For this week’s blog I’m going to take a step back and instead of focusing entirely on the 2016 Presidential Election, I’m going to talk about what happened in Paris exactly one week ago from today. The attack on Paris shocked the world, as we collectively mourn the loss of innocent lives. Looking forward, the tragedy that occurred will shape the way countries now react to terrorist attacks versus how they used to react, especially as the United States is approaching a change in leadership.

What happened in Paris, France?

• On Friday, at 9:20 pm shooters began firing shots at two cafe’s. 15 people were murdered and 10 people were wounded.
• At 9:30 pm, there was an explosion at a stadium in France where a soccer match was being held between France and Germany. The explosion happened in front of the stadium and was a series of three explosions. The President of France was watching the game, but his security evacuated him right before the explosion went off. 129 people died, and a large portion of people were injured.
• At 9:32 pm gunman arrived at a bar, and began shooting. 5 died, and 8 were wounded.
• At 9:36 pm shooters opened fire at another restaurant killing 19 people, and wounding 9.
• At 9:40 pm, a suicide bomber denotated at another restaurant, injuring people.
• Also at 9:40 pm attackers opened fire at a concert, killing 89 people.
• At 9:53 pm an explosion occurs at another restaurant, no one was hurt.

How did France react?

• Countries came togther across the world to support France
• French police raided and killed the leader of the attacks.
• A state of emergency was declared in France
• Raids conducted by a series of countries are happening to target other terroirsts.

What now? 

The attacks on Paris has brought the World togther to work against future terrorist attacks. When looking at the United States specifically, it seems as if this attack has further solidified the fact that the US needs to be involved in the worlwide coaltion for stopping terrorism. However, instead of that being the topic of debate for the Presidential Candidates, they are taking a stand on whether or not states should be accepting Syrian refugees. The debate driving whether or not the US should be accepting Syrian refugees is fueled by the fact that some of the attackers carrying out the terrorist acts in Paris were Syrian refugees France took in. Becasue of this some Governors and Presidential Candidates have come out against taking in refugees for fear of letting in the terrorists. Some of the candidates against accepting the refugees are: Ben Carson, Chris Christie, Carly Fiorina, Rand Paul, Donald Trump, and more. The three Democratic candidates, Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, and Martin O’Malleyare for allowing Syrian refugees, and Jeb Bush and Ted Cruz only want to allow Christian refugees into the United States.

Sources Used: 

http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/14/world/what-happened-in-paris-attacks-timeline/\

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2015/11/19/france-chemical-attack-risk/76036204/

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/11/17/us/politics/presidential-candidates-on-syrian-refugees.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3317952/The-chilling-moment-two-explosions-ring-French-football-match-suicide-bomber-detonates-explosives-outside-stadium.html

For this week’s blog, I’m going to give some weekly updates about the 2016 Presidential Election, and cover the profiles of the final three candidates.

Weekly Updates

• Some polls have Ben Carson marginally leading ahead of Donald Trump.
• Fox News Network and The Wall Street Journal decided who or who would not participate in the next Republican Debate. Those not participating are: Lindsey Graham, George Pataki. Mike Huckabee and Chris Christie have been moved to the earlier debate (known as the “kiddie debate” since it happens before the major one), and will debate against Rick Santorum and Bobby Jindal. The candidates on the prime-time debate stage are Donald Trump, Ben Carson, Carly Fiorina, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Jeb Bush, John Kasich, and Rand Paul.
• Bernie Sander’s campaign is now working with the Democratic National Committee for fundraising.
• Clinton is significantly ahead of Sanders according to some polls.

Rick Santorum

• Born in Virginia, but mainly grew up in Butler Pennsylvania.
• Registered as a Republican.
• US Senator for Pennsylvania, serving as the Chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, in 2012 he ran for the Republican Nomination for President, served as a US Representative for Pennsylvania. 
• Political views from his website: http://www.ricksantorum.com/
  • Want’s to enforce a biometric tracking system to track every immigrant who enters the country to see who overstays their visa.
  • Opposes the Common Core System of Education and wants State’s to run the public education system.
  • Supports a piece of legislation that requires members to not get paid for every day the budget isn’t passed.

Jill Stein 

• Born in Chicago, Illinois
• Running as a member of the Green Party
• Practices medicine, ran for Governor of Massachusetts in 2002 and 2010, ran for Massachusetts House of Representatives in 2004, and ran in the 2012 Presidential Campaign.
• Political views from her website: http://www.jill2016.com/
  • Wants to create a “Medicare for All” so that everyone has healthcare
  • Would like to see the federal minimum wage increase to $15 dollars an hour, and wants workers to form more unions.
  • Believes that in order to establish diplomacy with other countries the military has to be cut by 50% and more than 700 military bases abroad need to be shut down.

