With the Florida primary fast approaching on Mar. 15, any and all registered voters should be prepared to cast their votes for their chosen candidates. Florida is a unique primary state in which a registered voter must have registered before the deadline, which are set in Florida 29 days before a state-wide election, and declared themselves to be either a part of the Democratic or Republican parties, called a “closed primary” state.
Those who have met these requirements are also encouraged to know about the candidate they wish to vote for. Such information is provided below for each major candidate left in the Presidential Race, starting with the Democrats and them moving on to the Republicans.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who is also a former First Lady and Senator for the state of New York, has been enjoying a front-runner status since she started running for the nomination back in early 2015. Clinton’s platform consists of various points, most notably her continued support of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), her proposal to reduce the costs of college education, and her goal to eliminate Alzheimer’s Disease by the year 2026. Clinton’s campaign though has come under fire by critics in both parties and by her opponents, first being Governor Martin O’Malley (who dropped out of the race) and later Senator Bernie Sanders for her email scandal, wall street backing, and flip-flopping on various issues throughout her time in politics. Despite her shortcomings, she has managed to take 3 of the 4 early primary states in the race for the Democratic Nomination and is in a virtual tie with Sanders in national polls.
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders has been active in politics for over 40 years, starting out as a mayor of the largest city in Vermont in 1981, becoming a member of the House in 1990, and then becoming a Senator of the same state in 2006. He takes pride in walking with Martin Luther King Jr. on his March on Washington as well as his identity as a “democratic socialist.” Sanders’ platform has major points as well, the three biggest involving the implementation of universal healthcare, free college education, and closing tax loopholes for the rich to reduce the income inequality gap. Sanders has been fighting an uphill campaign against Clinton since he announced his bid for the presidency back in Apr. 2015, with only recent popularity polls putting him up nationally. Sanders has received much criticism from the Clinton campaign, saying that universal healthcare will never come to pass, and that his ideas are too ambitious for this day and age.
For the Republican nomination, the front-runner since the very first republican debate has been Donald Trump, a well-known business man and entrepreneur of “The Trump Organization” based in New York, New York. Trump took over his father’s business after being granted it in 1971, making his fortune by buying and constructing real estate in major cities across the US and Canada. Trump has proposed many interesting policies if he were to become President, including his infamous construction of a wall separating the United States from Mexico in an effort to curb the influx of illegal immigrants from Latin America. Other policies include his plan to deport nearly 12 million illegal immigrants currently residing within the US and has plans to “stand up to China at the negotiating table” in an effort to put forth American business interests ahead of China’s, or any other country for that matter. Trump’s controversial comments about Mexican-Americans and Muslims living in the country has given him the status of “ratings gold”, with the vast majority of news media covering his campaign and persona for much of the republican race, in the process facing harsh criticism from people within both parties.
Senator Ted Cruz has been the runner up in the Republican primary race since his surprising win over Trump in the state of Iowa, and has gone on to raise popular support in key Southern states, including his home state of Texas, although Trump continues to lead slightly in the majority of these states. Cruz has been active in politics for over 20 years and has his own unique ideas to implement if he were to become President of the United States. Cruz states that he would “protect the people’s right to worship” as President by protecting “persecuted Christians” within the US and defend the first few rights outlined in the Bill of Rights, stating that “America was founded on a revolutionary idea. Our ideas do not come from government. They come from God.” Cruz states he has always been a staunch defender of the Constitution, vowing he will “restore our Constitution” which has been “defied” by the most recent administration, also stating that “our founding fathers [created the Constitution]to act as chains to bind the mischief of government to protect the liberties endowed to us by our Creator.” Cruz also vowed on his first day as President to investigate Planned Parenthood, and to “restore a culture of life, marriage, and family” by outlining marriage be between a man and a woman.
The last major candidate in the republican race is Senator Marco Rubio, a Florida native who has served in Congress as both a House and Senate member for a cumulative 16 years. Rubio has put forward a similar plan as Cruz to repeal Obamacare and aims to “replace it with consumer-centered health reforms.” He also aims to reform higher education, allowing for students to apply for “Student Investment Plans (SIP’s)” by “approved investors” and then repay the money back to said investors based on what they earn after college. Rubio also arguably has the most comprehensive stance on foreign policy, vowing to stand with Israel against her opponents such as Iran and the Palestinians, to repeal the “flawed” Iran deal and stand up to the Iranian government, and finally to put forward plans to once and for all deal with Putin’s aggressive nature towards Syria and Ukraine and to freeze Russian assets in Europe and abroad.
The Republican candidate who is currently doing the worst in the polls is John Kasich, the Governor of Ohio. He was elected in 2010 and re-elected in 2014. Kasich supports the right to bear arms, enacting gun defense legislation while in office. He opposes both Planned Parenthood and Obamacare, planning to have care focused on the patients with more choices and less centralized decision making. Kasich also wants to balance the nation’s budget in eight years.
So overall the candidates for both parties are all distinct and have their own policies they plan on enacting once they become the next leader of the free world. Simply by looking up the main campaign website for each individual candidate can go much more in depth than what has been provided. An informed voter in this election may very well mean the difference between who becomes the next President and who doesn’t.
