Presidential Primary Candidate Profiles

Candidate's Website: www.robertardini.com

Personal Information

Family
My upbringing was somewhat conventional. My father was a sanitation worker and my mother was a German immigrant stay-at-home mom. My mother ‘came to America’ (as she would say) when she was about eight, so she was completely Americanized and had no accent. We lived in a private house in a good neighborhood within the New York City limits, and were very friendly with many of the neighbors. My father’s large extended family - to whom we were close - all lived nearby.

Education
Bachelor of Science from the University of the State of New York; graduate of New York's Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & the Arts

Experience
former Advertising Execuctive, former Candidate for Congress, Author of "Running for Congress in Trump's Backyard"

Other (hobbies, interests, etc.)

Growing Roses
Travel: visited all 7 continents
Music: student descendant of Beethoven; studied piano and composition at The Juilliard School

Who is your personal hero and why?
Pope Francis. We have something uniue in common. We both lost a lung at an early age.

What was your favorite subject in school and why?
Social Studies because I enjoy learning about world history, as it gives me perspective and teaches me to view things from the broadest possible perspective.

What is your favorite book or author and why?
"Running for Congress In Trump's Backyard" because I wrote it!

What is your favorite movie and why?
"Moonstruck" because it's well-written, well-directed, well-acted, well-cast, and portrays New York City in an aesthetically pleasant and accurate manner.

Who is your favorite musician (or type of music) and why?
J.S. Bach (Baroque music) because his music is beautiful in the most simplistic way and served as a launching pad for all music that came thereafter.

Why are you running for President?
I have bipartisan solutions to our nation’s most pressing problems - solutions which often differ from the President's - and I want to be in the best possible position to shed light on them.

Please make a statement to New Hampshire Students about the importance of voting and being civically engaged.
Few would argue that it's healthy to want to be in control of one's destiny. Voting and being civically engaged is the foundation which gives us the ability to build all of our hope and dreams.

The Issues:

DEFENSE:
Defending Americans and American interests is one of the main responsibilities of the Federal Government. This includes maintaining a strong military, but hoping successful diplomacy never requires us to use it.

DOMESTIC TERRORISM:
Domestic Terrorism is one of the most crucial problems of the 21st century. We need to use all of the resources of government in an attempt to eradicate it and study its causes.

THE ECONOMY
The national debt is my primary campaign issue for good reason. Simply put, IT IS THE GREATEST THREAT TO OUR FUTURE, as we can’t keep printing money or borrowing it. I’ll explain. Every dollar we print, makes all our other existing dollars worth less. When the supply of money is increased, the demand for goods and services is greater; this allows manufacturers and service providers to get away with charging more, a.k.a inflation. In other words, inflation makes each dollar worth less, by requiring more money to make the same purchase. As for borrowing money, sometime soon, we will have run up too much credit; then, our risk of defaulting will be so high, no one will want to lend us money. That means our government won’t be able to sell bonds - not to Americans, not to foreign individual investors, and not to other governments. This is not just theory. It happened in Greece just a few years ago. The ramifications of our spiraling national debt include, not being able to afford defending ourselves if attacked on our homeland and, not being able to respond to a national disaster - like the predicted major earthquake on the San Andreas Fault. However, the ultimate ramification of this debt is the fact that we are saddling the next generation with this problem. Just what will we say to them when, in the future, government can’t afford to provide the most basic of services, and they ask us “What were you thinking?”

EDUCATION
A number of factors have created so many layers in the system, that it’s now no longer possible to navigate. We need to scrap the whole system, abolish the U.S. Department of Education, and return full authority to the States. If you think this is an overreaction, I urge you to read John Stossel’s book, No, They Can’t, Chapter 9: Educating Children. As for the curriculum, we need to be more practical. For example, I never had reason to use the required geometry, trigonometry, physics and chemistry, but I sure would have appreciated learning a lot more about nutrition, exercise, and financial planning such as household budgeting, balancing a checkbook, etc. Even such basic things like personal hygiene and ‘keeping to the right’ should be included. And imagine the benefits of high school courses on the subjects of ‘Parenting’ or ‘General Safety Practices!’ Actress Raven-Symone once publicly called out the need for some of these reforms. I hope she uses her celebrity to draw attention to this important issue.

THE ENVIRONMENT
More of a global problem than a national one. We should first be looking to work with the United Nations on this issue.

GREEN NEW DEAL
Same answer as above: More of a global problem than a national one. We should first be looking to work with the United Nations on this issue.

GUN CONTROL
First deal with mental health issues by requiring health insurance companies to incentivize their subscribers to see a Personal Care Physician and Psychologist/Social Worker once yearly - as mentally sound people don't commit mass shootings

HEALTH CARE
Don't repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. Instead, improve it. Please visit my website www.robertardini.com for my detailed solutions on how to accomplish this.

INFRASTRUCTURE
National Infrastructure. One of the primary purposes of government. Spend money on it, but wisely."

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
As a country we are to be commended for defending human rights worldwide, but doing so is an extremely expensive proposition. Some estimates state that nearly a quarter of our 20 trillion dollar debt is from our entanglements overseas. Although we’ve been able to shoulder these costs thus far, continuing to do so will eventually become unsustainable. Since we know that one day soon, we won’t be able to afford to police the world, we may as well stop now and save all of that money. Yes, I’m well aware of the ramifications. Senator John McCain so wisely said something along the lines about bad people filling a void left by good people not stepping up. I recognize that as true, but in the end, all of our efforts are for naught if we bankrupt ourselves in the process. I’m not suggesting we simply become isolationists and do nothing to promote peace and harmony around the world. Rather, we need to engage our enemies to find out what we could be doing differently to anger them less. In other words, we need to find out, specifically, why they want to bring us down. Of course, we’ve already done this to some degree and, more often than not, we find out that our enemies just want us to mind our own business. We generally reject that concept because we usually don’t like how our adversaries treat their own people, and feel it is our duty to intervene to defend human rights. In theory, this mindset would be viewed as commendable by most. In practice, it simply hasn’t worked well for a very long time. So, it’s time to stop.

IMMIGRATION
We’ve fallen down on the job in terms of enforcing our existing laws. We can’t correct that by simply deporting everyone. We must create a path to citizenship which is different (and more stringent) for those who entered illegally, than for those who went through the proper channels. And, I believe in granting the undocumented the ability to enroll in health care, obtain driver’s licenses, and any other right which, if not granted, would create a public safety issue.

NATIONAL SECURITY
I want to secure our borders in whatever way is most practical. In many places that may be a wall, and in other locations that may be some type of technology, physical presence, or something else.

MUELLER REPORT
This is a non issue. As a country we've fully fleshed it out. Time to move on to other things.

REPARATIONS FOR SLAVERY
Right now the government can't afford to pay Reparations to any group. After we clean up the national debt, perhaps we can re-visit our affirmative action programs and have a conversation about what more can be done to help level the playing field for all Americans.

OTHER ISSUES
My Ultimate Vision for Our Country: I want our Country to explore THE UNIVERSE, far more aggressively than at present. I want science to tell us precisely how we evolved, and if we are alone in our solar system. In other words, I want to expand our total body of knowledge and discover the meaning of life. However, this is a VERY expensive proposition. In order to have the money, we first need to better address our needs here on Earth; so, I want to be in the best possible position to implement my bipartisan solutions to our nation's problems. THAT'S why I want to be President. Just imagine, where would we all be if Spain never funded Christoper Columbus' voyage to the New World in 1492?

Personal Information

• Website: Official campaign website
• Born
  • June 14, 1946 in Queens, NY
• Family
  • Spouses: Melania Trump (m. 2005), Marla Maples (m. 1993–1999), Ivana Trump (m. 1977–1992)
  • Children: Five children - Ivanka Trump, Eric Trump, Donald Trump, Jr., Tiffany Trump, Barron Trump
    
• Education
  • Kew-Forest School
  • New York Military Academy
  • Fordham University (2 years)
  • Wharton School,  University of Pennsylvania, 1968 B.S. Economics
• Political Experience
  • Current President of the United States of America
• Other Experience
  • Chairman and president of The Trump Organization
  • Chairman of Trump Plaza Associates, LLC
  • Chairman of Trump Atlantic City Associates
  • Former host of The Apprentice and The Celebrity Apprentice on NBC

Personal Information

Official campaign website

• Born:
  • July 31, 1945 in Smithtown, NY
• Family:
• Spouses: Leslie Marshall m. 2003 - present, Susan Roosevelt Weld m.1975-2002
• Children: David Minot, Ethel Derby, Mary Blake, Quentin Roosevelt, Frances Wylie
• Education:
  • Harvard College 1966
  • University of College, Oxford
  • Harvard Law School 1970
    
• Political Experience:
  • US Attorney for Massachusetts
  • Head of Criminal Division of the Justice Department in Washington 1986-1988
  • Govenor of Massachusetts 1991-1997
  • Co-chair of Mitt Romney's campaign in New York 2007
• Other Job Experience
  • Partner at McDermott Will & Emery 1997-2001
  • Chief Executive of Decker College
    

Personal Information

Dropped out of the race on 11/12/2019

• Website: Official campaign website
• Born:
  • May 28th, 1960 in Fort Lauderdale, FL
• Family:
  • Spouse: Jennifer Sullivan (m. 1989; div. 2010)
  • Children: 4 Children
• Education:
  • Furman University (BA)  in business In 1983
  • University of Virginia (MBA) Business Admin. 1988
• Experience:
  • U.S Representative from South Carolina January 3rd, 1995-January 3rd, 2001; May 15th, 2013-January 3rd, 2019
  • 116th Governor of South Carolina January 15th, 2003-January 12th, 2011
    

Personal Information - Dropped out of the race.

• Website: Official campaign website
• Born:
  • December 27th, 1961 in North Barrington, IL
• Family:
  • Spouses: Helene Miller (m. 2006), Laura Walsh (m. 1987; div. 2002)
  • Children: 5 children
• Education:
  • Grinnell College
  • University of Iowa (BA) English 1985
  • University of Chicago (MPP)  1991
• Experience:
  
  • Jobs for Youth
  • Fundraising for Fabretto Children’s Foundation
  • The Heartland Institute Lobbyist
  • Illinois State Representative (1996-1998)
  • U.S. Representative from Illinois 8th District (January 3rd, 2011-January 3rd, 2013).
  • Radio host of The Joe Walsh Show 
    

Personal Information

• Website: Official campaign website
• Born:
  • November 20, 1942 in Scranton, PA
• Family:
  • Spouse: Neilia Hunter m.1966 - 1972(her death)
  • Children: Beau, Hunter, Naomi (Died with her mother)
  • Spouse: Jill Biden m. 1977
  • Children: Ashley
• Education:
  • University of Delaware 1965
  • Syracuse University School of Law 1968
• Political Experience:
  • Delaware State Senator 1973-2009
  • United States Vice PResident 2009-2017

Personal Information

Dropped out of the race April 8, 2020

• Website: Official campaign website
• Born:
  • September 8, 1941 in Brooklyn, New York City, NY
• Family:
  • Spouse: Jane O'Meare Driscoll m.1988
• Children: Levi Sanders, Geather Titus, Carina Driscoll, Dave Driscoll
• Grandchildren: Sunnee, Cole, Ryleigh, Grayson, Ella, Tess, Dylan
• Education:
  • Brooklyn College
• The University of Chicago 1964
  
• Political Experience:
  • Mayor of Burlington, Vermont 1981-1989
  • U.S. House Representative from Vermont 1991-2006
• U.S. Senator from Vermont 2007-present
• Personal Information - Other (hobbies, interests, etc.)
  • Basketball, chess, baseball, movies, music, and playing with my grandkids
• Who is your personal hero and why?
  • Bernie has many heroes. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is somebody who inspired his life and his work. Not only because of his incredible leadership qualities, but the depth of his analysis and his courage in taking on a hateful establishment. Bernie admires him very much.
• Please make a statement to New Hampshire Students about the importance of voting and being civically engaged.
  • Bernie’s campaign is about building a nationwide movement of people getting involved in the political process and, together, transforming this country. Young people are the most progressive generation in American history, if young people vote in large numbers, we will not only defeat Donald Trump, we will make systemic, transformative change for generations to come. Bernie is asking everyone to take a look around and find someone you don't know. Maybe somebody doesn't look kind of like you, maybe somebody who might be of a different religion than you. Maybe they come from a different country.
    
    His question to you is: are you willing to fight for that person who you don't even know as much as you're willing to fight for yourself? Are you willing to stand together and fight for those people who are struggling economically in this country? Are you willing to fight for young people drowning in student debt? Are you willing to fight to ensure that everyone has health care as a human right? Even if you have good health? Because if you are willing to do that-- if you are willing to love, if you are willing to fight for a government of compassion and justice and decency, if you are willing to stand up to Trump's desire to divide us up, if you are prepared to stand up to the greed and corruption of the corporate elite, if you and millions of others are prepared to do that, there is no doubt in Bernie’s mind that not only will we win this election, but together we will transform this country.
• The Issues: Please make a brief statement about your position on the following issue. DEFENSE
  • Bernie believes in a strong national defense, but we do not need a defense budget that is bloated, wasteful, and that contains many areas of fraud. The United States spends $700 billion a year on the military, more than the next 10 nations combined. This is outrageous. Bernie believes that we must commit more resources to taking care of people than we do on weapons designed to kill them. It is not acceptable that, with the Cold War long behind us, countries around the world spend over a trillion dollars a year on weapons of destruction, while millions of children die of easily treatable diseases.
    
    And while serious people can disagree in good faith about when our country should go to war, there should never be a debate over whether we fulfill the promises made to the men and women who have served this country in our military. As a nation, we have a moral obligation to provide the best quality care to those who have put their lives on the line to defend us. Just as planes and tanks and guns are a cost of war, so is taking care of the men and women who we sent off to fight the war. That includes caring for the spouses and children who have to rebuild their lives after the loss of a loved one. That includes caring for the hundreds of thousands of veterans with multiple amputations or loss of eyesight, post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury. That includes veterans who are struggling to keep the jobs they rely on to pay their bills, and it includes the terrible tragedy of veterans committing suicide.
• The Issues: Please make a brief statement about your position on the following issue. THE ECONOMY
  For over 40 years, the working class in this country has been in decline and we have seen a massive transfer of wealth from working families to the top one percent. Today, millions of Americans are working 2 or 3 jobs to feed their families, while the three wealthiest people in this country own more wealth than the bottom half of the American people. Today, over 500,000 people are homeless and veterans all across the country are sleeping out on the streets, while the top one percent owns more wealth than the bottom 92 percent. Today, over half of the people in this country are living paycheck to paycheck and are under enormous stress – worried to death that if someone in the family gets sick or if their car breaks down they won’t have the money to pay for those emergency expenses. Meanwhile, while the middle class struggles, the very wealthy become even wealthier and large corporations enjoy record-breaking profits. Today, the United States has more income and wealth inequality than almost any major country on earth, and it is worse now than at any time since the 1920s. The American people are getting more and more disgusted with the corporate greed they experience every single day.
  