Donald Trump 

• Born in New York City, New York
• Was a member of the Democratic party from 2001-2009, a member of the Independent party from 2011-2012, and since 2012 is now currently a part of the Republican Pary.
• Worked with his father’s real estate company, created many companies and built his name through real estate, hospitality, and entertainment industries including casino/hotels across the world. Owns the Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants, and is the executive producer of The Apprentice. 
• Political beliefs from his website: https://www.donaldjtrump.com/
  • Wants to build a wall along the southern border of the US and Mexico needs to pay for the wall.
  • The government has no role in banning guns and gun magazines and the concealed weapons permit should be allowed in every state.
  • Wants to recreate the tax code without adding to the debt of the country by eliminating the income tax for some households but not all.

Sources used for the biographical information can be found at: 

http://www.biography.com/people/rick-santorum-20688005

http://www.forbes.com/sites/peterjreilly/2012/10/01/interview-with-green-party-candidate-jill-stein-part-one/

http://www.biography.com/people/donald-trump-9511238

For this week, I’m going to continue to profile the 2016 Presidential Candidates; however, before I do I’m going to provide some updates from the race that happened this week:

• Two Democratic candidates, Jim Webb and Lincoln Chaffee, dropped out from the race.
• Two Republican candidates, Rick Perry and Scott Walker, dropped out from the race.
• The Republican candidates faced off in the second debate this week in Boulder, Colorado.
• Some news poll such as the New York Times has Ben Carson ahead in the polls of Donald Trump.

Rand Paul 

• Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
• Registered Republican, supporter of the Tea Party Movement. 
• Has been serving as the Kentucky U.S Senator, and before entering into the world of politics worked as an ophthalmologist (eye doctor). Worked with his father, Ron Paul, who served as the U.S Representative for Texas and ran for the Presidency three times.
• Political Views from his Website: https://www.randpaul.com/issues
  • Wants to create term limits for U.S Representatives and Senators to prevent “career politicians” from forming.
  • If elected, wants to immediately repeal the Affordable Health Care Act.
  • Refuses to support any legislation presented about gun control reform.

Marco Rubio 

• Born in Miami, Florida
• Registered Republican
• Has been serving as the U.S Senator from Florida, was a member and served as the Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives. 
• Political Views from his website: https://marcorubio.com/stand-against-the-liberal-media/
  • Wants to end the Common Core system, and move the system of education back to the state level.
  • Would like to add Cuba to the State Sponsor Terrorist List for helping North Korea and going against U.N Sanctions.
  • The debate around gun control should focus not on taking the guns away, but rather on mental illness and violence within society.

Bernie Sanders 

• Born in Brooklyn, New York
• Registered Independent, but caucuses with the Democrats in the Senate. 
• Serves as the U.S Senator from Vermont and was a member of the U.S House of Representatives from Vermont.
• Political views from his website: https://berniesanders.com/
  • Wants to reduce income and wealth inequality by raising the taxes fo the wealthy, and increasing the federal minimum wage.
  • Would like to make tuition at Public College and Universities free.
  • Wants to demilitarize the police force and increase diversity within the police force to promote racial justice.

Sources used for the biographical information can be found at: 

http://www.biography.com/people/rand-paul-588472

http://www.biography.com/people/marco-rubio-20840041

http://www.biography.com/people/bernie-sanders

This week instead of focusing on who the candidates are, I’m going to point out some important moments from the 2015 Democratic Debate. On October 13, 2015 (last week), the debate was held in my hometown of Las Vegas, NV. The five Democratic Candidates who are running for the Democratic nomination and participated in the debate included: Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Martin O’Malley, Jim Webb, and Lincoln Chaffee. Overall, the debate really seemed to focus around Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders due to the fact that they were given the most speaking time. For comparison, I have listed the amount of time each candidate spoke for below:

• Clinton: 31:05 minutes                                  
• Sanders 28:05 minutes
• O’Malley 17:56 minutes
• Webb 15:35 minutes
• Chaffee 9:11 minutes

The Debate was hosted by CNN and Anderson Cooper moderated the debated. Because of this, there seemed to be some bias towards some candidates. For example, following the debate a couple CNN headlines said, “Hillary Clinton wins the debate, but Bernie Sanders rises” and “Strong Debate helps push Clinton over Sanders.” Whether or not she won the debate, the headlines solely focused on her superiority biasing the general population.

