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Voters of the Republican and the Democratic parties will cast their first votes in the Iowa caucuses on Monday, formally kicking off the 2020 U.S. presidential election.
While the latest surveys showed that Trump is certain to seek re-election on behalf of the Republican Party, on the Democratic side, history over the past four decades suggests that the result of the Iowa caucuses is indicative of the party's final presidential nominee.
Following is the background information of the 11 remaining Democratic candidates vying for nomination.
Bernie Sanders: Born in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, and aged 78, Sanders is a self-described democratic socialist, advocating for Medicare for all and tuition-free public college education. Elected to the Senate in 2006, he was runner-up to Hilary Clinton in the 2016 Democratic presidential primary.
Joe Biden: Born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and aged 77, Biden is considered a centrist among the Democratic presidential contenders. Former six-term U.S. senator from Delaware since 1972, Biden was the vice president in the Barack Obama administration. Having sought Democratic presidential nomination in 1988 and 2008, Biden regards 2020 as his last bid for president. Biden claims he strives for restoring U.S. prominence on world stage and protecting economic wellbeing for low-income workers.
Pete Buttigieg: Born into a family where his father is a Maltese immigrant, Buttigieg, 38, has lived in his hometown of South Bend, Indiana, throughout his life till now -- a city of which he served as mayor for two terms until January 2020. The youngest candidate in the Democratic field, Buttigieg was a former intelligence officer in the Navy Reserve, former consultant for McKinsey Company, and former Rhodes scholar. He has campaigned on his generational identity, focusing on issues like climate change and economic opportunity.
Elizabeth Warren: Born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and aged 70, Warren was elected to the Senate representing Massachusetts in 2012. A progressive and former law professor specializing in bankruptcy law, Warren frequently talked about "big, structural change" during her campaign, vowing to weaken the power of big corporations and give more benefit to working people.
Amy Klobuchar: Born in Plymouth, Minnesota, and aged 59, Klobuchar was elected to the Senate in 2006 to represent her home state. A moderate, she calls for bipartisan approach to dealing with issues including climate change and healthcare, stressing that bipartisanship would be the best strategy for Democrats to win the White House. In a list of over 100 actions she vowed to take in the 100 days following her election as president, Klobuchar touched upon issues like voting rights, prescription drugs and antitrust enforcement. She has also released a detailed infrastructure plan and a plan to help seniors. Klobuchar, whose father struggled with alcoholism, has also championed combating the opioid crisis and drug addiction.
Andrew Yang: Born into a family of Chinese descent in Schenectady, New York, and aged 45, Yang was a former tech executive working at various startups in Silicon Valley. Without prior experience in politics, Yang's signature proposal in the presidential campaign is the "universal basic income" initiative, which provides a monthly payment of 1,000 dollars -- what he calls the freedom dividend - to every American aged 18 and over. He also highlighted issues such as robotics and artificial intelligence, drawing from his experience in related sectors as a businessman.
Also in the Democratic race are: Michael Bloomberg, 77, billionaire media mogul who founded of Bloomberg L.P. and former three-term New York City mayor; Tulsi Gabbard, 38, four-term congresswoman representing Hawaii's Second District; Deval Patrick, 63, former and first African American governor of Massachusetts; Tom Steyer, 62, billionaire hedge fund manager and founder of progressive political action committee NextGen America; and Michael Bennet, 55, incumbent senator from Colorado.