  We will create an economy and a government that works for all of us, not just the one percent. To do just that, Bernie has proposed a 21st Century Bill of Economic Rights. We will guarantee everyone in our country basic economic rights – the right to quality health care, the right to as much education as one needs to succeed in our society, the right to a good job that pays a living wage, the right to affordable housing, the right to a secure retirement, and the right to live in a clean environment. We must recognize that in the 21st century, in the wealthiest country in the history of the world, economic rights are human rights. As President, Bernie will fundamentally shift the wealth of the economy back into the hands of the workers who create it. He will require these large corporations to issue at least 2 percent of stock to their workers every year until the company is at least 20 percent owned by employees. He will finally raise the minimum wage to a living wage of $15 an hour. He will also require that workers comprise at least 45 percent of the boards of directors of large corporations. And he will also require large corporations to acquire a federal corporate stakeholder charter to put the interests of workers, the community, the environment, and others on par with shareholders.
• The Issues: Please make a brief statement about your position on the following issue. EDUCATION
  • Bernie’s education plan addresses the serious crisis in our education system by reducing racial and economic segregation in our public school system, attracting the best and the brightest educational professionals to teach in our classrooms, and reestablishing a positive learning environment for students in our K-12 schools. His plan calls for a transformative investment in our children, our teachers and our schools and a fundamental re-thinking of the unjust and inequitable funding of our public education system. And in the twenty-first century, a free public education system that goes from kindergarten through high school is no longer good enough. Bernie’s College for All Plan will make public colleges, universities, and trade schools tuition free, and cancel all student debt. Bernie will also guarantee childcare and universal prekindergarten for every child in America to help level the playing field, create new and good jobs, and enable parents more easily balance the demands of work and home.
• The Issues: Please make a brief statement about your position on the following issue. THE ENVIRONMENT
  • This is a pivotal moment in the history of America -- and really, in the history of humanity. The climate crisis is not only the single greatest challenge facing our country; it is also our single greatest opportunity to build a more just and equitable future, but we must act immediately. When we are in the White House, we will launch the decade of the Green New Deal, a 10-year mobilization to avert climate catastrophe during which climate change, justice and equity will be factored into virtually every area of policy, from immigration to trade to foreign policy and beyond. Bernie’s Green New Deal will The Green New Deal will avert climate catastrophe, transform our energy system, build an economy for all and end the greed of the fossil fuel industry by:
    
    
    • Ending unemployment by creating 20 million good-paying union jobs needed to solve the climate crisis.
    • Ensuring a just transition for communities and workers, including fossil fuel workers.
    • Ensuring justice for frontline communities, especially under-resourced groups, communities of color, Native Americans, people with disabilities, children and the elderly.
    Saving American families money with investments in weatherization, public transportation, modern infrastructure and high-speed broadband.
    • Committing to reducing emissions throughout the world.
    
    We will end our reliance on fossil fuels by banning leases on public lands, banning fracking and new fossil fuel infrastructure, and ending exports of natural gas, coal, and oil. We will move to 100 percent renewable energy and protect our frontline communities from climate change by investing in infrastructure to protect them from wildfires, sea level rise, drought, floods, and extreme weather. And Bernie’s Green New Deal will protect workers and the communities in which they live to ensure a just-transition to family-sustaining wage, union jobs.
• The Issues: Please make a brief statement about your position on the following issue.GUN CONTROL
  • We face an epidemic of gun violence in this country. A significant majority of Americans want commonsense gun reform. But the NRA, now a full-fledged, right-wing political organization, spends millions on TV and internet ads attacking candidates who dare to stand up for what voters want. As President, Bernie will:
    
    
    • Take on the NRA and its corrupting effect on Washington.
    • Expand background checks.
    • End the gun show loophole. All gun purchases should be subject to the same background check standards.
    • Ban the sale and distribution of assault weapons. Assault weapons are designed and sold as tools of war. There is absolutely no reason why these firearms should be sold to civilians.
    • Prohibit high-capacity ammunition magazines.
    • Implement a buyback program to get assault weapons off the streets.
    • Regulate assault weapons in the same way that we currently regulate fully automatic weapons — a system that essentially makes them unlawful to own.
    • Crack down on “straw purchases” where people buy guns for criminals.
    • Support “red flag” laws and legislation to ensure we keep guns out of the hands of domestic abusers and stalkers.
    • Ban the 3-D printing of firearms and bump stocks.
    
    
• The Issues: Please make a brief statement about your position on the following issue. HEALTH CARE
  • Bernie believes the time is long overdue for the United States to join every other major country on Earth and guarantee health care to all people as a right, not a privilege, through a Medicare for All program. Health care is not a commodity. It is a human right. The goal of a health care system should be to keep people well, not to make stockholders rich. Bernie’s Medicare for All program would provide comprehensive health coverage to all with no premiums, deductibles, copayments, or surprise bills. Under Medicare for All, we will stop the pharmaceutical industry from ripping off the American people by making sure that no one in America pays over $200 a year for the medicine they need by capping what Americans pay for prescription drugs.
• The Issues: Please make a brief statement about your position on the following issue. INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
  • The U.S. must lead the world in improving international cooperation in the fight against climate change, militarism, authoritarianism, and global inequality. When Bernie is in the White House, we will implement a foreign policy which focuses on democracy, human rights, diplomacy and peace, and economic fairness. We will allow Congress to reassert its Constitutional role in warmaking, so that no president can wage unauthorized and unconstitutional interventions overseas. We will follow the will of the American people, who do not want endless war. American troops have been in Afghanistan for nearly 18 years, the longest war in American history. Our troops have been in Iraq since 2003, and in Syria since 2015, and many other places. It is long past time for Congress to reassert its Constitutional authority over the use of force to responsibly end these interventions and bring our troops home.
    
    We will end U.S. support for the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen, which has created the world’s worst humanitarian catastrophe. We will rejoin the Iran nuclear agreement and talk to Iran on a range of other issues. We will work with pro-democracy forces around the world to build societies that work for and protect all people. In the United States, Europe, and elsewhere, democracy is under threat by forces of intolerance, corruption, and authoritarianism. And we will work with the international community to tackle the existential threat of climate change. The threat of climate change is a very clear example of where American leadership can make a difference. Europe can’t do it alone, China can’t do it alone, and the United States can’t do it alone. This is a crisis that calls out for strong international cooperation if we are to leave our children and grandchildren a planet that is healthy and habitable. American leadership — the economic and scientific advantages and incentives that only America can offer — is hugely important for facilitating this effort.
• The Issues: Please make a brief statement about your position on the following issue. IMMIGRATION
  • Bernie believes we are long overdue for humane immmigration reform in this country. Bernie believes that we must not be a country that tears babies out of the arms of their mothers and locks children in cages. We can have a fair, humane immigration and border policy rooted in civil and human rights. As President, Bernie will reverse everything Trump has done to demonize and harm immigrants including: Decriminalizing and demilitarizing our border, closing private detention centers and ending ICE raids, ensuring children separated from their families by the U.S. government are reunited swiftly, including those separated through unjust deportation, and allowing asylum seekers fleeing violence and misery to make their claims in the U.S., as is their legal right under U.S. and international law. He will place a moratorium on deportations until a thorough audit of current and past practices and policies is complete. He will immediately grant legal status and citizenship to young people eligible for the DACA program and their parents. He will enact real immigration reform, including a pathway to citizenship to bring 11 million immigrants out of the shadows and strengthen our country, our economy, and our society. He will expand and authorize support for immigrants at the border to ensure access to social workers, community groups, and legal aid. And he will ensure a fair and fully funded immigration adjudication system.
• The Issues: Please make a brief statement about your position on any other issues important to you.
  • Today, we live in the richest country in the history of the world, yet millions and millions of people find themselves in desperate economic conditions. Today, we now see a handful of billionaires with unprecedented wealth and power. Today, America and the world are once again moving towards authoritarianism -- and the same right-wing forces of oligarchy, corporatism, nationalism, racism and xenophobia are on the march, pushing us to make the apocalyptically wrong choice that Europe made in the last century. We see huge private monopolies -- operating outside of any real democratic oversight and often subsidized by taxpayers – with the power to control almost every aspect of our lives. They are the profit-taking gatekeepers of our health care, our technology, our finance system, our food supply and almost all of the other basic necessities of life. They are Wall Street, the insurance companies, the drug companies, the fossil fuel industry, the military industrial complex, the prison industrial complex and giant agri-businesses. They are the entities with unlimited wealth who surround our nation’s capitol with thousands of well paid lobbyists, who to a significant degree, write the laws that we live under. Today, we have a demagogue in the White House who, for cheap political gain, is attempting to deflect the attention of the American people away from the real crises that we face and, instead, is doing what demagogues always do - and that is divide people up and legislate hatred. This is a president who supports brutal family separations, border walls, Muslim bans, anti-LGBTQ+ policies, deportations and voter suppression. Bernie believes that the United States must reject that path of hatred and divisiveness -- and instead find the moral conviction to choose a different path, a higher path, a path of compassion, justice and love.
    
    We will guarantee everyone in our country basic economic rights – the right to quality health care, the right to as much education as one needs to succeed in our society, the right to a good job that pays a living wage, the right to affordable housing, the right to a secure retirement, and the right to live in a clean environment. We must recognize that in the 21st century, in the wealthiest country in the history of the world, economic rights are human rights. We will treat structural racism with the exigency it deserves. We will transform this country into a nation that affirms the value of its people of color, we must address the five central types of violence waged against black, brown and indigenous Americans: physical, political, legal, economic and environmental. Whether it is a broken criminal justice system, or massive disparities in the availability of financial services, or health disparities, or environmental disparities, or educational disparities, our job is to—and we will—create a nation in which all people are treated equally. That is what we must do, and that is what we will do. What Bernie believes is that the American people deserve freedom – true freedom. It is time for the American people to stand up and fight for their right to freedom, human dignity and security. Together, there is nothing we cannot accomplish.

Personal Information

Candidate dropped out of the race on 3/19/2020.

• Website: Official campaign website
• Born:
  • April 12, 1981 in Leloaloa, American Samoa, U.S.
• Family:
  • Spouse: Abraham Williams m.2015
• Education:
  • Hawaii Pacific University 2009
    
• Political Experience:
  • Honolulu City Counsil 2001-2012
  • Hawaii State Congresswoman 2002-2004;2013-Current

Personal Information - Dropped out of the race on 3/5/2020

• Website: Official campaign website
• Born:
  • June 22, 1949 in Oklahoma City, OK
• Family:
  • Spouses: Bruce H Mann m.1980, Jim Warren 1968-1978
  • Childern: Amelia and Alexander
• Education:
  • George Washington University 1966-1968
  • Univeristy of Houston 1970
  • Rutgers Law School 1976
• Political Experience:
  • U.S. Senator representing Massachusetts 2013-Current
• Other Job Experience
• Law Professor
• Advised the National Bankruptcy Review Commission in 1995
• Member of FDIC Advisory Committee on Economic Inclusion 2006-2010
• Former Vice President of the American Law Institute
• Personal Information – Family
  • I grew up in Oklahoma on the ragged edge of the middle class. My dad sold fencing and carpeting, and ended up as a janitor, and my mom stayed home with me and my older brothers. When I was twelve, my dad suffered a heart attack and he couldn’t work for a long time. We lost the family station wagon, and were about an inch away from losing our home, when my mom got a minimum wage job answering phones at Sears. That job saved our home, and it saved our family. All three of my older brothers served in the military. My dream since I was in second grade, was to be a teacher. But my family didn’t have money for college. So I earned a debate scholarship, but dropped out to get married to my high school sweetheart at 19.
    
    I got my second shot with a commuter college that cost $50 a semester and went on to become a teacher for kids with special needs. I was 22 when I had my daughter Amelia. When she turned two, I enrolled in a public law school that cost $450 a semester. Three years later, I graduated, eight months pregnant with my son Alex. I hung out a shingle and briefly practiced law out of my living room, but soon returned to teaching, starting at Rutgers University. I was a law professor for more than 30 years at the University of Houston, University of Texas-Austin, University of Michigan, University of Pennsylvania, and Harvard University. I met my husband Bruce at a law conference in Florida, and we’ve been married for 38 years. We have three wonderful grandchildren and a sweet golden retriever named Bailey.
• Personal Information – Education
  • My story has lots of twists and turns. I had one dream in life. I wanted to be a public school teacher. Teachers understand the value of every human being. We invest in the future and, most of all, we don’t give up. Becoming a teacher and living my dream meant going to college, but my family didn’t have money for college. I earned a debate scholarship, but dropped out to get married to my high school sweetheart at 19. I end up going back to a commuter college and got my first job teaching special needs kids. I loved that job and probably would've kept it forever, but at the end of the first year, I was visibly pregnant. The principal did not ask me to come back. I was at home with a baby -- and then I had a crazy idea, I made the decision to go to law school. After I graduated, I almost immediately turned around to go back into teaching, starting at Rutgers University.
    
    I was a law professor for more than 30 years at the University of Houston, University of Texas-Austin, University of Michigan, University of Pennsylvania, and Harvard University. As a teacher and a researcher, my whole career has been studying one central issue: What's happening to working families in America? And what I found was that year after year, the path to economic security had gotten tougher and rockier for working families, and even tougher and even rockier for people of color. Washington keeps working better and better for a thinner and thinner slice at the top and not for everyone else. I’ve dedicated my life to that central question. I never thought I'd run for public office. But I became the senior Senator for Massachusetts, and now I’m running to become President of the United States, because I believe in an America of opportunity.
• Personal Information – Experience
  • Throughout my years of teaching and conducting research, I saw the same opportunities that I had growing up weren’t on the table for kids in America today. Today, Washington works great -- for those with money and power, for shady for-profit colleges that prey on low income students and leave them drowning in debt. It’s just not working for young people fighting for an education that can help them build a brighter future. Washington works great for the wealthy and well-connected. It’s just not working for families trying to make it paycheck-to-paycheck without getting ripped off. It’s working great for Big Oil that wants to drill everywhere but not for the communities that are seeing climate change bearing down on them. We need to make government work for the people.
    