The candidates covered a vast number of topics so I’m going to summarize some main points and ideas by each candidate.

Hillary Clinton

• At the very beginning, Anderson Cooper immediately asked Clinton about her changes in political ideologies and her track record. She mainly stayed on the defensive by saying, “…like most people that I know, I have a range of views, but they are rooted in my values and my experience.”
• Clinton believes that the country needs to go up against the NRA (National Rifle  Association) and that background checks should be mandatory.
• Has a five-point plan to better the economy,

Bernie Sanders 

• One of his goals is to redefine socialism in America. According to Sanders, socialism should be defined as, “what democratic socialism is about is saying that it is immoral and wrong that the top one-tenth of 1 percent in this country own almost 90 percent — almost — own almost as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent.”
• Sanders took a position on gun legislation by saying that gun shops shouldn’t be punished if someone uses their gun to shoot someone.
• Wants to break up the large banks in America.

Martin O’Malley

• O’Malley was able to pass gun reform in his state; therefore, Cooper asked how he would implement it nationwide. O’Malley responded that he knows how to negotiate with party members.
• In order to fix the economy, he wants to raise the minimum wage and reinstate the Glass-Steagall Act.
• Wants to have the US be 100% clean electric grid by 2050

Jim Webb 

• Webb is against affirmative action because he thinks it’s “state-sponsored racism.” He defended himself by stating, “when we create diversity programs that include everyone, quote, “of color,” other than whites, struggling whites like the families in the Appalachian mountains, we’re not being true to the Democratic Party principle of elevating the level of consciousness among our people about the hardships that a lot of people who happen to have — by culture, by the way.”
• Believes that data collected after a certain time by the Internet needs to be destroyed.
• Believes that climate change is solved at the global level instead of addressing it at the national level.

Lincoln Chaffee

• He was also on the defensive because he has switched parties so much. Chaffee defends himself by stating, “On the issues. I have not changed on the issues. I was a liberal Republican, then I was an independent, and now I’m a proud Democrat. But I have not changed on the issues.”
• Proposed bringing in the Gun Lobby and negotiating with them since they’re the ones keeping reform from happening.
• Believes that as long as a warrant is pulled, under the Fourth Amendment surveillance is constitutional. Supports the Patriot Acts.

The transcript where I found all the quotes and information can be found here: 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/10/13/the-oct-13-democratic-debate-who-said-what-and-what-it-means/

http://www.nytimes.com/live/first-democratic-debate-cnn-election-2016/

http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/19/politics/hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-poll/

Going along with the past couple of blogs, I’m going to continue to profile the candidates. Originally I wanted to cover the Democratic Debate, but I was unable to watch it when it aired. Therefore, next I will take a break in profiling the candidates to post about the debate. For now, I will be covering Lawrence Lessig, Martin O’Malley, and George Pataki.

Lawrence Lessig 

• Born in Rapid City, South Dakota
• Registered Democrat
• Served as a Professor at Harvard Law School, University of Chicago Law School, and Stanford Law School.  Also worked as a law clerk for Judge Richard Posner and Justice Antonin Scalia.
• Political views from his website: https://lessig2016.us/
  • As President, he will serve until his reforms are passed and then resign and let the Vice President take over.
  • Has a single place of passing the Citizen Equality Act of 2017 which will turn election day into a national holiday, redrawing districts to end gerrymandering, and it will allow every voter to contribute to a presidential campaign.

Martin O’Malley

• Born in Washington D.C
• Registered Democrat
• Served as Governor of Maryland (2007-2015) and Mayor of Baltimore (1999-2007).
• Political views from his website that consist of a list of goals he would like to accomplish as president: https://martinomalley.com/
  • Increase the American family income by cutting the pay gap between a full-time working man and a woman.
  • Having the US be entirely energy efficient and create millions of new clean energy jobs.
  • Cut the unemployment of young people in half withing 3 years.

George Pataki

• Born in Peekskill, New York
• Registered Republican
• Served as Governor of New York, in the State Assembly of New York, and the State Senate of New York. 
• Political views from his website: http://www.georgepataki.com/
  • Interestingly, when I went onto his website to find his stance on issues, there was no tab on the page titled “issues.” His website is dedicated to who he is and what he’s done. Every other candidate I have profiled thus far has had this tab on their website. Because of this, I will discuss his opinions on certain matters in blogs to follow.

