2020 Presidential candidates

Donald John Trump is the 45th and current president of the United States. He assumed office after his victory in the electoral college in 2016 and is looking to repeat his success in 2020. Trump is running as a Republican.

A presidency which was marred by controversy from the very beginning – due to a loss in the popular vote – has accomplished several policy positions taken up by the Trump campaign in 2016. The campaign had pledged a withdrawal from the Iran Nuclear Agreement and the Paris Climate Accords, the administration made these pledges come true. Further, the Trump Administration established a new branch of the United States Military – the Space Force, the administration also passed the Tax Cut and Jobs Act of 2017, as well as appointing two new Supreme Court Justices.

The controversy was not over for the Trump Administration, however, as on December 18, 2019, President Trump became the third president in U.S. history to be impeached by the House of Representatives on the charges of abuse of power and obstruction of congress. The U.S. Senate voted to acquit the president of these charges on February 5, 2020, just weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic shook up the world.

Biography

Born in Queens, New York, New York in 1946, the president attended Fordham University before he transferred to the Wharton School of Finance, University of Pennsylvania, and earned a B.S. in Economics in 1968.

Trump joined the family’s business after graduation and renamed it the Trump Organization. The president spent most of his time involved in real estate deals and other business ventures before hosting The Apprentice on ABC.

Trump ran for president in 1999 as a Reform Party candidate but withdrew his candidacy in 2000. Between 1987 and 2012 Trump changed his party affiliation five times, finally registering as a Republican in 2012 and running for president with that designation four years later.

“Donald J. Trump defines the American success story,” a campaign spokesperson said, “Mr. Trump built on his success in private life when he entered into politics and public service. He remarkably won the Presidency in his first-ever run for any political office.”

The campaign did not acknowledge the 1999 run for the same.

Policy

Of the president’s policy stances, jobs and the economy are top of the list.

“The economy has come roaring back to life under President Trump. The stock market has hit record high after record high, helping more Americans build wealth and secure their futures. Through needed tax cuts and reform, the Administration will bring jobs back to our country,” claimed the campaign which states that President Trump is working to lift “previously forgotten” American cities.

Next on the list of priorities for the president is the National security.

“Rebuilding U.S. deterrence to preserve peace through strength must be our Nation’s top priority. The unprecedented era of peace that followed World War II revealed that the free world is safest when America is strongest. The slow depletion of our military in recent years has resulted in an escalation of threats the world over, which President Trump is committed to reversing,” the campaign stated. The campaign praised his tough stance on the world stage in both politics and economics.

The president’s third policy priority is the budget.

“With our national debt well above $20 trillion, now is the time to reverse the trend of climbing government spending. The President’s federal budget commits to restraint while prioritizing funding to rebuild our national defense and strengthen America’s borders,” the campaign stated and added that Trump will de-regulate businesses to save consumers money.

VP

Sticking with the same running mate he had in 2016, President Trump has tapped his Vice President to be his running mate once again. Michael Pence will once again join Trump on the Republican Party ticket.

Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr. was the 47th Vice President of the United States, serving under the 44th President Barack Obama. Biden secured his party’s nomination after beating a crowded field of candidates. Biden is running as a Democrat.

Biden served as a United States Senator from 1973 to 2009, where he left the position after being tapped by former President Obama to be Vice President. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2017 by the former president, setting him up for a confident bid for president in 2016, but tragedy struck and he opted not to run in order to grieve the loss of his son.

During his time as vice president, Biden helped to pass the Affordable Care Act with President Obama, as well as establish the Paris Climate Accords, the Iran Nuclear Deal and helped former President Obama pull the United States out of the Great Recession of 2008.

After clawing his way to the top of the Democratic ticket, Biden is now running on the idea that this election is a “Battle for the soul of this country.”

Biography

Born in 1942, Joe Biden moved to Mayfield, Delaware when he was 13 with his family. There he earned a degree in history and political science before receiving his degree from the Syracuse University Law School. He then worked as a public defender before turning his eye to public office.

In 1970 Biden became a New Castle County Councilor; he served in this capacity until 1972, he was elected to the U.S. Senate. Two weeks after his election, however, his wife and daughter were killed in a car crash that his two sons survived.

In 2007 Biden launched a campaign for President but withdrew in 2008 after failing to win the Iowa Caucuses. Biden remained in the United States Senate until 2009 after his election as vice president.

Policy

Acknowledging the coronavirus pandemic, Biden’s campaign is calling their policies a way to “Build back better,” starting with his top priority of economic recovery and job growth.