    Take the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) as an example. After Wall Street’s greed crashed our economy and millions of people lost their homes, their jobs, and their savings, I conceived, fought for, and set up a consumer agency that would hold giant financial institutions accountable for cheating Americans. When we were trying to get the CFPB passed into law, people said you can never get that done, not in a million years, because the giant banks will stop you. Those big banks spent millions of dollars lobbying against this agency. But we persisted, built a grassroots movement, and President Obama signed the CFPB into law. Today, that consumer agency works to protect people from the financial tricks and traps hidden in mortgages, credit cards, and other financial products, and has returned more than $12 billion to consumers since it was created. When Wall Street and Senate Republicans vowed to block my nomination to serve as the first director of the CFPB, I decided to run against one of those Republicans for the U.S. Senate – and I am now the senior Senator from Massachusetts.
• Personal Information - Other (hobbies, interests, etc.)
  • I love teaching. For anyone who's never done it, it's the part where you know something, and you're trying to think of how you can get it across to somebody else. When that happens, it's like you watch somebody light up, and in that moment it releases something in my heart. I also love to go on long walks around Fresh Pond with my husband Bruce and our golden retriever Bailey.
• Who is your personal hero and why?
  • Frances Perkins. She was a fierce workers-rights advocate who served as the U.S. Secretary of Labor in the 1900s, and the first woman to be appointed to the U.S. Cabinet.
• What was your favorite subject in school and why?
  • In high school, debate was one thing I really loved. It let me research hard topics, taught me about self-discipline and never giving up, and let me use my talent of fighting with my words.
• What is your favorite book or author and why?
  • The Little Engine That Could is one of my favorites. I also like Thomas Picketty's Capital in the Twenty-first Century. It’s a terrific book that makes you think about the extreme wealth concentration and income inequality in America.
• What is your favorite movie and why?
  • Casablanca, I watch it every New Years’ Eve with my sweetie Bruce.
• Who is your favorite musician (or type of music) and why?
  • Patsy Cline. Other than her iconic voice, Patsy Cline reminds me of growing up back home in Oklahoma. And her life story -- growing up on the ragged edge, becoming a trailblazing woman country music star, and tragically dying at the age of 30 -- is something I'll never forget.
• Why are you running for President?
  • All my life I’ve focused on what is happening to working families in this country. I’ve watched as America’s middle class has been hollowed out. Families are finding the road to be rockier and steeper than ever before. And it’s because of decisions made in Washington that favor those with money who can hire an army of lobbyists and lawyers. I am grateful down to my toes for the opportunities that America gave me, and I want all of our kids to get those same opportunities. That’s what pulled me into this race. I never thought I’d run for public office. When I was growing up my dream was to be a public school teacher. By the time I graduated from high school, my family didn't have the money for a college application much less a chance for me to go to college. But I got my chance with a $50-a-semester commuter college. That was a little slice of government that created some opportunity for me. I am in this fight because I believe we can make our government, our economy, our country work, not just for those at the top, but for everyone else. I promise you this: I will fight for you as hard as I fight for my own family.
• Please make a statement to New Hampshire Students about the importance of voting and being civically engaged.
  • Right now, we’re in the fight of our lives. The fight to build an America that works for everyone, not just the wealthy and the well-connected. It won’t be easy. But by raising our voices -- by voting, by standing up and being counted, by speaking out for our values, we can make big, structural change. Right now, our democracy faces serious threats at home and abroad. Strengthening it requires major changes, so that each and every voice can be heard. That’s why, as President, I will make voting in America accessible, convenient, and professional. I’ll work to secure our elections from all threats, foreign and domestic. And I’ll address election security, administration problems, and take on voter suppression. We will work to put in place federal standards to ensure everyone can vote, including mandating automatic and same-day registration, early voting, and vote by mail. We will fight arbitrary voter purges, work to end gerrymandering, and make Election Day a holiday to make it easier for people to get to the polls. Elections are the foundation of our democracy. Let’s raise our voices together until this fight is won.
• The Issues: Please make a brief statement about the following issue to students. DEFENSE
  • A strong military should act as a deterrent so that most of the time, we won’t have to use it. We must continue to be vigilant about the threat of terrorism, but it’s time to end the forever wars, bring our troops home – and make sure they get the support and benefits they’ve earned. Our foreign policy must take an honest look at the full costs and risks of our military actions – and be conducted in a way that is consistent with our values and with international law. That means no wars without congressional authorization -- Donald Trump does not have the authority to start a conflict with Iran. That means ending U.S. support for conflicts that disproportionately harm civilians -- that’s why I’ve fought to end support for Saudi-led operations in Yemen that are exacerbating a humanitarian crisis. And that means cutting our bloated defense budget and ending the stranglehold of defense contractors on our military policy.
• The Issues: Please make a brief statement about the following issue to students. DOMESTIC TERRORISM
  • White supremacists pose a threat to the United States like any other terrorist group. And the answer starts with leadership at the top. Under Donald Trump, the number of hate crimes have increased. As President, I will call out white supremacy for what it is -- terrorism -- and my Justice Department will prosecute domestic terrorists to the full extent of the law.
• The Issues: Please make a brief statement about the following issue to students. ECONOMY
  • After decades of largely flat wages and exploding household costs, millions of families can barely breathe. For generations, people of color have been shut out of their chance to build wealth. It’s time for big, structural change to put economic power back in the hands of the American people. That’s why, as president, I will pursue an agenda of economic patriotism, aggressively promoting high-quality American jobs and industry, and putting American workers and middle-class prosperity ahead of multinational profits and Wall Street bonuses. As the wealthiest nation in the history of the world, we can make investments that create economic opportunity, address rural neglect, and a legacy of racial discrimination–if we stop handing out giant tax giveaways to rich people and giant corporations and start asking the people who have gained the most from our country to pay their fair share. My Ultra-Millionaire Tax on America’s 75,000 richest families will bring in nearly $3 trillion in revenue that we can use to pay for universal child care, student debt cancellation for 42 million Americans, and universal free public college.
• The Issues: Please make a brief statement about the following issue to students. EDUCATION
  • I believe in an America that invests in public education. This is personal for me. I graduated from a commuter college that cost $50 a semester, and that opened a million doors for me. A strong federal role in public education is necessary to ensure every kid gets a shot and an opportunity to build a future. We need to increase Title I and IDEA funding, make sure our teachers are well-supported and make school modernization funding part of our infrastructure plans so our children can learn in top-notch facilities. But that’s just a start. My Universal Child Care and Early Learning plan would ensure all our babies ages 0-5 have access to high-quality care and early education. The plan would also boost the wages of more than a million child care and preschool workers who will be doing the educational work that teachers do – and should be paid comparably to public school teachers. I’ve also called for something truly transformational – universal free public college and up to $50,000 in student debt cancellation for 42 million Americans. My plan will make higher education of all kinds more inclusive and available to every single person who wants it, especially lower-income, Black, and Latino students, without the need to take on debt to cover costs. And it also works to correct historical racial injustices by creating a fund for HBCUs that will have a minimum of $50 billion.
• The Issues: Please make a brief statement about the following issue to students. THE ENVIRONMENT
  • Climate change is real, it is man-made, and we are running out of time. We have a moral responsibility to combat it. It is both a threat to our national security and an economic threat that worsens inequality. It’s time to stop the government handouts to fossil fuel giants and combat the influence of Big Oil on Washington. It’s time to stop exploiting our public lands, pumping pollution into the air, and padding corporate profits at our children’s expense. As President, I will rejoin the Paris Climate Accords and roll back the Trump Administration’s efforts to undercut the Clean Power Plan and other Obama-era environmental protections. But we need to do so much more. I would make a comprehensive approach to addressing climate change a top priority in my administration.
    
    My Green Manufacturing Plan would invest $2 trillion over the next ten years in green research, manufacturing, and exporting. It will link American innovation directly to American jobs and helping achieve the ambitious targets of the Green New Deal, which commits the United States to meet 100 percent of our power demand through clean, renewable, and zero-emission energy sources by 2030. What’s more, I will ban new fossil fuel leases offshore and on public lands. Instead I have committed to generating 10 percent of our electricity from renewable sources offshore or on public lands - a nearly tenfold increase. Additionally, my Climate Risk Disclosure Act requires companies to disclose their greenhouse gas emissions and price their exposure to climate risk into their valuations, raising public awareness of how dependent companies are on fossil fuels and using market forces to speed the transition to clean energy – without spending a dime of taxpayer money. I also introduced the Defense Climate Resiliency and Readiness Act, which sets an ambitious goal of achieving net zero carbon emissions for all of the Pentagon’s non-combat bases and infrastructure by 2030, consistent with the Green New Deal.
• The Issues: Please make a brief statement about the following issue to students. GREEN NEW DEAL
  • I am an original co-sponsor of the Green New Deal resolution. My Green Manufacturing Plan is the first example of economic patriotism in action and part of how I’ll implement my commitment to a Green New Deal. With big and bold investments in American research, American industry, and American workers, we can lead the global effort to combat climate change - and create more than a million good jobs here at home. The Green New Deal also commits us to a “fair and just transition for all communities and workers,” and that requires us to recognize that climate change doesn’t affect every community equally -- lower-income communities, communities of color, and Indigenous nations have often borne the brunt of environmental harms. Our response to the climate crisis must prioritize resources for frontline and disadvantaged communities that have been polluted and left behind by the fossil fuel economy. For me, the Green New Deal means creating truly participatory and democratic processes, centered on and led by those living on the front lines of climate change, who know best what their communities need.
• The Issues: Please make a brief statement about the following issue to students. GUN CONTROL
  • Gun violence is a national emergency, but right now our government is being held hostage by the NRA. In America, it’s not just mass shootings. You see gun violence on sidewalks and playgrounds and people’s backyards. We need to put in place real laws to protect our loved ones. To start, we need to pass universal background checks, ban military-style assault weapons and bump stocks, and close the gun show loophole. It’s also time to allow the Centers for Disease Control and National Institutes of Health to study gun violence by providing them with the needed federal funding to do so.
    
    I’ve also called on shareholders of the nine major gun companies to use their financial leverage to ensure the companies they’ve invested in are taking steps to reduce violence – because the gun industry should be held accountable for the gun violence epidemic. Additionally, I’ve co-sponsored the Equal Access to Justice for Victims of Gun Violence Act and a bill to ensure that all firearms are traceable. I fought hard against the Trump Administration’s decision to allow the online publication of blueprints for untraceable 3D printable firearms, and I released a report with Congresswoman Katherine Clark that shows most Massachusetts educators oppose arming teachers – because we should be investing in more counselors and mental health professionals for our schools, not weapons.
• The Issues: Please make a brief statement about the following issue to students. HEALTH CARE
  • I believe Medicare for All should be the law of the land. I’ve spent my whole career studying why families go broke. I came to find that one of the top reasons for that is medical costs -- even for families with insurance. Private insurance companies raked in $23 billion last year while premiums skyrocket and prescription drug co-pays are going through the roof. I am fighting for Medicare for All because I believe every person should be able to get the health care they need. Enough of rich insurance executives calling the shots in Washington. Health care is a human right, and I fight for human rights.
    
    Additionally, all women — no matter where they live, where they’re from, how much money they make, or the color of their skin — are entitled to access high-quality, evidence-based reproductive health care. I’ll fight my heart out to defend a woman’s fundamental right to access safe, legal abortion and control her own body at home and abroad. That’s why I’ve called on Congress to pass new federal laws that protect access to reproductive care and would ensure real access to birth control and abortion care for women. Federal laws that will stand no matter what the Supreme Court does.
• The Issues: Please make a brief statement about the following issue to students. INFRASTRUCTURE
  • America’s infrastructure is broken -- and I have a few ideas on how we can start to fix this. Our roads and bridges are crumbling and we need to make significant investments to rebuild them and create quality jobs across the country. We can start by passing my housing bill to build or rehabilitate more than 3 million affordable housing units across the country and create 1.5 million jobs. My plan for public lands will fully fund our public land management agencies and eliminate the infrastructure and maintenance backlog on our public lands in my first term. My Green Manufacturing Plan -- one of the ways we will implement the Green New Deal -- will invest in American-made products, industry, and R&D to create more than a million jobs at home. And I am also a co-sponsor of the School Building Improvement Act, which would provide $100 billion to help build and renovate schools. In the wealthiest country on earth, we have teachers and students in classrooms with holes in the ceiling – and it is unacceptable.
• The Issues: Please make a brief statement about the following issue to students. INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
  • From endless wars that strain military families to trade policies that crush our middle class, Washington’s foreign policy today serves the wealthy and well-connected at the expense of everyone else. It’s time for a foreign policy that works for all Americans, not just wealthy elites. That means trade and economic policies that benefit working people and America’s middle class, not just giant corporations. We need a new approach to trade that begins with a simple principle: our policies should not prioritize corporate profits over American paychecks. That means ending the forever wars.The human costs of these wars has been staggering: more than 6,900 Americans killed, another 52,000 wounded, many more who live every day with the invisible scars of war, and hundreds of thousands of civilians killed.
    