Sources: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Lessig

http://ballotpedia.org/Martin_O’Malley_presidential_campaign,_2016

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Pataki

Similar to the past couple of posts, I’m going to continue my profiling of the 2016 Presidential Candidates. My goal is to get through as many candidates as possible so that I can begin to blog about more if the issues. However, I do recognize that in order to understand the issues, we need to understand the candidates. Therefore, this week I’m going to cover Jim Gilmore, Lindsey Graham, Mike Huckabee, Bobby Jindal, and John Kasich.

Jim Gilmore 

• Born in Richmond, Virginia
• Registered Republican
• Served at the Attorney General of Virginia (1994-1997), Governor of Virginia (1998-2002), ran for the Presidential race in 2008, and is currently a board member on the National Rifle Association.
• Political views from his website: http://www.gilmoreforamerica.com/
  • Believes in strong Second Amendment rights including creating methods to institutionalize the mentally ill.
  • Supports enforcing strong immigration laws by not giving citizenship to anyone who crosses over illegally.
  • Wants to repeal ObamaCare and encourage businesses to give their employees better benefits.

Lindsey Graham 

• Born in Seneca, South Carolina
• Registered Republican
• He is currently a U.S Senator and previously served in the U.S House of
  Representatives for South Carolina, and the South Carolina House of Representatives.
• Political views from his website: http://www.lindseygraham.com/
  • Believes that in order to secure the nation, the US needs to fully fund the military, defeat terrorism associated with Radical Islam, prevent Iran from gaining nuclear weapons.
  • Reform entitlement programs by raising the retirement age.
  • Wants to make illegal immigrants register with the government in order to pay taxes, learn English, and have a background check before they are made citizens 10 years later.

Mike Huckabee

• Born in Hope, Arkansas
• Registered Republican
• Served as the Lieutenant Governor of Arkansas (1993-1996), the Governor of Arkansas (1996-2007), ran in the presidential race in  2008, hosted a daily radio show (2012-2013), hosted a show on the Fox News Channel (2008).
• Political views from his website: https://www.mikehuckabee.com/
  • Believes in the Second Amendment and will oppose any new gun control laws and gun restrictions.
  • Wants education to be in the hands of the state and local governments and opposes the Common Core.
  • Wants the U.S to rely on energy produced in the U.S by encouraging Artic exploration and building the Keystone pipeline.

Piyush “Bobby” Jindal 

• Born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana
• Registered Republican
• The first Indian-American Governor in the United States. 
• Served in the US House of Representatives (2004-2006), and was elected Governor in 2008, he currently is still Governor.
• Political views from his website: https://www.bobbyjindal.com/
  • Believes that elimination Radical Islam should be the number one priority for the U.S.
  • Wants the US to invest more into the military in order to keep America safe.
  • Does not believe in the Common Core and wants education to be returned back to the hands of the states.

John Kasich 

• Born in McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania
• Registered Republican
• Served in the Ohio State Senate (1979-1983), U.S House of Representatives
  from (1983-2000), ran in the presidential race of 2000, and is the current Governor of Ohio.
• Political views from his website: https://johnkasich.com/
  • Does not believe in the funding of abortion or partial-birth abortions, and does not believe that the taxpayer should fund Planned Parenthood.
  • Does not believe in the Common Core and wants education to be returned back to the states.
  • Believes in strengthening the military and lifting the budget caps for defense spending.

Sources Used for Biographies: 

http://ballotpedia.org/Jim_Gilmore_presidential_campaign,_2016

http://ballotpedia.org/Lindsey_Graham

http://www.biography.com/people/mike-huckabee-261446

http://www.biography.com/people/bobby-jindal-20841577

http://ballotpedia.org/John_Kasich

For this week’s blog, I’m going to continue profiling the candidates for the 2016 Presidential Election. I have found that while writing and researching the backgrounds of every candidate, I have learned a lot about how each candidate’s background reflects on how they promote themselves and how their campaign is shaped. In the spirit of equality, I will continue my profiling of each candidate in alphabetical order according to last names; therefore, this week I will cover Hillary Clinton, Ted Cruz, and Carly Fiorina. As I stated before, I retrieve each candidate’s information from their website because it provides some insight on the priorities they have when campaigning.

