A Guide to Everyone Who's Still Running for President in 2020
Elections move pretty fast—if you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss the entirety of Joe Sestak's presidential campaign. With over 30 candidates tossing their hats in the ring at one point or another, the election has been full of faces entering and exiting, and proposals and platforms sparking discussion and then fading from the forefront of national political discourse. It's tough to keep track of it all. So here's a handy guide to all the candidates attempting to replace Donald Trump as President of the United States.
Still In the Race: The Democrats
Joe Biden
Who are they? 77-year-old former Vice President of the United States and senator from Delaware.
What do you need to know? Biden has pretty much been the Democratic frontrunner since he announced his candidacy in April. His campaign often focuses on unifying the nation post-Trump, and improving the nation's global reputation.
Tulsi Gabbard
Who are they? 38-year-old congresswoman from Hawaii.
What do you need to know? While Gabbard has never been a frontrunner, her campaign has attracted attention for its foreign policy appeal to anti-interventionist conservatives and her feud with Hillary Clinton.
Bernie Sanders
Who are they? 78-year-old senator from Vermont.
What do you need to know? Since the 2016 election, Sanders has been one of the main drivers of the Democratic party's leftward turn, and is running on a campaign promises that vow to narrow the wealth gap and expand the social safety net through measures like free tuition at public college and Medicare for all.
Still in the Race: The Republicans
Bill Weld
Who are they? 74-year-old former governor of Massachusetts.
What do you need to know? The 2016 Libertarian Party Vice Presidential candidate entered the race as a vocal conservative Trump critic.
Dropped Out: The Democrats
Michael Bennett
Who are they? 55-year-old senator from Colorado.
What do you need to know? This moderate Democrat and former superintendent of Denver schools ran on a platform that promised to pursue bipartisan goals like infrastructure spending. He ended his campaign in February 2020.
Steve Bullock
Who are they? 53-year-old governor of Montana.
What do you need to know? This red-state Democrat ran as a moderate but suspended his campaign in early December 2019.
Bill de Blasio
Who are they? 58-year-old mayor of New York City.
What do you need to know? De Blasio ran as a progressive, but only made it to the debate stage twice and abandoned his campaign in September 2019.
Michael Bloomberg
Who are they? 77-year-old former mayor of New York City and founder and C.E.O. of Bloomberg L.P.
What do you need to know? Bloomberg was latecomer to the race, announcing his candidacy in November 2019. He poured more than half a billion dollars into his campaign—and then dropped out in March after spending a single day on the ballot.
Cory Booker
Who are they? 50-year-old senator from New Jersey.
What do you need to know? Booker has been a national figure since his years as mayor of Newark, and made his proposed "baby bonds" program to narrow the nation's racial and economic wealth gaps a highlight of his campaign. But he terminated his campaign on January 13th, 2020, after failing to qualify for the December and January Democratic primary debates.
Pete Buttigieg
Who are they? 37 year-old former mayor of South Bend, Indiana.
What do you need to know? Buttigieg had one of the most unexpected trajectories of the campaign, rising from being the little-known mayor of a small city and to secure a place among the highest-polling candidates in the election before faltering in the Nevada caucuses and South Carolina primary. Both the youngest candidate in the race and the only openly gay candidate, he ran as a pragmatic, Millennial fresh face before ending his campaign on March 1st, 2020.
Julián Castro
Who are they? 45-year-old former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and mayor of San Antonio.
What do you need to know? Castro is one of the more progressive voices in the election, running on issues including support for Medicare for all and making crossing the border illegally a civil rather than criminal offense. He dropped out of the race in early January 2020.
John Delaney
Who are they? 56-year-old former four-term congressman from Maryland.
What do you need to know? Delaney ran largely as a bipartisan candidate, and supported reassessing the Affordable Care Act, though he opposed Medicare for All. He called it quits on January 31st, chiding candidates from the party's left flank to "stop the nonsense of unrealistic and divisive campaign promises."
Kirsten Gillibrand
Who are they? 52-year-old senator from New York.
What do you need to know? Before terminating her campaign in the summer of 2019, Gillibrand ran on a platform that centered women's issues.
Mike Gravel
Who are they? 89-year-old former Alaska senator.
What do you need to know? Gravel's longest of long-shot campaigns was conceived of and helmed by a couple of leftist high schoolers.
Kamala Harris
Who are they? 55-year-old senator from California.