    The U.S. has put more than a trillion dollars on a credit card for our children to pay, a burden that creates a drag on our economy that will last for generations. And Congress has shirked its responsibility to oversee these ever expanding conflicts. We need to bring our troops home -- starting now. And that means prioritizing diplomacy and reinvesting in the network of partners and allies that is our unique strength. I have a plan to rebuild the State Department. It starts with doubling the size of the foreign service and opening new diplomatic posts in underserved areas to broaden the United States’ presence, recruiting a new generation of foreign service officers to represent our country and help make the world a little safer. And it means recognizing that our global power is generated here at home. Every decision the government makes should be grounded in the recognition that actions that undermine working families in this country ultimately erode American strength in the world. Instead, let’s invest in our workers, our infrastructure, and our democracy to build a future that works for all of us.
• The Issues: Please make a brief statement about the following issue to students. IMMIGRATION
  • I believe immigration makes America stronger. But an immigration system that cannot tell the difference between a criminal, a terrorist, and a 12-year-old girl is a system that does not make us safer or reflect our values. We must hold the Trump administration responsible for its illegal and immoral immigration policies. I’ve called for a ban on cruel, inhumane private detention centers. And I’ve co-sponsored legislation that would help reunite families separated at the border, prevent parents separated from their children from being deported, keep families who’ve crossed our borders together, and protect children who have suffered because of these policies. I also opposed President Trump’s efforts to divert disaster relief funds to build a border wall. We should not be criminalizing mamas and babies trying to flee violence at home or trying to build a better future. We must pass real immigration reform that is in line with our values, creates a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants including our DREAMers, and protects our borders.
• The Issues: Please make a brief statement about the following issue to students. NATIONAL SECURITY
  • Climate change is an existential threat to our national security. It is worsening by the day, and it is undermining our military readiness. That’s why a comprehensive approach to addressing climate change will be a top priority in my administration. Our military can help lead the way in this. I’ve set an ambitious goal that -- consistent with the Green New Deal -- the Pentagon should achieve net zero carbon emissions for its non-combat bases and infrastructure by 2030. My energy and climate resiliency plan will improve our service members’ readiness and safety. Our country is facing another national security crisis: our elections are extremely vulnerable to attack. It’s time to secure our elections from all threats, foreign and domestic. That’s why I’ve proposed a comprehensive strategy to address election security, administration problems, and voter suppression to keep our democracy safe. Under my plan, federal elections will get state-of-the-art federal machines, federal ballots, and federal security. And I’ll create a new independent Secure Democracy Administration to manage the cyber security of elections and develop additional security procedures for election administration. We have a solemn obligation to protect our elections from those who would try and undermine them -- and it’s time for a President who will do just that.
• The Issues: Please make a brief statement about the following issue to students. MUELLER REPORT
  • When Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report was released, I sat down and read it. I read all through the night, and when I got to page 448, three things were clear to me. First, a hostile foreign government attacked our election to help Donald Trump get elected. Second, Donald Trump welcomed that help. Third, Donald Trump did everything he could to obstruct the federal government’s effort to investigate this attack. That’s a crime -- and if Donald Trump weren’t President right now, he’d be in handcuffs. The Mueller Report makes clear that Congress should immediately act to impeach President Trump. But impeachment shouldn’t be the only way to hold a President accountable for committing a crime. That’s why, as President, I’ll pass a law making clear that Presidents can be indicted for criminal activity, and I’ll appoint officials who will make sure no President is above the law.
• The Issues: Please make a brief statement about the following issue to students. REPARATIONS FOR SLAVERY
  • America was built on the backs of slaves. And even after slavery was abolished, for generation after generation, our government discriminated against African Americans and prevented them from building wealth. We must confront this dark history head on. That’s why I support legislation to create a commission of experts to study the reparations question and make recommendations to Congress.
• The Issues: Please make a brief statement about your position on any other issues important to you.
  • The foundation of our democracy is under attack every day. Corruption has snaked into every corner of our democracy -- lobbyists, billionaires, and powerful interests stop at nothing to prop up the rich and kick dirt on everyone else. We need to rid our government of corruption so we can make big, structural change in how our government works. That’s how we’ll take back our democracy from the billionaires and giant corporations who’ve been running the show. No matter how you come into this fight -- from criminal justice reform to health care to our country’s national security -- corruption is making it worse. That’s why I introduced the biggest anti-corruption bill since Watergate. It’s also why I’m not taking a dime from shady special interests, Washington lobbyists, or PACs of any kind. My campaign is run on the principle of equal access for anybody who invests in this movement. That means no swanky dinners and no fancy cocktail receptions just for the people who write big checks. No setting aside time to thank only the biggest donors. It means I’ll be spending my time with grassroots donors and volunteers. I’ll keep fighting for people in every corner of this country — but I can’t do it alone. Together, we can keep building something incredible.

Personal Information - Drooped out of the race on 2/11/2020

• Website: Official campaign website
• Born:
  • November 28, 1964 in New Dehli, India
• Family:
  • Spouse: Susan Daggett m.1997
  • Children: 3 children
• Education:
  • Wesleyan University 1987
  • Yale University Law School 1990
• Political Experience:
  • Colorado State Senator 2009-Current
• Other Job Experience:
  • Law Clerk for 4th Circuit Court Appeals
  • Counsel to the Deputy Attorney General
  • Assistant Secretary of State for International Affiars
  • Denver Managing Director for the Anschutz Investment Company

Personal Information - Candidate dropped out of the race on February, 11, 2020

• Website: Official campaign website
• Born:
  • January 13, 1975 in Schenectady, NY
• Family:
  • Spouse: Evelyn Yang m.2010
  • Children: 2 children
• Education:
  • Philips Exeter Academy in 1992
  • Brown University 1996
  • Columbia Law School 1999
• Job Experience:
  
  • Founded Venture for America
  • Founded a national education company
  • Corporate Attorney
  • Worked for a Health Care Startup
• Personal Information - Family
  • I was born in upstate New York in 1975. My parents immigrated from Taiwan in the 1960s and met in grad school at Berkeley. My Dad was a researcher at IBM—he generated 69 patents over his career—and my Mom was the systems administrator at a local university. My brother and I grew up pretty nerdy. We also grew up believing in the American Dream—it’s why my parents came here. I now have a wife, Evelyn, and two sons.
• Personal Information - Education
  • I went to high school at Phillips Exeter Academy. I studied economics at Brown and went to law school at Columbia.
• Personal Information - Experience
  • After law school, I spent 5 unhappy months as a corporate attorney. I launched a small company in the early days of the internet that didn’t work out, and then worked for a healthcare startup, where I learned how to build a business from more experienced entrepreneurs. In my thirties, I ran a national education company that grew to become #1 in the country. My education company was acquired, and with Evelyn’s support, I decided to take my earnings and commit myself to creating jobs in cities hit hard by the financial crisis. By that time I understood the power of entrepreneurship to generate economic growth, so I founded Venture for America, an organization that helps entrepreneurs create jobs in cities like Baltimore, Detroit, Pittsburgh, and Cleveland.
• Personal Information - Other (hobbies, interests, etc.)
  • I enjoy watching basketball and MMA. I also enjoy riding my bike.
• Who is your personal hero and why?
  • Candidate failed to respond to this question.
• What was your favorite subject in school and why?
  • Candidate failed to respond to this question.
• What is your favorite book or author and why?
  • Candidate failed to respond to this question.
• What is your favorite movie and why?
  • Candidate failed to respond to this question.
• Who is your favorite musician (or type of music) and why?
  • Candidate failed to respond to this question.
• Why are you running for President?
  • It’s clear there’s a growing problem in the U.S.: automation is destroying jobs and entire regions are being left behind. For years, I believed new business formation was the answer—if we could train a new generation of entrepreneurs and create the right jobs in the right places, we could stop the downward spiral of growing income inequality, poverty, unemployment, and hopelessness. VFA created jobs by the thousands and continues to do amazing work across the country. But along the way, it became clear to me that we were pouring water into a bathtub that had a huge hole in the bottom. Automation is going to make millions of Americans’ jobs obsolete in the next decade, and our leaders are asleep at the switch, not proposing meaningful solutions. We need to think bigger about the problems facing our country, and that is why I’m running for president in 2020.
• Please make a statement to New Hampshire Students about the importance of voting and being civically engaged.
  • It’s important to vote and stay civically engaged, especially for young people. Older generations have made decisions that have saddled the younger generations with tens of thousands of dollars in student debt, while simultaneously damaging the environment and racking up a huge national debt. Since you’re the ones who are going to have to deal with this mess, it’s important that you ensure you have a say in the leaders that are going to tackle these problems.
• The Issues: Please make a brief statement about the following issue to students. DEFENSE
  • America is the beneficiary of the international world order we helped establish throughout the twentieth century. That said, we have deluded ourselves into thinking that we are capable of doing things that we are not, sometimes at a terrible cost to ourselves and others. My first principles concerning foreign policy are restraint and judgment - we should be very judicious about projecting force and have clear goals that we know we can accomplish. We should treat our armed services members as the brave and self-sacrificing leaders that they are, both during and after their deployments. If I send young men and women into harm’s way, they will know that vital national interests are at stake and there is a clear plan for them to achieve their goal in a reasonable time frame.
• The Issues: Please make a brief statement about the following issue to students. DOMESTIC TERRORISM
  • Domestic terrorism is a rising issue in this country, and one that must be combated. We need to fund the DHS and FBI to fully investigate domestic terrorist organizations, preventing attacks and prosecuting perpetrators. A domestic terrorism statute would go a long way to making this possible. We also need to fund trauma and victim services (which I’d do through a Medicare for All system) to help those affected by domestic terrorism. Finally, I’ve talked with Christian Picciolini and Deeyah Khan about their work in reforming individuals who were radicalized and could potentially commit these crimes, and I think non-profits doing this work should be federally funded.
• The Issues: Please make a brief statement about the following issue to students. ECONOMY
  • The focus of our economy should be to maximize human welfare. Right now, we focus on GDP and headline unemployment, but that’s going to lead us off a cliff. They ignore the 63% labor force participation rate, decline in life expectancy, and the value of my wife’s labor, who stays home with our two children, one of whom is autistic, and works much harder than me. GDP values her work at $0. Capitalism as an economic system has led to unparalleled innovation and improvement in the human condition. But what many people didn’t realize is that capitalism would be eaten by its son, technology, as my friend Eric Weinstein says. Our current emphasis on corporate profits isn’t working for the vast majority of Americans. This will only be made worse by the development of automation technology and AI, as the market values more and more people’s labor at $0. We need to move to a new form of capitalism – Human Capitalism – that’s geared towards maximizing human well-being and fulfillment.
• The Issues: Please make a brief statement about the following issue to students. EDUCATION
  • I believe in early childhood education. Education in America starts too late. There have been massive benefits shown to offering pre-kindergarten options to children throughout their lives, especially for those from low-income families. It also increases sociability, and it relieves the financial burden of finding daycare for families who struggle to afford it. The purpose of education should be to enable a citizen to live a positive, socially productive. We need to make school more relevant to our young people by teaching them things they might actually use every day. Emphasizing rote academic skills in the age of supercomputers is not preparing our people for what's to come. On higher education, I have two kids and I’m frightened of what college costs today. Most of the money is not going to professors—it’s going to administrators. If it doesn’t directly impact the student experience, universities should take a long look at it and rein in their costs. It’s likely that schools are not up to the task of bringing down their own budgets, and the government will have to help them scale back and become more cost-efficient.
• The Issues: Please make a brief statement about the following issue to students. THE ENVIRONMENT
  • Climate change is an existential threat to humanity and our way of life. It should be a top priority of the federal government to implement policies to control anthropogenic climate change while working with other governments to implement these policies throughout the world. It’s important to regulate fossil fuels, both to control climate change and to improve the health of the average American. Renewable energy must be invested in, not only as a means of moderating climate change but also to drive economic growth. However, innovation must also be relied on to reverse the damage already caused, and we need to invest in researching reengineering solutions. Finally, we need to protect our natural resources, such as our national parks, and invest in maintaining our water quality.
• The Issues: Please make a brief statement about the following issue to students. GREEN NEW DEAL
  • I agree with the Green New Deal in spirit. We need to take big action on climate change in order to combat this existential threat. Setting ambitious goals for ending our reliance on fossil fuels and transitioning to carbon-free energy sources is important to making sure that our climate remains stable. We need to invest heavily in renewable energy sources and work with the rest of the world to make this important transition.
• The Issues: Please make a brief statement about the following issue to students.GUN CONTROL
  • For many Americans, guns are a big part of their culture and identity. However, guns are a major responsibility and thus we need to have common-sense gun safety measures, especially considering that there are already approximately 300 million firearms in the United States. Responsible gun owners should continue to enjoy the right to bear arms, subject to licensing and education requirements that will encourage the public safety.
• The Issues: Please make a brief statement about the following issue to students. HEALTH CARE
  • Healthcare should be a basic right for all Americans. Right now, if you get sick you have two things to worry about – how to get better and how to pay for it. Too many Americans are making terrible, impossible choices between paying for healthcare and other needs. We need to provide high-quality healthcare to all Americans and a Medicare for All system is the most efficient way to accomplish that. It will be a massive boost to our economy as people will be able to start businesses and change jobs without fear of losing their health insurance.
• The Issues: Please make a brief statement about the following issue to students. INFRASTRUCTURE
  • Our infrastructure has become dangerous because of neglect, and it’s a symbol of our weakness at home at ensuring our people are strong. We are still living off of the investments of past generations in the 1960s. We need to own the future, which includes building a world-class infrastructure befitting the world’s most advanced society in 2020. When our infrastructure works better, we’ll all work better. This will also help put millions of Americans back to work and demonstrate that America can yet build great things, and allow us to build environmentally sustainable buildings that are also better equipped to withstand natural disasters.
• The Issues: Please make a brief statement about the following issue to students. INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
  • Candidate failed to respond to this question.
• The Issues: Please make a brief statement about the following issue to students. IMMIGRATION
  • I am the son of immigrants and understand those who have come here to build a better life for themselves and their families. I believe immigrants are a source of dynamism and innovation for our economy. First, I’d implement a policy of stapling a green card to everyone who earns a degree here. It’s stupid that we’re training these people and then sending them out to compete against us. We also have to face facts that there are over 11 million undocumented immigrants in this country. Millions of them pay taxes and have American children. Deporting them is impossible and inhumane, and it would devastate many communities. We need to bring them out of the shadows and into the formal economy. The best path forward is to provide a pathway to citizenship for those who are here illegally.
• The Issues: Please make a brief statement about the following issue to students. NATIONAL SECURITY
  • We need to make sure that we’re secure at home, but we also have to invest in this area intelligently. Spending billions of dollars on projects that are less relevant in the modern world is a waste of money. For example, no one thinks that America is going to be invaded by physical troops. The threats of the future come from cyber attacks, taking out our banking system, electrical grids, and other key infrastructure. We need to redirect the money we spend on defense into areas that will actually make us secure. We also need to stop getting involved in conflicts that we have no business being involved in. When the areas destabilize because of or in spite of our involvement, it creates future national security issues that we spend decades dealing with.
• The Issues: Please make a brief statement about the following issue to students. MUELLER REPORT
  • I think the Mueller Report was an unbiased account of a lot of questionable conduct both during the election and during the early days of the current administration. If prosecutors decide to bring a case against Donald Trump or any members of his inner circle based on the Report, I think there’s sufficient evidence for that trial to move forward. That said, my focus is on defeating Donald Trump at the ballot box in 2020. If we’re focused on impeachment instead of addressing the problems that got Trump elected in the first place, we’re going to lose. People want leaders who work tirelessly to solve their problems, and if we get distracted from that, we’re doing Americans a disservice.
• The Issues: Please make a brief statement about the following issue to students. REPARATIONS FOR SLAVERY
  • This country was built by people who were stripped of their dignity and freedom. We’ve never fully dealt with that, and the legacy of slavery can still be seen today. I support something like proposed in HR40, to study potential means of providing reparations for slavery. While the Freedom Dividend doesn’t take the place of reparations, it can go a long way to giving black Americans access to resources that have traditionally been denied them, to start building wealth and businesses, and investing in communities in a way directed by the community itself.
• The Issues: Please make a brief statement about your position on any other issues important to you.
  • Andrew would implement the Freedom Dividend, a universal basic income of $1,000/month, $12,000 a year, for every American adult over the age of 18, free and clear, no strings attached. This would enable all Americans to pay their bills, go back to school, start businesses, be more creative, stay healthy, relocate for work, spend time with their children, take care of loved ones, and have a real stake in the future.