Hillary Clinton

• Born in Chicago, Illinois
• Registered Democrat
• Served and campaigned for many candidates including, Republican Presidental nominee Barry Goldwater. Served as the first lady 1993-2001, U.S Senator for New York from 2001-2009, ran for the presidency in the 2008 Democratic primaries, served as the US Secretary of State from 2009-2013. 
• Political views from her campaign site: https://www.hillaryclinton.com/.
• Clinton had a long list of issues on her website, therefore I chose the first three issues:
  • Wants hefty campaign finance reform that consists of overturning the Citizens United Supreme Court Case, passing legislation in Congress to also push campaign finance reform further, and provide incentives for everyday donors to campaigns.
  • Targeting sexual assault on college campuses by providing survivors with support, using campus disciplinary actions and the criminal justice system for cases, and the creation of more prevention education programs.
  • Install more solar panels and accomplishing the goal of having every American house powered by renewable energy.

Rafael Edward “Ted” Cruz

• Born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada
  • Technically since he was not a natural born citizen, he should not be able to run. However, Cruz claims that since his mom was born in the US he is a naturalized citizen even though he officially became a naturalized citizen in 2005. 
•  Grew up Houston, Texas.
• Registered Republican
• Worked as a lawyer, an advisor for the 2000 election of George W. Bush, 2003 Solicitor General of Texas, and was elected in 2012 for the U.S Senate.
  Is known for shutting down the government in 2013 in opposition of The Affordable Healthcare Act.
• Political views from his website: https://www.tedcruz.org/
  • Interestingly, when I went onto his website to find his stance on issues, there was no tab on the page titled “issues.” His website is dedicated to who he is and what he’s done. Every other candidate I have profiled thus far has had this tab on their website. Because of this, I will discuss his opinions on certain matters in blogs to follow.

Cara Carleton (Carly) Fiorina

• Born in Austin, Texas
• Registered Republican
• President of Lucent’s Global Service Provider, former CEO of Hewlett-Packard, but was forced to resign after the merging of Compaq computers was unsuccessful, in 2008 she was a commentator for Fox News and assisted with John McCain’s 2008 Presidential campaign.
• Political views from her website: https://carlyforpresident.com/
  • Similar to Ted Cruz, Fiorina does not have an issues tab on her website. Instead, the site consists of what she’s accomplished, and the values she lives by. Likewise, I will discuss her views when I blog about policy issues associated with the campaign.

Biographical information was obtained from the following websites: 

http://www.biography.com/people/hillary-clinton-9251306#early-years

http://www.biography.com/people/ted-cruz

http://www.biography.com/people/carly-fiorina-9542210#success-at-hewlett-packard

In order to provide some insight on who the candidates actually are running in the 2016 Presidential Race,  I’m going to be providing some information about each candidate. Because of the vast pool of candidates running for the 2016 Presidential Election, I’m going to profile every candidate in alphabetical order according to their last name. However, since there are currently a grand total of 22 declared candidates, I’m going to analyze about four candidates a week by providing their basic information and some key policies that are taken from the candidates websites. I chose to retrieve the policies of each candidate from their respective websites because I found that the topics each candidate chose to focus on, tends to  reflect who they are as a candidate.

John Ellis (Jeb) Bush 

• Born in Midland, Texas
• Member of the Republican Party
•  The Governor of Florida from 1999-2007
• Before entering the realm of politics, he worked in real estate development and was Florida’s Secretary of Commerce from 1986-1988.
• Political Views from his campaign website http://www.jeb2016.com
  • Wants to pass a Balanced Budget Amendment that limits the control of the government and balances the budget without raising taxes.
  • Increase border security by providing the Border Patrol with easily accessible resources , increasing surveillance with the use of drones and radars, creation of new roads along the border, decrease the amount of illegal immigrants being employed, and sending those home who are illegal.
  • A seven-step plan to assist Veterans in the country. Some of those steps include: expanding Veterans choice program, create more opportunities for Veterans, restore military troop levels, etc.

Dr. Ben Carson 

• Born in Detroit, Michigan
• Member of the Republican Party
• He has never run or held public office but became very popular when he gave spoke at the 2013 National Prayer Breakfast Speech.
• Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins University.
• Political views from his campaign website https://www.bencarson.com/
  • A pro-life advocate and believes that as a doctor it is his duty to protect the lives of children.
  • Wants to ratify a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution, so that the federal government is held accountable and politicians will be forced to balance the budget.
  • Local communities should fund and manage public schools.

