Here is an overview about the Democratic candidates who have announced that they are running for president, along with some facts about where the two candidates stand on important issues.
1. Hillary Clinton
Clinton is a former US Secretary of State, US Senator for New York, First Lady of the US, and a former leading candidate for the Democratic party. Clinton graduated from Wellesley College and received a J.D. from Yale Law School. As Secretary of State she has worked for women empowerment and implementing “smart power," which is the combination of military power, diplomacy, and American leadership in areas such as economics and technology. She has also recently came out with a new book, Hard Choices.
Positions: She believes that immigrants should be able to become citizens through a pathway to legal status. She supports immigration reform and believes that deportation should not occur for some illegal immigrants. She wants more studies done until she can decide if legalizing marijuana would be beneficial. She is an advocate of Obamacare and believes it should be improved and strengthened. She is pro-choice and believes same-sex marriages should be legal. She wants to close corporate tax loopholes and reduce middle class taxes.
2. Bernie Sanders
Sanders is a US Senator and an independent politician since 1979. He is former Mayor of Burlington and a former representative of Vermont's congressional district in the House of Representatives. He describes himself as a democratic socialist and is in favor of employee-owned cooperative enterprises.
Positions: He supports a pathway for illegal immigrants to gain citizenship. However, he opposes the idea that we need unskilled labor brought to the US. He is skeptical about the benefits of legalizing drugs and does not believe that marijuana should be a main political issue. He opposes Obamacare and instead supports a single-payer universal health care system. He is pro-choice and believes same-sex marriages should be legal. He supports eliminating some tax deductions that benefit hedge funds and corporations. He also wants to increase taxes on capital gains and the richest two percent of Americans. As a result of those increases, he would decrease taxes to the middle and lower classes.