Personal Information

Dropped out of the race on 12/02/2019

• Website: Official campaign website
• Born:
  • April 11, 1966 in Missoula, MT
• Family:
  • Spouse: Lisa Downs m.1999
• Education:
  • Claremont McKenna College 1988
  • JD from Columbia Law School 1994
• Political Experience:
  • 24th Governor of Montana 2013-present
  • 23rd Attorney General of Montana 2009-2013

Personal Information

Dropped out of the race on 12/3/2019

• Website: Official campaign website
• Born:
  • October 20, 1964 in Oakland, CA
• Family:
  • Spouse: Douglas Emhoff
  • Stepchildren: 2 children
• Education:
• Howard University 1986
• University of California, Hastings College of Law 1989
• Political Experience:
• California State Senator 2017-Current
• Other Job Experience:
• Deputy District Attorney in Alameda County, CA 1990-1998
• District Attorney of San Francisco 2003-2009
• District Attorney of California 2010-2016

Personal Information

Dropped out of the race on 11/20/2019

• Website: Official campaign website
• Born:
  • June 7, 1974 in South Bay, FL
• Family:
  • Spouse: Angela Messam
  • Son: Wayne II
  • Twin Daughters: Kayla and Kyla
• Education:
  • Florida State University 1997 - B.S. Management Information System College of Business
• Political Experience:
• Miramar City Commission Member 2001-2015
• Mayor of Mirmar 2015 - Current
• Other Job Experience:
• Founded a Construction Company 2007
• Other (hobbies, interests, etc.)
  
• Wide receiver for FSU Seminoles
  
• Member of the 1993 national championship team
  
• Who is your personal hero and why?
  • Father and Mother who were Jamaican Immigrants that came to this country to pursue the American Dream. Because of their sacrifice and provision, I am living that American Dream. I am indebted to them and have made it a calling to help others to achieve the promise of America.
• What was your favorite subject in school and why?
  • Math. I just love solving problems.
• What is your favorite book or author and why?
  • The Bible because it provides so much spiritual guidance.
• What is your favorite movie and why?
  • Black Panther. I love the empowering imagery and the unsurpassed technology.
• Who is your favorite musician (or type of music) and why?
  • Reggae Music. Specifically Bob Marley. I love his music for the liberating themes that transcended this world.
• Why are you running for President?
  • I’m running for President to give Americans a second chance at the American Dream. Hard working Americans are finding that dream slipping away. I want to solve the challenges of the day and plan for the crisis we see coming. This current administration is failing on both fronts.
• Please make a statement to New Hampshire Students about the importance of voting and being civically engaged.
  • As one of the youngest candidates, a former football star I decided that I don’t have to wait for permission or my turn to lead this nation. You too don’t need permission to get involved. Your intentional involvement civically, will ensure the world you want to see will happen.
• The Issues: Please make a brief statement about the following issue to students. DEFENSE
  • America must remain the global leader protecting the home land and our interest abroad. There is nothing greater than the safety of Americans and our national interests.
• The Issues: Please make a brief statement about the following issue to students. DOMESTIC TERRORISM
  • We must root out all forms of terror domestically. It threatens the very core of our democracy.
• The Issues: Please make a brief statement about the following issue to students. ECONOMY
  • I’m running for President because the time to live up to our potential is now—not tomorrow. The future is happening every day and we are ill-prepared. This administration inherited the Obama economy with historic growth from the depths of a recession. Instead of preparing us for the future, they have given millions in tax breaks to big corporations. When I’m President, repealing the Trump tax breaks for the wealthy will be at the top of my agenda.
  • I’ve built a small business, and as Mayor, overseen one of the fastest growing economies in the nation. I championed a living wage for city workers, attracted high-paying jobs for Floridians, fought to bring manufacturing jobs back from China, and created jobs myself. Democrats don’t need to be lectured on the economy when Democratic presidents oversee stronger job growth than Republican presidents. It’s time we had a President who invests in training the entrepreneurs of today and tomorrow.
  • Under my administration, we would bring uncertainty for American workers and businesses to an end, by pushing to make it illegal to shut down the government to score political points. The future holds an economy where every American is able to take his or her talent directly to market. We have seen the rise of ride sharing and home sharing, crypto currency and digital collectibles, yet we still train our workforce for jobs that will be replaced by artificial intelligence. When I’m President, we will establish an economic plan to soften the blow of the coming tech advancements on working and middle class Americans, and will encourage young people to start their own businesses as a pathway to success and alternative to college. I believe in an America in which anyone who wants a job will be able to get one.
  • It will be a federal priority to put Americans to work in high-paying jobs, with flexible benefits so they can spend more time with their loved ones. Success in the future means encouraging “smart work.” Let’s bring back the creative American spirit.
• The Issues: Please make a brief statement about the following issue to students. EDUCATION
  • As the product of public schools and dad of three kids in college, I know the importance of access to quality education. Our schools are a critical piece of our infrastructure that help shape young minds, build a skilled, productive workforce and create lasting economic opportunity. When we invest in our schools, we make sure every child can achieve their full potential in this rapidly changing economy.
• The Issues: Please make a brief statement about the following issue to students. THE ENVIRONMENT
  • Candidate skipped this question
• The Issues: Please make a brief statement about the following issue to students. GREEN NEW DEAL
  • Today, the leaders of the political party in power do not believe in science. By the end of this American century, as many as one million Floridians could lose their homes due to climate change and cost the country $120 billion dollars per year in property damages. The largest wildfires we have ever seen engulf the state of California in flames. Yet, all we hear out of Washington are attacks on proponents of the Green New Deal and silence from those with the political power to save lives. I’m running for President of the United States to take direct climate action to change that. This is not just a coastal issue. Sections of the Midwest would see their ability to produce corn drop by 75 percent and 25 percent of soybean crop production could be at risk. Even this administration’s own reports say we if we don’t act now, we could have irreversible damage to the air we breathe and the water we drink. I’ve built a construction business overseeing nearly a half a billion dollars in projects and I helped build the greenest school in Florida, so I know how to create jobs taking action to prevent climate change. When I’m President, my administration will make it a priority to lead the world and take bold, direct, climate action that will rival the New Deal in scope, rise to the scale of this challenge and apply the urgency required to get the job done in ten years. We can build the economy and tackle the climate crisis.
• The Issues: Please make a brief statement about the following issue to students. GUN CONTROL
  • Last Valentine’s Day, I joined my twin daughters for a senior appreciation ceremony at their high school. I had just presented my two girls with bouquets of red roses when my phone started buzzing. You can imagine the panic among all of the parents as we learned of the active shooter situation unfolding just minutes down the road in Parkland. Similarly, a few years ago as I was Christmas shopping, I was caught in a mass shooting scare. I saw crowds of people run through the mall in panic. I waited in the back of the mall with a few store employees as law enforcement secured the area with guns drawn. This isn’t rhetoric this hits close to home for Americans every single day. This is a national emergency. As a result of Washington’s refusal to address gun violence, young people across the country have grown up traumatized by the gun violence epidemic. They know the exact lockdown procedure thanks to practice.
• Experts agree that these drills, when not conducted appropriately, can cause “physical and psychological harm to students, staff and the overall learning environment.” As Mayor, I proposed and unanimously passed a measure in support of safer gun laws that would expand background checks and prevent terrorists from gaining access to guns. Last year, I sued the state to allow local leaders to protect our residents from gun violence because in Florida, it’s illegal for mayors to even bring up gun reform for discussion.
• The trauma of this epidemic doesn’t go away when the shooting is over. One student in California survived one mass shooting only to be killed in another one. In Florida, survivor’s remorse claimed the lives of two Parkland shooting survivors, and snatched the life of a father whose daughter was brutally murdered in Sandy Hook. When you have 96 people die from gun violence every day in America and there is no gun reform bill on the President’s desk, Washington is broken. When you can’t take your family to a movie or drop your child off at school without wondering whether or not it will be the last time that you see them, Washington is broken.
• I’m running for President of the United States to change that. When I’m President, it will be the number one priority for my administration to prevent mass shootings. I believe law enforcement should remove mass shooting weaponry from the hands of those suffering from mental illness, those who have a history of domestic abuse, and anyone on the terrorist watch list. It’s time to stop playing games with American lives. We cannot wait to have safe communities and schools. It will be my goal as your President to cut gun deaths in half by the end of my first term, with the goal to eliminate this threat entirely by the end of my presidency. It’s time we demand action from our government to keep us safe from gun violence and replace politicians if they won’t get to work to make it happen. One more child lost to gun violence is one too many. Change cannot wait to protect our people.
• The Issues: Please make a brief statement about the following issue to students. HEALTH CARE
  • After helping Florida State University win a national football championship and exploring a NFL career, one of my first jobs out of college gave me a front-row-seat to healthcare in this country. In my role, I spent most every day helping to educate physicians on treatment options for their patients suffering from cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and other life-threatening ailments. I saw the aggressive marketing tactics deployed by companies out to boost their bottom line and increase their market share. I witnessed the challenges and life-or-death consequences patients faced when they could not afford essential medications due to far-too-high prescription drug costs. It was not a fit for me, and I quit to start my construction business, but the firsthand look at the industry shined a glaring light on the real-life effects of our broken healthcare system. This experience rings true for seniors and families across this country.
• Healthcare is the largest single sector of the U.S. economy, and profits in the private health and pharmaceutical industries are soaring. The American people spend more on healthcare than any other country, yet we receive less for it. That is a travesty and runs counter to the fact that healthcare is a basic human right. Six million Americans rely on insulin to survive, yet many cannot afford it as prices have tripled in recent years. These soaring prices have led to many diabetic patients using expired supplies or self-rationing. It’s reprehensible that in the world’s wealthiest country, some are dying because they cannot afford the simple injections they need to live.
• Access to quality healthcare is one of the top barriers to economic opportunity, mobility and stability. If people are unable to live healthy lives, their productivity and ability to thrive at school, work or home suffers. In order to compete globally and lay the groundwork for a truly prosperous society, we must re-evaluate our priorities and make healthcare a fundamental right — not a privilege — in this country. We must reform the system from the top down and drive down costs for patients, including giving the government more authority to negotiate prescription prices for seniors.
• As President, I will be open to ideas to fix a broken system that right now does more to protect the bottom line of insurance and pharmaceutical companies than protecting patients.
• The Issues: Please make a brief statement about the following issue to students. INFRASTRUCTURE
  • Candidate skipped this question
• The Issues: Please make a brief statement about the following issue to students. INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
  • I’m running for President because American standing in the world is in complete decay. Our leadership role in the world has become diminished as a result of President Trump’s short-sighted thinking. The next American president must change course, be an honest broker on the world stage and restore true American leadership that’s rooted in both our values and our national security interests.
• Our country is facing multiple challenges overseas that impact us here at home. From a resurgent Russia to the long term rivalry that China poses to instability and lack of peace in the Middle East to the spread of nuclear weapons to the erosion of democracies to the threat posed by climate change, we need to change course, rebuild our fractured alliances and lead by example. That’s what I’ll do. A restoration of American global leadership will require a restoration of American respect for all people and all faiths.
• We cannot disrespect the humanity of people and expect to be welcomed with open arms due to our military might alone. Our true power has always been our tolerance and ability to find alignment with the broader brotherhood and sisterhood of our fellow human beings — not undermining our allies at every turn. As President, I will never lose sight of that fact.
• The Issues: Please make a brief statement about the following issue to students. IMMIGRATION
  • As a first-generation American, small business owner and Mayor of one of Florida’s most diverse communities, this issue is deeply personal. My parents immigrated to this country from Jamaica with no more than a fifth-grade education. My mom was a cook and did domestic work while my dad spent over a decade cutting sugar cane — backbreaking labor in the Florida heat. Because of their sacrifice and the opportunities of this great country, I received the opportunity to inherit their American Dream and take on tough fights as mayor, including creating designated safe zones for immigrants and directing city law enforcement to not support ICE’s abusive efforts to deport our residents, unless they are in possession of a judicial warrant.
• Despite the actions that local leaders across the country are taking to make communities safer for all residents, divisive rhetoric continues to dominate the Washington conversation. These are unsettling times as the current administration seeks to further divide our communities and pit hardworking neighbor against hardworking neighbor. Immigrants strengthen our communities and the economy at large. Our nation runs on the contributions immigrants make every day. The last thing we need in this country is our most vulnerable communities living in a constant state of fear. I have seen this firsthand in Miramar, which has an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) check-in office within the city limits. It has been frustrating as community members and local families are subjected to degrading conditions, including lack of restroom facilities, shelter from the elements, parking and adequate sitting and waiting areas. That’s why our city passed a resolution demanding ICE improve these conditions.
• What this comes down to is human dignity. I’m proud to partner with the Florida Immigrant Coalition and United We Dream in their work to provide relief for members of our community, including creating legal aid clinics and municipal identification cards.
• We need to reform our immigration system from top to bottom and make sure our country is not only safer, but also more inclusive of, immigrants. The first thing we need to do is provide a pathway to citizenship for American Dreamers. This is a long overdue action for people who, through no fault of their own, find their path to the American Dream blocked. Then, we should offer comprehensive immigration reform that re-establishes a fair and orderly process to achieve the American dream. Fear of our neighbors and friends is not a true American value. Our diversity is our strength as a nation.
• The Issues: Please make a brief statement about the following issue to students. NATIONAL SECURITY
  • Candidate skipped this question
• The Issues: Please make a brief statement about the following issue to students. MUELLER REPORT
  • Congress should do their constitutional duty and provide oversight over the executive branch. The Mueller Report has made the case to begin Impeachment Inquiry Proceedings.
• The Issues: Please make a brief statement about the following issue to students. REPARATIONS FOR SLAVERY
  • I support HR 40 that will objectively study the impacts of free labor of Enslaved Africans and their descendants. The findings will provide guidance on this nation repairs the impacts of Slabery on African Americans.
• The Issues: Please make a brief statement about your position on any other issues important to you.
  • Candidate skipped this question