“Make no mistake: America has been knocked down. The unemployment rate is higher than it was in the Great Recession. Millions have lost jobs, hours, pay, healthcare, or the small business they started, through no fault of their own” the Biden campaign stated, “In this time of crisis, Joe Biden has a plan to create millions of goodpaying jobs and to give America’s working families the tools, choices, and freedom they need to build back better.”

The campaign stated that this plan involves additional immediate relief for working families who have been hit hard by the pandemic.

The campaign said that acknowledging the racial divide in America is a key policy point.

“In laying out his Build Back Better agenda, Biden has announced bold investments — in infrastructure, innovation, manufacturing, education, housing, clean energy, federal procurement, and small businesses,” adding, “The economic crisis has hit Black and Brown communities especially hard, with Black unemployment at 15.4 percent, Latino unemployment at 14.5 percent, and businesses owned by Black, Latino, and Asian American people closing down at alarming rates. We are also seeing a national reckoning on racial justice and the tragic human costs of systemic racism in the murder of George Floyd and so many other Black men, women, and children. And through it all, the climate crisis mounts, with air and water pollution, superstorms, and extreme weather, disproportionately impacting Black and Brown communities.”

Bringing caregiving and education into the 21st century, the campaign stated, is a key policy point.

“Biden will allocate $450 billion to give more people the choice to receive care at home or in supportive community situations, or to have that choice for their loved ones,” the campaign stated and added, “Beyond addressing the pandemic-driven child care crisis, Biden will build our child care infrastructure back better for the longterm, including by making high-quality child care affordable and preschool universal for three- and four-year-olds.”

VP

Biden has chosen U.S. Senator Kamala Harris as his running mate, Harris is the first ever Black woman to appear on a major party ticket. Biden called her, “a fearless fighter for the little guy, and one of the country’s finest public servants.”

Dr. Jo Jorgensen is the Libertarian Party candidate for president; prior to running for this office she ran for congress in South Carolina’s 4th Congressional District, she lost the congressional race but won her party’s nomination for president on May 23.

Jorgensen has spent most of her professional life working in higher education, but this is not her first time on the national stage. Jorgensen was the running mate for Harry Browne during his presidential bid in 1996.

Biography

Dr. Jorgensen is an instructor at Clemson University, South Carolina, teaching psychology as a senior lecturer at the college. She graduated from Clemson in 2002 with her PhD in Industrial/Organizational Psychology and has been teaching at the university full-time since 2006.

Jorgensen has worked as a marketing representative for IBM and in 1992 ran for South Carolina’s 4th Congressional District.

“Dr. Jorgensen’s debate performance was widely praised in the media, and the Greenville News referred to her as ‘a rose between two thorns,’” according to Jorgensen’s campaign.

Dr. Jorgensen became her party’s vice-presidential nominee in 1996 and is credited with creating a new generation of Libertarian Party members. Jorgensen has been involved in the Libertarian Party since 1980, according to her campaign.

Policy

As a major policy position, Dr. Jorgensen is running on the idea of American neutrality and peace.

“National Defense means defending our nation, our country, the United States of America. Military self-defense for America is a good and necessary thing. Our country could not exist without it,” the campaign stated, adding, “It’s time to bring America to peace. It’s time for America to stop participating in foreign wars. We must stop inserting ourselves in them. Stop allowing ourselves to be drawn into them. We must stay out. No American military personnel stationed in foreign countries. No military aid. No foreign aid — which is easily used for foreign military purposes. No loans for their governments. No loan guarantees. No American government economic sanctions or embargoes of any non-military, non-war materials going into or coming out of other countries. Because ‘sanctions’ and ‘embargoes’ are nothing less than oldfashioned sieges.”

Another major policy point is healthcare.

“The U.S. spends more on health care than any other high-income countryyet has the lowest life expectancy. It is clear that the current system is not working,” Jorgensen said, “When I am your president, I will get rid of the FDA’s efficacy requirement, if not the entire FDA, so that new medicines and procedures get to patients as quickly and safely as possible. I will also make more drugs available over the counter.” Jorgensen’s campaign said that they want to make healthcare more accessible and less like a “VA hospital for all.”

Jorgensen’s campaign wants to tackle government spending.

“As President, I will use my Constitutional authority to block any new borrowing. I will veto any spending bill that would lead to a deficit and veto any debt ceiling increase. I will give every Cabinet secretary a specific spending reduction target to meet and hold them accountable. There is simply no excuse for sticking our children and grandchildren with the bill for these bipartisan bloated budgets,” Jorgensen said.

VP

Jorgensen selected Jeremy “Spike” Cohen to be her running mate.