With the upcoming presidential election, it is important to know who the candidates are and what they advocate for. Below is a quick overview of the 2020 presidential candidates. 

The Democratic Party

Joe Biden is the Democratic presidential nominee. His political history includes serving as a Senator for the state of Delaware and serving as vice president of the United States under Barack Obama’s administration. His running mate is Kamala Harris. Her political history includes being elected as San Francisco’s District Attorney, California Attorney General, and serving as a Senator for the state of California. 

Here is a look at Biden’s stances on key issues: 

Immigration

• Supports the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program
  • DACA is a type of administrative relief from deportation. It’s purpose is to protect eligible immigrant youth who came to the United States when they were children from deportation (UC Berkeley). 
• Wants to make “Dreamers” eligible for federal student aid

Healthcare

• Supports the Affordable Care Act
  • The ACA is a health care reform law that made healthcare more available by providing subsidies for households with incomes between 100% and 400% of the federal poverty level. It also expanded Medicaid to cover adults with income below 138% of the federal poverty level (Health Care). 
• Plans to build on the ACA by providing more choice, reducing health care costs, and making the health care system less complex to navigate 

Climate Change

• Proposes spending $1.7 trillion to work towards having 100% clean energy by 2050 
• Supports research into advanced nuclear energy

Foreign Policy

• Proposes a plan that focuses on issues directly rooted in the U.S. first, then expanding to global issues
  • This includes goals such as reforming the criminal justice system, restoring the Voting Rights Act, and more, then hosting a global summit for Democracy to strengthen democratic institutions around the world. 

The Republican Party

Donald Trump is the Republican Party nominee. His political history includes serving as the 45th president of the United States. His running mate is Mike Pence. His political history includes serving in the House of Representatives and as the Governor of Indiana. 

Here is a look at Trump’s Stance on key issues: 

Immigration

• Wants to rescind the DACA program 
• Wants Congress to fund a wall along the southern border
• Supported disqualifying sanctuary cities from receiving federal grants
  • A sanctuary city is defined as a city in the U.S. where illegal immigrants are not prosecuted (Cambridge Dictionary). 

Healthcare 

• Does not support the Affordable Care Act
  • Repealed the individual mandate portion of the ACA that taxed those who did not have health insurance
• Signed a six-year extension to fund the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP)
  • CHIP is a program that provides low-cost health coverage for children in families that earn too much money to qualify for Medicaid (Health Care). 

Climate Change

• Rescinded President Obama’s Clean Power Act and instead proposed Affordable Clean Energy Rule
  • The goal of the Affordable Clean Energy Rule is to reduce greenhouse gasses, empower states, promote energy independence, and facilitate economic growth and job creation. 
• Notified the United Nations that the U.S. would be withdrawing from the Paris Climate Agreement
  • The Paris Climate Agreement is a global agreement to combat climate change and to accelerate the actions and investments needed for a sustainable low carbon future (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change). 

Foreign Policy

• Imposed a 25% global tariff on steel imports and a 10% global tariff on aluminum imports
  • The goal of this was to strengthen domestic steel and aluminum industries to reduce reliance on foreign producers
• Withdrew the U.S. from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)
  • The TPP was a trade agreement between a small group of Pacific Rim countries that the U.S. joined in 2016 (Council on Foreign Relations). 

*All information regarding candidates stances was pulled directly from the candidate’s campaign site unless cited otherwise