Personal Information

Dropped out of the race on 11/01/2019

• Website: Official campaign website
• Born:
  • September 26,1972 in El Paso, TX
• Family:
  • Spouse: Amy Hoover Sanders
  • Children: 3 children
• Education:
  • Columbia University 1995
    
• Political Experience:
• Congressman 2013-2019

Personal Information

Dropped out of the race on 10/24/2019

• Website: Official campaign website
• Born:
  • July 16, 1973 in Niles, OH
• Family:
  • Spouse: Andrea Zetts m. 2013
• Children: 1 child, 2 step-children
• Education:
  • Bowling Green State University 1995
• University of New Hampshire Law School 2000
  
• Political Experience:
  • Ohio State Senator 2001-2002
• Ohio State Congressmen 2003-current

Personal Information

Dropped out of the race on 12/01/2019

• Website: Official campaign website
• Born:
  • December 12th, 1951 in Secane, PA.
• Family:
  • Spouse: Susan Clark (m. 1998)
  • Children: 1 child
• Education:
  • United States Naval Academy (BA) Graduated 1974
  • Harvard University (MPA, Ph.D) Graduated 1980, 1984
• Experience:
  • United States Navy, 1974-2005, Vice Admiral
  • U.S. House Representative from Pennsylvania January 3rd, 2007-January 3rd, 2011.
• Personal Information - Experience
  • 31 years in the US Navy, rising to rank of 3-star Admiral. Director of Defense Policy in President Bill Clinton's White House. Commander of the USS George Washington Aircraft Carrier Battle Group. Congressman from Pennsylvania for 4 years. Professor at Carnegie Mellon University and Cheyney University. Held the General Omar N. Bradley Chair in Strategic Leadership, a joint initiative of the US Army War College, Dickinson College, and the Pennsylvania State University — Dickinson School of Law. Founding President of First Global, a nonprofit organization dedicated to STEM education which organized the first-ever international youth robotics Olympics, bringing together teams from 157 countries.
• Personal Information - Other (hobbies, interests, etc.)
  • Reading, running, and spending time with my family.
• Who is your personal hero and why?
  • My daughter Alex who twice beat brain cancer with courage and grace.
• What was your favorite subject in school and why?
  • Geography and World Culture, which gave me my first taste of the wider world I would later travel through as a sailor in the Navy.
• What is your favorite book or author and why?
  • I just read "Washington" by Ron Chernow. I did not know enough about George Washington as a leader, and what I learned was that he served with integrity in war and peace.
• What is your favorite movie and why?
  • Downton Abbey — because my daughter loves it.
• Who is your favorite musician (or type of music) and why?
  • Simon and Garfunkel, because they were so good at expressing feelings of independence and the importance of community to humankind.
• Please make a statement to New Hampshire Students about the importance of voting and being civically engaged.
  • American democracy is only as strong as the people who participate in it. Voting and civic engagement are sacred responsibilities. We are so lucky to live in a place where our voices matter. Our system of government may be messy, and it often feels like we take as many steps backwards as forwards, but we can only make things better if you get active and stay active. We need you. Thank you.
• The Issues: Please make a brief statement about your position on the following issue. DEFENSE
  • It may surprise some of you to read that a former Admiral is probably the least likely candidate to send our troops into harms way. But having served in war, I understand its true costs. America must never start a war unless we know how to end it, and we must realize that while militaries may stop a problem, they can't fix a problem. I therefore believe in diplomacy, above all (which is why I know it was a mistake to leave the Iran nuclear deal). War should only be an absolute last resort. It also might surprise you to read that I have long believed we can reduce the size of our military while increasing our capability. We do not need as many ships or tanks to deal with the problems of the 21st century world, but we do need far more experts in the arena of cyberspace. With the rise of China and their domination of tech manufacturing — especially 5G wireless tower technology — we must incentivize US companies to build the hardware we need in order to keep our information secure and prevent China from having the ability to damage critical infrastructure here in the United States.
• The Issues: Please make a brief statement about your position on the following issue. THE ECONOMY
  • The most important economic sector as we move into the future will be green industries. In the face of global climate change, we need to expand our renewable energy industries, the regenerative agriculture field, and green technology in general, from electric cars to carbon-capturing manufacturing plants. We also need to fix our crumbling infrastructure, incentivize manufacturing in the United States, and better train workers for the jobs of the future. Finally, we need to increase support for small businesses, which create 70% of all new jobs. It needs to be easier to start a small business and get it to thrive.
• The Issues: Please make a brief statement about your position on the following issue. EDUCATION
  • I often say "education is our best homeland defense" because it truly is the bedrock of a successful society. I support universal pre-K, fixing our crumbling school infrastructure, increasing pay for teachers, and creating more opportunities for technical and vocational training, both for school-age students and adults.
• The Issues: Please make a brief statement about your position on the following issue. THE ENVIRONMENT
  • Climate change and environmental protection are fundamental parts of my platform. We simply have no choice but to dramatically improve our treatment of the natural world if we're going to have a habitable planet in the future. Besides immediately rejoining the Paris Climate Accord, we must stop subsidizing fossil fuels and industrial agriculture, implement a carbon fee for polluters, ratify the Kigali Agreement to ban HFCs, establish a permanent moratorium on all future offshore drilling, restore the National Monuments and other public lands opened to extractive industries by the Trump administration, and renew our commitment to fighting deforestation, habitat destruction, and poaching of endangered species around the world.
• The Issues: Please make a brief statement about your position on the following issue.GUN CONTROL
  • We must deal with the horror of gun violence in our society. While I believe Americans have a right to own firearms for hunting or self-defense, I do favor banning assault weapons and high capacity magazines, instituting universal background checks for all gun purchases, and improving funding for mental health care across the board, because we must get to the root of the alienation and anti-social behavior that leads violence.
    
• The Issues: Please make a brief statement about your position on the following issue. HEALTH CARE
  • I support immediately shoring up the Affordable Care Act through the creation of a public option, followed by a transition to a universal, single-payer healthcare system. As the father of a daughter who has now twice beaten brain cancer, I understand how important quality medical care is — and I am concerned about suddenly throwing our entire system into chaos, particularly for the over 250 million Americans who currently have private healthcare. That's why the transition of choice to single-payer must be done with due deliberation.
• The Issues: Please make a brief statement about your position on the following issue. INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
  • I believe America's greatest power is not our military, but our power to convene — and we have sadly diminished that power in recent years. I believe we need to restore America's standing on the world stage and once again lead a rules-based global order that centers individual and human rights. This will require respecting our allies, rejoining international efforts like the Paris Climate accords, and standing up for freedom and democracy against autocrats around the world.
• The Issues: Please make a brief statement about your position on the following issue. IMMIGRATION
  • I strongly believe that immigrants are good for our country. The vast majority of them are hard-working people who simply want to make a better life for themselves and their families. Without immigrants, we would be losing population and our economy would be shrinking. I favor comprehensive immigration reform with a path to citizenship for undocumented people. I also support strengthening the DACA program for Dreamers, increasing guest worker visas, and enforcing humane and respectful treatment of migrants and asylum-seekers at the border.
• The Issues: Please make a brief statement about your position on any other issues important to you.
  • There are so many other issues of importance to me that haven't been covered here, from securing full rights for LGBTQ+ individuals to dealing with the epidemic of opioid addiction to preserving reproductive rights to dealing with corporate abuses of power, and much more. My full platform can be found at www.JoeSestak.com.

Personal Information

Dropped out of the race on 1/2/2020

• Website: Official campaign website
• Born:
  • September 16, 1974 in San Antonio, TX
• Family:
  • Spouse: Erica Lira m. 2007
  • Children: 2 children
• Education:
  • Stanford University 1996
  • Harvard Law School 2000
• Political Experience:
• San Antonio Mayor
• San Antonio City Councilman
• Ran in 2016 Prestidential Election

Personal Information

Dropped out of the race on 1/10/2020

• Website: Official campaign website
• Born:
  • July 8, 1952 in Houston, TX
• Family:
  • Children: 1 child
• Education:
  • 2 years at Pomona College
• Political Experience:
• Ran as an Independent for California's 33rd district
• Other Job Experience:
  • Best-Selling Author
  • Social Activist

Personal Information

Dropped out of the race Janaury 13, 2020

• Website: Official campaign website
• Born:
  • April 27, 1969 in Washington, D.C.
• Family:
  • Parents: Cary and Carolyn Booker
  • Brother: Cary Booker
  • Girlfriend: Rosario Dawson
• Education:
  • I attended Stanford University on a football scholarship and helped fellow students by working as a peer crisis counselor. Later, I studied at the University of Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship and graduated from Yale Law School.
• Political Experience:
  • After leaving Yale, I moved into a public housing project in Newark, New Jersey, where I teamed up with the other tenants to take on a slumlord accused of intentional neglect of the property and won. I was elected to the city council, where I worked to draw attention to the violence that plagued the city and called for efficiency and transparency in City Hall. In 2006, I was elected mayor of Newark with 72 percent of the vote and was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2013.
• Hobbies and Interests:
  • It’s no secret that I am a huge Stark Trek fan. My father introduced me to the show, and I love it because it offers an incredibly hopeful vision and a belief that we’re going to get beyond a lot of the lines that try to divide us. I truly believe, and it’s why I am running for president, that to do good, we must unite as humanity, and that’s a key lesson Star Trek teaches us.
• Who is your personal hero and why?
• My personal heroes are my parents. Perhaps the biggest thing that stands out to me from my childhood is that my parents always emphasized service and giving back to your community. That’s what I have tried to do every day of my life. They were and still are great role models.
• What was your favorite subject in school and why?
  • History. One, I had incredible high school history teachers that brought history alive. And two, for me, reading about history as a student made me feel like I was learning more and more about the present and the possibilities of the future. To this day, I very rarely read fiction because historical non-fiction is still to me so illuminating about the infinite possibilities for tomorrow.
• What is your favorite book or author and why?
• James Baldwin is one of my favorite authors. His writing has challenged my head and inspired my heart. He told the truth to our nation and did not hold back in helping us understand ourselves and calling us to a greater commitment to one another. I believe he was right when he wrote, “I know what I'm asking is impossible. But in our time, as in every time, the impossible is the least that one can demand.”
• What is your favorite movie and why?
• I’ll pick two classics that shaped my childhood — Rocky and Star Wars.
• Who is your favorite musician (or type of music) and why?
• I can’t pick just one! But right now I have been listening to a lot of Chance the Rapper, who I got to see a few weeks ago in person.

THE ISSUES

• EDUCATION
• Access to a high-quality public education should not depend on a child’s zip code. Teachers across the country are overworked, underpaid, and under-supported at a time when they are going above and beyond for our students. They deserve better. As president, I will nominate a Secretary of Education who has worked as a public school teacher, invest in teachers by raising their pay, and guarantee universal early childhood education. I will also fully fund the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA), end the school to prison pipeline, and strengthen our public schools by investing additional resources for schools that need them. Our children are our greatest resource, and we should treat them as such.
• THE ECONOMY
• I will fight for an economy where everyone has a stake in its success; where workers actually benefit from the profits that they help create; where small businesses can compete and grow without being swallowed up and spit out by monopolistic giants; and where every community--not just a few cities on the coasts--is empowered and thriving.
• We have lost sight of who our economy is supposed to be working for: the American people. Instead of pursuing policies that are designed to provide short term boosts in the stock market and line the pockets of corporate executives, we should be investing in the millions upon millions of ordinary Americans who power our economy. My economic agenda would do just that. My Rise Credit would give every working American a cost-of-living refund of up to $4,000 each year. My “Baby Bonds” proposal would create a new American birthright to close the wealth gap and give every American a shot at economic opportunity. And my housing proposal would nearly eliminate homelessness and create a renters credit to help cap rental costs at 30 percent of income for working and middle-class Americans.
• INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
  • We have a president that has reneged on U.S. multilateral commitments. He has pulled the U.S. out of the Paris Climate Agreement, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), NAFTA, and has repeatedly denigrated our closest allies with whom we share critical security relationships through NATO. A core component of diplomacy is trust, and I will work tirelessly to rebuild that trust with our friends and allies, and credibility with our adversaries.
• DEFENSE
• The United States is facing new and evolving threats to our security and to global stability, but the Trump administration’s reckless approach to our military and foreign policy is violating our values, undermining the Constitution, and making us less safe. As president, I will begin bringing our troops home as soon as possible, because we cannot have forever wars in this nation. I will also work to restore American leadership by ensuring that we have a fully staffed State Department and a fully functioning diplomatic corps, prioritizing foreign aid, and working closely with our allies and recommitting to NATO -- not undermining it. We are the strongest nation on earth, but that strength is magnified when we stand by our allies and uplift our values.
• HEALTH CARE
• Our health care system is broken. We pay more for health care than any other wealthy country, yet we still have inadequate care, and many uninsured Americans. I will put us on a path to get to Medicare for All, acting with urgency every single day to expand access to every American. That begins with strengthening the Affordable Care Act, reducing drug prices, and providing a public option to ensure guaranteed, affordable health care for every American because health care is a human right.
• IMMIGRATION
• America has been a beacon of freedom, hope, and opportunity to the world for generations, and our immigration system must reflect these values. When I am president, I will not wait to fix our broken immigration system. I will act--with or without Congress--to immediately end family separation, virtually eliminate immigration detention, close private detention facilities, reform our immigration system so that it is humane, ensure protections for Dreamers and TPS recipients; and fight for a pathway to citizenship for the millions of undocumented immigrants living in the United States
• THE ENVIRONMENT
  • Climate change is not some distant threat — we’re witnessing its effects today. And the immediate burden of much of the pollution causing climate change is disproportionately borne by low-income communities and communities of color. Climate change is already affecting New Hampshire, from shorter winters that threaten winter recreation, to rising sea levels and dangerous flooding that endanger homes and ecosystems, to an exploding deer tick population, and much more.
  • My plan to combat climate change would include a direct investment of over $3 trillion by 2030 to power the transition to a 100% carbon-neutral economy by 2045, spurring economic activity, creating millions of jobs, and empowering communities to have control and ownership over their energy systems and local environments. My plan also includes the most sweeping-ever investment in environmental justice to focus resources on the communities impacted by pollution and climate change, including the replacement of every school, daycare, and residential lead drinking water service line in the country.
• GUN CONTROL
• When I am president, we won’t wait for more thoughts and prayers for communities that have been shattered by gun violence. I have put forward the most sweeping plan to combat gun violence of any candidate for president--perhaps ever. It starts with a federal gun licensing system, because if you need a license to drive a car, you should need a license to own a gun. I would also work to ban assault weapons, implement universal background checks, and finally bring accountability to the gun industry. I would also take action to prevent firearm suicide by incentivizing extreme risk laws which empower law enforcement and family members to petition a court to temporarily remove firearms from individuals at risk of hurting themselves or others; requiring the safe storage of firearms; and expanding education and training for health professionals on suicide prevention. When I am in the White House, we will bring a fight to the NRA like it has never seen before.
• ARE THERE OTHER ISSUES IMPORTANT TO YOU?
• The fight to fix our criminal justice system is personal to me. Our criminal justice system should be keeping us safe, but instead it has been shuffling our most vulnerable citizens -- the poor, the mentally ill, and those with addiction problems -- into cages and coffins. I have seen firsthand how our criminal justice system preys on lower-income Black and Brown communities like the one I call home. Stunningly, there are now more African American men under criminal supervision than there were slaves in 1850.
• I’m proud to have led the effort to pass the First Step Act, one of the only major bipartisan bills signed into law under this President, to make overdue changes to our criminal justice system. When I am president, I will fight to pass my Next Step Act, which would amount to the most sweeping changes to our criminal justice system in more than a generation. It would make serious and substantial reforms to sentencing guidelines, prison conditions, law enforcement training and re-entry efforts. It would also legalize marijuana at the federal level and incentivize states to do the same, in addition to expunging the records of individuals who have been convicted of a marijuana-related offense.
• I am also passionate about animal welfare, because our treatment of animals is a test of our character and a measure of the compassion of our society. I am proud to be a leading voice on animal welfare issues. As president, I would protect all endangered species, make extreme acts of animal cruelty a federal crime and create millions of new acres of wildlife habitat, restoring and protecting ecosystems that will provide a lifeline for species facing the threat of extinction.
• STATEMENT TO NEW HAMPSHIRE STUDENTS ABOUT THE IMPORTANCE OF VOTING AND BEING CIVICALLY ENGAGED
Students are the ones who will have to deal with the decisions lawmakers make for decades to come—which is why protecting your right to vote is paramount. The right to vote is sacred, and we should be trying to make it easier for everyone, not harder. As president, I will fight to protect and expand every American’s right to take part in our democracy. In fact, I’ve proposed a comprehensive new Voting Rights Act that would end partisan gerrymandering, implement universal voter registration, and make Election Day a national holiday, among other changes.

