in the race, but I think profile is just what gets you that first look.”
Julian Castro (45)
Castro is the former housing secretary, and former mayor of San Antonio, Texas. Castro is focusing his campaign on overhauling the immigration system by decriminalizing border crossing and enacting universal pre-kindergarten. He is for revolutionizing the American foster care system, the creation of more work unions, justice for farmers, disarming hate, and protecting indigenous communities.
John Delaney (56)
Delaney is the former congressman from Maryland. Delaney has pitched himself as a bipartisan problem-solver. He has endorsed liberal causes like universal health care, affordable housing, a living wage, and mental health. In order to help bring people from different backgrounds together, Delaney is proposing a mandatory national service program to provide opportunities for young people to give back to their country and to meet and work with people from all backgrounds.
Tulsi Gabbard (38)
Tulsi Gabbard is a congresswoman from Hawaii. Gabbard has centered her campaign around opposition to American military intervention overseas. She also plans to enact criminal justice reform, invest in public education, protecting civil liberties, and holding Wall Street accountable.
Kamala Harris (55)
Harris is a senator from California, the former attorney general of California, and the former San Francisco district attorney. Harris has focused on middle-class tax cuts and a liberal civil rights agenda. She also supports affordable health care, economic justice, raising teacher pay, action on gun violence, a fair immigration system, gender equality, and debt-free college.
Amy Klobuchar (59)
Klobuchar is a senator from Minnesota, and the former Hennepin County, Minnesota attorney. Klobuchar is primarily focused on legislation to combat the opioid crisis and address the cost of prescription drugs. She also supports universal health care, combating climate change, and strengthening relationships with foreign allies. In 2008, she requested half a million taxpayer dollars to be gifted to Minnesota Teen Challenge, a fundamentalist organization which claims that Pokemon, Harry Potter and Halloween are gateways to drug addiction
Wayne Messam (45)
Messam is the mayor of Miramar, Florida. Messam is focused on cancelling student debt. He has also prioritized gun reform, women’s health, voting rights, and democracy reform. He earned a full scholarship to play football for Florida State University, and dreamed of playing for the NFL. His projects in the educational and non-profit space have garnered national recognition.
Bernie Sanders (78)
Sanders is a senator from Vermont and former congressman. Sanders has focused his campaign around providing Medicare for everyone, and free college. He is passionate towards creating an appropriate, science-based climate change plan, expanding social security, changing the narrative towards housing as a human right, and rebuilding the middle class. In his youth, Sanders was a student at the University of Chicago and was famously arrested at a South Side protest.
Joe Sestak (67)
Sestak is a former congressman from Pennsylvania. Sestak is primarily focused on combating climate change and restoring America’s global position. He also plans to enact an affordable healthcare system, and is passionate towards reducing college costs and reforming the education system. Sestak is also passionate about supporting small businesses in order to create a more just economy; according to Sestak, supporting small businesses is the primary engine of economic growth.
Tom Steyer (62)
Steyer is a billionaire former-hedge-fund-executive. He is an active advocate for impeaching Trump. Steyer is focused on the climate crisis and promoting renewable energy. He has also voiced support for gun reform, breaking corporate control, criminal justice reform, affordable healthcare, and overall structural reform.
Elizabeth Warren (70)
Warren is a senator from Massachusetts and former Harvard University professor. Warren is focusing her campaign on income inequality and protecting the middle class. She has also voiced strong support for a better public-school system, equal justice under the law, combating the climate crisis, and securing equity and equality for the LGBTQ community. Nevertheless, Warren will persist.
Marianne Williamson (67)
Williamson is a self-help author and lecturer. She is the founder of Project Angel Food, a volunteer food delivery program that serves home-bound people with life-threatening illnesses. As a presidential candidate, Williamson has proposed $100 billion in reparations for slavery, and $10 billion to be distributed over a decade for economic and educational projects. She has also voiced her support for crime prevention, child advocacy, and alleviating the environmental crisis.
Andrew Yang (44)
Yang is a former tech executive who founded an economic development nonprofit. He is campaigning for establishing a basic income of $1,000 per month for all Americans over the age of 18, independent of one’s work status. He has also supported human centered capitalism, combating climate change, Medicare for all, reducing mass incarceration, and reducing student loan debt.