To be honest, I had this wonderful, happy introduction describing how Congressman Eric Swalwell understood there were too many Democrats, and that eventually someone needed to drop out. I would talk about how noble he is for recognizing his campaign wasn’t going anywhere, and that perhaps he would inspire more to drop out....
Then I woke up to find out Tom Steyer announced he was running, despite stating he would not run back in January. Oh well — eventually the field will winnow more. In the meantime, campaigns are ramping up ideas since the first debates are behind us, and we have two more debates later this month on July 30th and 31st!
If You’re New
Welcome to this blog! If you haven’t read the original post, I encourage you to at least skim it to understand how this spreadsheet was developed. You can find it here.
The purpose of these additional posts are threefold:
1. Updating you on the major changes in the race (new candidates, if anyone has dropped out, etc.)
2.Highlighting what policy issues candidates are not devoting time to
3. Providing transparency on the information collection process (updating donation information, explaining any difficulties collecting candidate info, etc)
If you’re in a rush, you can find the spreadsheet here. But if you have a moment, here is a summary of the updates. Feel free to reach out at Comparison2020@Yahoo.com if you have any questions, comments, or concerns.
Candidates Added (in order since last spreadsheet release):
- Joe Sestak, Former U.S. Representative from Pennsylvania
- Tom Steyer, Billionaire who donates a lot of money to Democrats
Candidates Who Have Dropped Out:
- Eric Swalwell, U.S. Representative from California
Policy Observations:
- Still very little has been discussed on foreign policy.
- Candidates have begun to have consensus opinions on certain topics, such as decriminalizing crossing the border and making it a civil offense. Other topics have more disagreement, such as if Medicare-For-All means a public option, a single payer, or a hybrid of both.
- Issue specific forums on education, women’s health, and immigration meant several candidates rolled out new policies.
- Some candidates have been awfully quiet lately, especially if their debate performance was less than ideal. They need more ideas if they ever want to recover.
Info Collection Obstacles:
- Some candidates still don’t have a damn policy page on their campaign website
- Some candidates state multiple positions that appear contradictory. For instance, some candidates will support Medicare-For-All, yet also call for a public option. I do my best to list every position in the spreadsheet, even if they may conflict at times.
- Like I mentioned earlier, despite over 20 candidates, many do not offer policy ideas on foreign affairs. Therefore, those issues remain fairly light on information.
Donation Disclosure (A star (*) means it is new since the last post):
- Kirsten Gillibrand — $35
- Kamala Harris — $10
- Elizabeth Warren — $10
- Pete Buttigieg — $5
- John Hickenlooper — $5
Other Notes and Reminders:
- As of now, there are a handful of minor candidates running who are not in this spreadsheet. Those candidates are: Mike Gravel, Wayne Messam, Seth Moulton, Joe Sestak, Tom Steyer, and Marianne Williamson. The primary reason these candidates are not in the spreadsheet is how serious they are about being the nominee, and their viability to continue a campaign into the primaries in February 2020. You are welcome to disagree with my assessment and find information about any of these individuals elsewhere.
- Candidates tend to start a campaign with a handful of ideas, and then they expand to an entire platform later. You’ll notice some candidates have more detail than others in the spreadsheet. A part of that is simply some candidates announced later and haven’t spoken as much. Please be patient as the spreadsheet populates.
- I always post the links to the candidate’s website so you can poke around on your own. This spreadsheet is meant to be a comparison resource for you to identify which candidates you want to do more research on.
Thanks again for all your support. As promised, here is the link again to the spreadsheet. Hopefully we won’t have anymore Democrats entering the race, so we can all peacefully figure out who the next President should be. And be sure to watch the debates on July 30th and 31st on CNN to hear the candidates in their own words!