Personal Information

Dropped out of the race on 1/31/2020

• Website: Official campaign website
• Born:
  • April 16, 1963 in Wood-Ridge, NJ
• Family:
  • Spouse: April Delaney m.1990
  • Children: 4 daughters
• Education:
  • Columbia University 1985
  • Georgetown University Law Center 1988
• Political Experience:
• Maryland Congressmen 2013- Current
• Other Job Experience
• Co-Founded Health Care Financial Partners
• Co-Founded CapitalSource
• Personal Information - Other (hobbies, interests, etc.)
  • I enjoy going for hikes in the mountains, skiing, exercising, and being outdoors. My family and I like to go camping in Idaho, where my wife April grew up. I also enjoy reading, both fiction and non-fiction, and I like to meet new people. On the campaign trail, I get the chance to talk with voters from across the country and hear about the issues that are most important to them.
•  Who is your personal hero and why?
  • My personal hero is my father. Growing up, I spent my summers working with my dad on construction sites, where he taught me some very valuable lessons. He taught me to work hard, to never back down, to stand up for your friends, and most importantly to take care of, protect, and love your family.
• What was your favorite subject in school and why?
  • As a student I loved to learn, whether the subject was English, math, or history. But my favorite subject was always science. Our nation’s history of scientific innovation and technological breakthroughs, from the invention of the airplane to the launch of the internet, is what makes the United States the global leader that it is today. I believe that scientific innovation will help our nation address its next set of challenges, from climate change to diseases like Alzheimer’s.
• What is your favorite book or author and why?
  • Growing up, some of my favorite books were stories of adventure and discovery. I’ll always remember reading The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe for the first time. In addition to telling an exciting tale of a different world, the book is a reminder of the importance of family, faith, and fighting for what’s right.
• What is your favorite movie and why?
  • Star Wars has a special place in my heart, with A New Hope at the top of my list of favorite movies in the series. It’s a personal favorite, not just because it’s an exciting journey with great characters, but because it tells us that when we band together with our friends, we can overcome the worst forces in the universe. Even the dark side.
• Who is your favorite musician (or type of music) and why?
  • Growing up in New Jersey, I was a huge Bruce Springsteen fan and my favorite song was easily Thunder Road. I’ve now seen the Boss in concert more than 30 times.
• Why are you running for President?
  • I’m running for President because I believe that our country deserves a leader who will unite our divided nation and turn big ideas—that address present day and future challenges and opportunities—into real solutions.
• Please make a statement to New Hampshire Students about the importance of voting and being civically engaged.
  • Your vote and your participation in our democracy – whether you cast a ballot or attend a town hall - will decide the future of our country. By making your voice heard, you can help decide whether our country addresses issues from climate change to college affordability. Our democracy works best when everyone’s voice is heard.
• The Issues: Please make a brief statement about the following issue to students. DEFENSE
  • America's men and women in uniform bravely defend our nation and our values. Our country has a responsibility to ensure that our service members and veterans receive world-class health care and the benefits they’ve earned. As president, I would ensure that our men and women in the Armed Forces have the resources they need here and abroad; they will know that we have their backs.
• The Issues: Please make a brief statement about the following issue to students. DOMESTIC TERRORISM
  • No one should feel unsafe at school, at work, at the movies or anywhere else. Our response to the growing threat of mass violence and domestic terrorism must be two-fold. First, we need to equip our law enforcement agencies with the resources and authority to investigate and prosecute threats of domestic terrorism. Second, we need commonsense gun reform that limits the availability of high-powered assault weapons which have been used to perpetrate mass shootings.
• The Issues: Please make a brief statement about the following issue to students. ECONOMY
  • Changes to our economy through technological innovation and globalization have delivered enormous prosperity, but the benefits have not been equally shared. To ensure that everyone has an opportunity to live the American Dream, I propose making significant investments in the areas that have been left behind by globalization and providing the necessary resources, including educational opportunities, to prepare for the future of work. I would give priority in government contracting to companies with a majority of employees located in economically struggling communities and I would invest $2 trillion in our infrastructure to create jobs and make our workforce more globally competitive.
• The Issues: Please make a brief statement about the following issue to students. EDUCATION
  • Education is vital to ensuring everyone has an opportunity for a successful future and I intend to reinvest in educational opportunities for all. I believe that Pre-K through 14 education (two-year community college or technical training) is the new K-12 and that children should have it guaranteed. I’m also advocating for more federal investment in science, tech, engineering, and math (STEM) education and technical training and apprenticeships.
• The Issues: Please make a brief statement about the following issue to students. THE ENVIRONMENT
  • Climate change is a big problem and it requires big solutions, which is why I announced my $4 trillion Climate Plan that is full of new ideas. The largest component of my climate plan that will have the biggest impact is my Carbon Fee and Dividend proposal. It is time we put a price on carbon to end polluters’ free ride, and I want to deliver the revenues from that carbon fee back to working families as a dividend. I’m also calling for an investment in direct air capture and negative emissions technology, a fivefold increase in funding for renewable energy research, and the creation of a Climate Corps that will provide opportunities for recent high school graduates to work in low-income urban and rural communities to support these communities’ transition to a green economy. My plan also includes a Carbon Throughway which will transport captured carbon for permanent sequestration and reuse. Altogether, the policies I've outlined will get the U.S. to net zero emissions by 2050.
• The Issues: Please make a brief statement about the following issue to students. GREEN NEW DEAL
  • While I admire the enthusiasm the Green New Deal has brought to the climate crisis conversation, I have proposed my own, bipartisan plan to get the United States to net zero emissions by 2050. Climate change is a big problem and it requires big solutions, which is why I’m proposing a $4 trillion Climate Plan that is full of new ideas and innovative solutions. The largest component of my climate plan that will have the biggest impact is my Carbon Fee and Dividend proposal. It is time we put a price on carbon to end polluters’ free ride, and my plan would return the revenues from that carbon fee back to Americans as a dividend. I am also calling for an investment in direct air capture and negative emissions technology to remove carbon from the atmosphere, a fivefold increase in funding for renewable energy research, and the creation of a Climate Corps that will provide opportunities for recent high school graduates to work in low-income urban and rural communities to support these communities’ transition to a green economy. My plan also includes a Carbon Throughway which will transport captured carbon for permanent sequestration and reuse. Altogether, the policies I have outlined will get the U.S. to net zero emissions by 2050.
• The Issues: Please make a brief statement about the following issue to students.GUN CONTROL
  • A majority of the American people want us to address gun violence and to take concrete actions to make our communities safer. I support a three-pronged approach to addressing gun violence. First, we must implement universal background checks to close loopholes that allows people to sell guns – including over the internet or at gun shows -- without running background checks first. Second, I’m proposing a national “extreme risk laws,” under which family members would be allowed to petition a court to remove a firearm from someone in their family if that person has been diagnosed with a mental health issue and poses a danger to themselves or someone else. Finally, I believe we need to limit the availability of high-powered assault weapons.
• The Issues: Please make a brief statement about the following issue to students. HEALTH CARE
  • I believe that health care is a fundamental right. I am proposing a universal health care plan that will provide high-quality care to everyone and replace our outdated system of employer-sponsored insurance. I would create a new public health care plan for all Americans under the age of 65 while preserving traditional Medicare. The new plan would protect the reforms delivered by the Affordable Care Act, including guaranteed coverage of preexisting conditions and essential health benefits, and would make access truly universal. At 65, people would transition into Medicare. My plan would guarantee universal coverage while keeping private, supplemental insurance options available.
• The Issues: Please make a brief statement about the following issue to students. INFRASTRUCTURE
  • Investment in our nation’s crumbling infrastructure is long overdue which is why I have proposed a $2 trillion Infrastructure Plan. As President, I would advocate for the creation of an infrastructure bank, which would make it easier and cheaper for states and local governments to invest in local infrastructure including transportation, water, energy, communications, and school facilities. I would also bolster the Highway Trust Fund, create a $60 billion Climate Infrastructure Fund, and create 5 matching funds that each invest $40 billion in specific needs, including school infrastructure for the creation of new schools and to make necessary improvements to existing facilities.
• The Issues: Please make a brief statement about the following issue to students. INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
  • My approach to international relations is based on preserving the foundational principles that have informed U.S. policy for 75 years, while adapting our strategies to protect our interests in the 21st century. This means reaffirming and demonstrating who we are and what we stand for – a proud democracy that supports the cause of freedom and human rights. We must also reinvest in our alliances as the U.S. has worked to build an unmatched portfolio of allies – no other country in the world has anything like it.
• The Issues: Please make a brief statement about the following issue to students. IMMIGRATION
  • The United States is a nation of immigrants and almost all of us have a story of our families coming to the U.S. for a better life. We need to remember our history and be a welcoming country for those who want a better life for their families and who are seeking to be productive members of society. I would negotiate bipartisan, comprehensive immigration reform that creates a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants and DREAMers while investing in effective border security. In addition, I would increase the refugee admissions cap.
• The Issues: Please make a brief statement about the following issue to students. NATIONAL SECURITY
  • I am calling for a new approach to national security grounded in maintaining military preeminence, protecting the homeland, restoring our alliances, and orienting our priorities towards the future. As President, I would rejoin the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Paris Climate Agreement, invest in aid to help stabilize Central America, and I would put arms control at the top of my agenda. I have also called for the creation of a Department of Cybersecurity, which would develop the strategy and infrastructure we need to country cyberthreats that undermine our security, hurt the economy, and can threaten democracy itself.
• The Issues: Please make a brief statement about the following issue to students. MUELLER REPORT
  • The origin of the Mueller investigation was the existence of extensive Russian interference in the 2016 election, which remains one of the most consequential events in the history of American election integrity. The findings of the Mueller Report confirm the fact that Trump tried to limit, or even thwart, an investigation into these activities, and in doing so put the election security of the United States of America at risk. We must also focus on the findings that Russia intends to continue to interfere in future elections so we must do everything in our power to address these future threats.
• The Issues: Please make a brief statement about the following issue to students. REPARATIONS FOR SLAVERY
  • The U.S. has a long and difficult history when it comes to the treatment of African American and other minority communities. In order to level the playing field and create a country that works for all Americans, my Commitment to Black America includes plans to addressing systemic inequality and clear racial disparities in education, in health care, in business, and in other facets of life. If elected, I would sign H.R. 40, the Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African-Americans Act, into law.
• The Issues: Please make a brief statement about your position on any other issues important to you.
  • To help bring people from different backgrounds together, I am 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. Every American will complete a minimum of 1 year and a maximum of 2 years of national service when they graduate high school, or turn 18. My plan gives young people new options and new ways to serve: in community service efforts, in infrastructure apprenticeships, and in the ClimateCorps. National service will benefit the individuals who participate immensely and will also provide a tremendous long-term benefit to our country.