What do you need to know? Harris was in the top tier of candidates—and briefly among the frontrunners, particularly in the wake of one heated debate exchange with Joe Biden over the issue of busing—but her campaign lost traction in polls and struggled to raise enough funding to stay afloat. She dropped out of the race in December 2019.
John Hickenlooper
Who are they? 67-year-old former governor of Colorado.
What do you need to know? Hickenlooper ran as a purple-stater able to achieve bipartisan goals, but his campaign never gained traction.
Jay Inslee
Who are they? 68-year-old governor of Washington.
What do you need to know? Inslee ran on a platform that focused on finding solutions to the climate crisis.
Amy Klobuchar
Who are they? 59-year-old Senator from Minnesota
What do you need to know? Klobuchar ran as a pragmatic moderate, and her campaign promised legislation to bring down prescription drug prices. She called it quits in early March 2020.
Wayne Messam
Who are they? 45-year-old Miramar, Florida mayor.
What do you need to know? Messsam ran a campaign that urged Americans to "be great," but it never really got off the ground and he failed to make the debate stage.
Seth Moulton
Who are they? 41-year-old congressman from Massachusetts.
What do you need to know? Moulton ran as a fresh-faced challenger to established Democratic leaders.
Richard Ojeda
Who are they? 49-year-old former West Virginia state senator.
What do you need to know? This red state Democrat never became a national name, and ended his very brief campaign in January 2019.
Beto O'Rourke
Who are they? 47-year-old former Texas congressman.
What do you need to know? O'Rourke became a nationally-known figure almost overnight in 2018 as a challenger for Ted Cruz's Senate seat. He followed this defeat with a presidential run, but was never again as popular among Democrats has he had been during his Senate run.
Deval Patrick
Who are they? 63-year-old former governor of Massachusetts and managing director at Bain Capital.
What do you need to know? Patrick, like Bloomberg, was a late entry to the race, and declared his candidacy in November 2019. He ran on the record of his governorship, which spanned 2007 to 2015 and included efforts towards criminal justice reform and tackling the climate crisis, but suspended his campaign in February 2020.
Tim Ryan
Who are they? 46-year-old-representative from Ohio.
What do you need to know? After failing to qualify for the third Democratic debate, Ryan dropped out to focus on his campaign for re-election to the House.
Joe Sestak
Who are they? 67-year-old former Pennsylvania congressman.
What do you need to know? Sestak ran on his military credentials—he's a former navy admiral—but his campaign didn't take off, and he never qualified for the debates.
Tom Steyer
Who are they? 52-year-old billionaire retired hedge fund manager.
What do you need to know? Steyer first got involved with presidency in 2017 when he started a pro-Trump impeachment organization called Need to Impeach. He racked up some viral moments on the campaign trail, before dropping out after a poor showing in the South Carolina primary.
Eric Swalwell
Who are they? 39-year-old congressman from California.
What do you need to know? Before leaving the race, Swalwell ran a campaign that focused on gun control.
Elizabeth Warren
Who are they? 70-year-old senator from Massachusetts.
What do you need to know? Warren ran on progressive issues focused on battling income inequality and government corruption, and released an extensive set of proposed plans to bring them to to life with measures like student debt cancellation. Though she was briefly a frontrunner, Warren ended her campaign in early March after failing to perform well in the early primaries and caucuses.
Marianne Williamson
Who are they? 67-year-old self-help writer and lecturer.
What do you need to know? Williamson hasn't made it to the debate stage for a while, but earlier in the campaign attracted attention by backing reparations for the descendants of African-American slaves, and decrying President Trump's "dark psychic force." This longest of long-shot candidates scored some viral moments at the two debates she qualified for, but dropped out of the running in January 2020.
Andrew Yang
Who are they? 44-year-old tech entrepreneur and non-profit founder.
What do you need to know? Yang hinged his campaign on the idea of adopting a universal basic income, and promised that all American adults would receive a "Freedom Dividend" of $1,000 if he were elected president. After calling it quits in February 2020, he joined CNN as a political contributor.
Dropped Out: The Republicans
Mark Sanford
Who are they? 59-year-old former Republican South Carolina governor.
What do you need to know? The disgraced former governor ran against Trump in the Republican primary in a campaign that lasted less than two months.
Joe Walsh
Who are they? Former Illinois Tea Party-era congressman and radio host.
What do you need to know? Walsh is a former Trump supporter who ran against the president in the Republican primary. He's described himself as being among those who created the Trump phenomenon, making him well-suited to running against he president he now describes as "unfit." But he called off his long shot campaign in February 2020.
You Might Also Like