Personal Information

Dropped out of the race on 2/12/2020Official campaign website

• Born:
  • July 31, 1956 in Chicago, IL
• Family:
  • Spouse: Diane Bemus
  • Children: 2 children
• Education:
  • Harvard University 1978
    
• Political Experience:
• Governor of Massachusetts 2007-2015

Personal Information ropped out of the race on 3/1/2020

• Website: Official campaign website
• Born:
  • January 219, 1982 in South Bend, Indiana
• Family: My dad, Joseph Buttigieg was an immigrant from Malta, where he studied to be a Jesuit priest. He came to the United States because he knew it was the best place in the world to get an advanced education. He became an American citizen and met my mother, a young professor who was the daughter of an Army colonel and a piano teacher. They moved to South Bend where they both got jobs teaching at the University of Notre Dame, and I came on the scene shortly after.
  • Spouse: Chasten Clezman m.2018
• Education:
  • Harvard University (AB – History, Literature) 2004
  • Pembroke College, Oxford (BA – Philosophy, Politics, and Economics) 2007
• Political Experience:
  • I’m the proud Mayor of South Bend, Indiana where I’m currently serving my second term and was re-elected with 80 percent of the vote. I also served as a US Navy Reserve Officer from 2009 to 2017, and deployed to Afghanistan as an intelligence officer during my first term in office. While I may be the youngest candidate running, I not only have more years of government experience than the president of the United States, but I have more years of executive experience than the vice president of the United States, and more military experience than anybody who arrived in the office since George H.W. Bush.
• Hobbies and Interests:
I don’t have as much time anymore since I’m on the road so much, but I love playing music. I play a bit of guitar, bass, piano, harmonica, and even the didgeridoo.
• Who is your personal hero and why?
Abraham Lincoln. Now I know that may seem like an obvious choice, but I like to think that I admire him for different reasons. As a leader, he had the rare ability to look to the future – even in the midst of the Civil War, he established land grants for public colleges, built the trans-continental rail road, and founded the National Academy of Sciences.


My other hero is Stephen Biko, a young medical student in South Africa during Apartheid who spoke to what he believed in and became a role model in terms of building cultural and political power. Sadly he was killed for his activism, but I wish his story were told more.

• What was your favorite subject in school and why?
When I was younger, my favorite subject was science because I wanted to be an astronaut. But then I found out about how flight training works and my eyesight kind of ruled that one out. So I came to really love English, because English is about -- and especially books of fiction -- they're about stories, and they're about other people. And the great thing about reading a good book is you can picture what it's like to live like somebody who's completely different from you.


We're living in a time right now where people aren't being very kind to each other. I think part of what makes people unkind is when they look at another person and they don't see a person – they see a category. They see the other, they see the unknown. Books do such a great job of helping us understand one another. So even now that I'm in government, I still think English is one of the most important things, literature is one of the most important things that you can study.

• What is your favorite book or author and why?
James Joyce’s Ulysses. It’s the greatest work of modern English literature. It’s known for being complex and difficult, but in a way it’s very democratic: a story about what it is to be human as one middle-class guy goes about one day of his life in Dublin.
• What is your favorite movie and why?
I don’t have a single favorite movie. But from a film-making perspective, I think it’s pretty hard to beat the Godfather and Gangs of New York. I’ve got a weakness for sci-fi – especially provocative sci-fi that makes you think. I think Contact and more recently Arrival are two amazing movies that I could watch over and over again.
• Who is your favorite musician (or type of music) and why?
Music has been a big part of my life. I grew up playing piano and guitar. In terms of a favorite musician it depends. Right now, I’m turning back to the classics. I spent a lot of time with my dad listening to Creedence Clearwater Revival. In high school, I listened to a lot of Dave Matthews Band and Phish.
• Why are you running for president?
I’m running for president because America is running out of time. The crises we face have been years in the making, but for most of my life folks in Washington have seemed more interested in fighting with each other than in actually fighting to make our lives better. Americans are so fed up with the dysfunction and division—especially from this President—that many have completely given up on the idea that government can do anything for them. I know we can put forward solutions big enough to meet this moment and unifying enough to actually get done—guided more by how they’ll impact real people’s lives than by where they fall on some left-right spectrum. What I’m offering is vision without division. America has overcome tremendous challenges before and we can do it again. If we can summon the courage to break with the past, if we can enlist the energies of every American, then we can be proud to tell our kids what we did to leave them a better future.

THE ISSUES

EDUCATION

While higher education remains a clear pathway for much of the middle class, for too many – particularly for students of color and low-income students – those paths are littered with hurdles. We must make public college truly debt-free for lower-income families. We will do this through a state-federal partnership that makes public tuition affordable for all and completely free at lower incomes–combined with a large increase in Pell Grants that provides for basic living expenses and keeps up with inflation. Middle-income families at public colleges will pay zero tuition. And we will cancel the debts of borrowers in low-quality, overwhelmingly for-profit programs and invest $50 billion in Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Minority-Serving institutions (MSIs), which are critically important institutions that deserve more dedicated support.

THE ECONOMY

In my mom and dad’s generation, nine out of every ten kids did better than their parents. But for Americans of my generation, the odds are no better than a coin flip. Working family incomes have stagnated almost my entire life. Families across the country need to see higher incomes, lower costs, and a brighter future for our children. In the United States of America, economic gains should be shared by everyone and everyone should have a fair shot at real opportunity. More specifically, my plan calls for unlocking workers’ income with an expanded Earned Income Tax Credit, making college more affordable, and lowering child care and housing costs in order to ensure that the economy delivers for all Americans, not just those at the top. As president, I will measure success not just by the size of the stock market or gross domestic product, but by whether working and middle class families are succeeding.

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

One of the biggest jobs for the next President when it comes to international relations is restoring the credibility of our country. When I was deployed, I knew one of the things keeping me safe was the fact that the flag on my shoulder represented a country known to keep its word – and our allies knew it, and our enemies knew it. You take that away, you are taking away what makes America America. And what happens is the world becomes less stable, less democratic, and less safe. We've got to reverse that. The world needs America more than ever, and we have an opportunity to lead once more. There are several colossal global security challenges that can't be fixed without American leadership – like climate change. That’s just one example of how we will lead the way when I’m President.

DEFENSE

We need to fundamentally rethink our foreign policy to help America lead and shape a better world for our future. The next president will have to restore American credibility on the world stage and establish a new and higher standard for the deployment of U.S. military force. It’s time to put an end to endless war and focus on how best to use America’s strengths to address future threats, including climate security as a key basis for diplomacy.


The core of American foreign policy has to be built on the relationship between American values and American interests. Any time we've tried to sell out our values to advance our interests, it's caught up to us as a country. And so what we need to do is make sure that we have an authentic commitment to human rights, to democracy, to freedom, and that we support that in various ways around the world.

NATIONAL SECURITY

I thought I was one of the last people turning out the lights when I left Afghanistan years ago, and we're still there. Right now, there's a soldier somewhere packing her bag, getting ready to go home, wondering, "What exactly are we doing there?" And it's not just Afghanistan. We have troops deployed from east Africa to all kinds of place based on an authorization that has to do with al-Qaeda after 9/11. American troops were killed on a mission in Niger, and a number of members of Congress admitted afterwards that they didn't even realize we were there. This is why we need Congress to step up and assert its war powers. It's why we need that sunset on authorizations for the use of force that I was talking about. If members of our military can find the courage to deploy to a war zone, our members of Congress ought to be able to summon the courage to take tough votes on war and peace.

DOMESTIC TERRORISM

There are a lot of Americans who are tired of the hand wringing, tired of the mourning, tired of saying never again, want to know what they can do. And there are policy actions, political actions, civic actions that we can be taking right now.


We cannot keep America safe from this threat to the American people if we are not prepared to name it and confront it. We need an administration that is ready to do that, and we can't keep pretending that this is just random, or that this is something we can't confront. What you have here is two things coming together: one, the weak gun safety policies of this country, and two, the rise of domestic terrorism inspired by white nationalists. So I will invest $1 billion in combatting radicalization and violent extremism, work to stop the spread of violent extremism online, and enact policies to stop guns from falling into the wrong hands.

INFRASTRUCTURE

Freedom means building 21st century infrastructure, because you’re not free to pursue happiness if you don’t have access to safe roads or clean water. Our infrastructure is crumbling, and communities of color are disproportionately hurt by decades of neglect in neighborhoods and by unhealthy water systems. We need major federal investment in our nation’s infrastructure. In particular, as President, I will expand enforcement of environmental protections and invest in solutions to environmental threats. To prepare for and rebuild from disasters, we will ensure greater and more equitable disaster preparedness and relief so communities get the resources they need.

HEALTH CARE

We must ensure that everyone has an affordable option for health coverage that guarantees access to care when they need it – but the difference in my plan, "Medicare for All Who Want It," compared to some of the others is that mine doesn’t take away anyone’s private insurance. It offers the fundamental American value of choice. If you allow words like Medicare-For-All to escape your lips you’ve got a responsibility to explain how you get from point A to point B and I don’t think the best way to do that is by kicking millions off of their health care plans.


Under my plan, we take a version of Medicare and we make it available to everybody. I believe the public alternative we create under "Medicare for All Who Want It" will be better than all of the private plans and will put us on the glide path to Medicare for All. I trust the American people to be in charge of their own health care and make that decision for themselves rather than ordering them to switch plans when they don't want to.

IMMIGRATION

What this administration is doing is completely against everything in the American moral tradition of support to people who come to our shores looking for a chance at a better life – and what they bring to our country. People who come to this country bring a gift — they make this country a better place — and we need to honor that. It is why we need to extend Temporary Protected Status, not withdraw it. It is why we need to create more pathways to citizenship. It is why we have to protect Dreamers.


The good news is a majority of Americans support common-sense immigration reform — Congress, not so much. We’ve been talking about this issue since the 80s, and Washington hasn’t been able to do anything about it — but the consensus is there among the American people across both parties. The deeper question is one of the atmosphere around this debate — and the biggest concern to me is the dehumanization that’s going on. People have been told immigration is the problem. But very rural and conservative areas are much more open on immigration when they personally know immigrants — when it isn’t this fear of the unknown. That’s why I’ve proposed Community Renewal Visas. These place-based visas will provide opportunities for people who want to move to America and will be targeted to areas that are in need of workers, so immigration can be seen as a source of strength — and something to compete for — not something to be feared.

THE ENVIRONMENT

Security means protecting our environment and treating climate change and climate disruption like the national emergency it is. It is long overdue to take bold, decisive action to eliminate greenhouse gas pollution once and for all while creating new, high-paying jobs. We will rise to the challenge and do it in the American way–by building and innovating. We will work with communities to ensure the transition to clean energy is inclusive and fair for all. We will fight for the right to be healthy–to have clean air to breathe and clean water to drink. And we will prepare our military and disaster response agencies for the security threats of climate change.

GREEN NEW DEAL

I think the Green New Deal is the right beginning. What I most appreciate about the Green New Deal is when we get it right that there’s a lot of economic opportunity. We can make major R&D investments to improve technologies and affordability of things, like renewables and battery technology. We also know we can create a lot of jobs in the building trades right now by mounting more efforts to retrofit buildings in order to make them cleaner and greener.

GUN CONTROL

We cannot allow the Second Amendment to be a death sentence for thousands of Americans a year. Weapons of war like the one I carried in Afghanistan have no place on our streets or in our schools. For my entire lifetime, after each mass shooting, we’ve seen politicians in Washington condemn the loss of life and offer their condolences. We’ve traumatized an entire generation and are set to traumatize yet another. Enough. So to meet this urgent national security crisis, we need a different approach. That’s why I’ve put forward an action plan that will combat the national threat posed by hate and the gun lobby weaving 1) common-sense policies that would help make sure that guns don’t get into the wrong hands; 2) efforts to stop the spread of radicalization and violent extremism; and 3) civic and political action.

REPARATIONS FOR SLAVERY

It’s not enough to just take a racist policy, replace it with a neutral one and expect things will just get better on their own. Harms compound. In the same way that a dollar saved compounds, so does a dollar stolen. We know the generational theft of the descendants of slaves is part of why everything from housing to education to health to employment basically puts us in two different countries.


I support HR 40, which would create a commission to examine reparations. But I also believe we need to intentionally invest in health, in home ownership, in entrepreneurship, in access to democracy, in economic empowerment. That’s why I’ve proposed the most comprehensive vision to tackle systemic racism in every one of these areas, marshaling as many resources as went into the Marshall Plan that rebuilt Europe, but this time a Douglass Plan that we invest right here at home to make sure that we’re not only dealing with things like the over-incarceration of Black Americans, but also black solutions, entrepreneurship, raising to 25 percent the target for the federal government to do business with minority-owned businesses, investing in HBCUs that are training and educating the next generation of entrepreneurs.

ARE THERE OTHER ISSUES IMPORTANT TO YOU?

One way or another, the Trump presidency will end and the sun will come up over a country even more torn up and polarized than we have been. And the challenges—the crises—that have brought us to this point haven’t taken a vacation during this presidency or the impeachment process.


I’m running to be the president for that day after – a president who will gather up the pieces and help put this nation back together.


I’m running because I believe that we must make bold changes to meet the urgent crises we face. But I also insist that the best way—the only way—to do that is to do it together.

STATEMENT TO NEW HAMPSHIRE STUDENTS ABOUT THE IMPORTANCE OF VOTING AND BEING CIVICALLY ENGAGED

When our country is just a few years away from climate catastrophe, when we’re just a few years from another hundred million guns on the street — our lives depend on us summoning the courage to change the trajectory of this country. Not four years from now, not a decade from now—but right now. The crises facing our country have been years in the making, but for most of my life Washington has ignored them entirely or recycled the same failed approaches. Politicians have divided us around the very values that should bring us together. Some folks seem more interested in fighting than in actually fighting to make our lives better.


The future doesn’t have to be a dark place. America has overcome tremendous challenges before and we can do it again. If we’re willing to break with the past, if we can enlist the energies of every American, then we can be proud to tell our kids what we did to leave them a better future.

Personal Information - ropped out of the race on 2/29/2020

• Website: Official campaign website
• Born:
  • June 27th, 1957 in New York City, NY
• Family:
  • Spouse: Kat Taylor m. 1986
  • Children: 4 children
• Education:
  • Yale University (BA) Graduated 1979
  • Stanford University (MBA) Graduated 1983
• Other Job Experience:
  • Never held elected office.
  • Farallon Capital Management 1986-2012
  • NextGen Climate Founder (2013)
  • Now NextGen America (2017)
    

Personal Information - Dropped out of the race on 3/2/2020

• Website: Official campaign website
• Born:
  • May 25, 1960 in Plymouth, MN
• Family:
  • Spouse: John Bessler m.1993
  • Daughter: Abigail
• Education:
  • Yale University 1982
  • University of Chicago Law School 1985
    
• Political Experience:
  • U.S. Senator from Minnesota 2007-current
• Other Job Experience:
  • Partner at Dorsey & Whitney Law Firm
  • Partner at Gray Plant Mooty Law Firm