Lincoln Chafee

• Born in Providence, Rhode Island
• Was first a member of the Republican Party, switched to the Independent Party in 2007, and registered with the Democratic Pary in 2013. He is currently running as a Democratic Candidate for the 2016 Presidential Election.
• Served as a U.S Senator from 1999-2007, Governor of Rhode Island from 2011-2015.
• Served as a visiting fellow for Brown University.
• Political Views from his campaign website: http://www.chafee2016.com/
  • Plan to promote peace through the Iraqi region by ending drone strikes, the torture of prisoners, and working the United Nations to create international agreements.
  • Wants a tax structure that removes loopholes and tax cuts for wealthy citizens and corporation, and increase Pell Grants for students.
  • Reduce greenhouse gasses and not approve the Keystone pipeline

Chris Christie

• Born in Newark, New Jersey
• Member of the Republican Party
• Governor of New Jersey, 2010-2015
• Was the former U.S Attonrey for the District of New Jersey 2002-2008.
• Political views from his campaign website: https://www.chrischristie.com/
  • Maintaining a strong military in order prevent threats from happening.
  • Expand students’ access to charter to scools to make access to a good education easier.
  • Securing the border with Mexico by building a wall, increasing police force, and return illegal immigrants back to their countries.

Biographical information was received from the following websites: 

http://www.biography.com/people/jeb-bush-201294#early-life

http://www.biography.com/people/ben-carson-475422

http://ballotpedia.org/Lincoln_Chafee

http://www.biography.com/people/chris-christie-20648789

This past week, the many Republican candidates for President participated in the second debate of the campaign season. What’s interesting about this debate, is that it was aired on CNN, which is generally considered a more liberal news station. Also, the debate was held at the Ronald Reagan presidential library in Simi Valley, California. Ronald Reagon is an iconic and deity figure in the Republican party; therefore, having the debate in his library provides the added pressure of living up to his legacy. Because of the vast amount of candidates competing for the single spot of being the Republican nominee, two debates were held. The first debate was held at 6 pm, consisting of the bottom of the pack candidates. This debate was known as the “kiddie table” debate because the candidates have the least amount of support in the country including the candidates: Rick Perry, Rick Santorum, Lindsey Graham, Bobby Jindal, and George Pataki.The most popular debate was aired at 8 pm, the prime time spot. This debate featured the major candidates with the highest approval ratings, including: Donald Trump, Carly Fiorina, Ben Carson, Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz, John Kasich, Marco Rubio, Scott Walker, Chirs Christie, Mike Huckabee, and Rand Paul. A very crowded stage.

Some of the big issues that stood out to me were immigration and vaccination.

Immigration

During the debate, Senator Ted Cruz tended to be a more prominent speaker on immigration reform. According to him, “a majority of the men and women on this stage have previously and publicly embraced amnesty. I am the only candidate on this stage who has never support supported amnesty.” Blatantly making this statement, Cruz is solidifying that fact that he never has/or will support a path to citizenship, whereas the other candidates tend to believe more in some path to citizenship.

Vaccination

A shocking revelation, the outspoken Donald Trump came out and explicitly stated that there was an association with vaccination and autism.Trump even tried to back up his argument by telling a story of an employee who’s child became ill after a vaccine and was then diagnosed with autism. What’s fascinating is that both Rand Paul and Ben Carson are both doctors, yet both of them did not come out strongly against Trump. Instead, Paul stated, “I’m for vaccines, but I’m also for freedom. Even if the science doesn’t say bunching them up is a problem, I ought to be able to spread my vaccines out a little bit, at the very least.” Likewise, Carson stated, “We have extremely well-documented proof that there’s no autism associated with vaccination, but it is true that we are probably giving way too many in too short a period of time.” Carson was the strongest candidate to call Trumps bluff, yet there was still some hesitance when he followed it up by talking about the number of vaccines given.

Overall, I thought the debate was engaging and interesting to the see the small differences between each candidate. It will be fascinating to see how the debate shapes the primaries in the following year to come, specifically the Iowa caucus.

It’s September of 2015, and when we turn on the news or look at social media the major headlines usually consist of a couple stories dedicated to the 2016 Presidential Election. Why? Realistically, the election is more than a year away, and the nominees haven’t even been selected, so what’s the deal with 2016?

As I’ve been mulling this question over, I’ve found that I’ve come up with both some personal reasons and national reasons why the 2016 election is important. Similar to many of my peers, this is the first election I will be able to vote in and I’m absolutely thrilled about it. Candidates tend to target college campuses in the hopes of gaining the student vote, therefore as students, we actually play a bigger role in the election. Nationally, this is a historic election because it is predicted to be the highest amount of money spent on an election, the Republican Party is riding a wave of popularity, and there is a possibility of having a Bush v. Clinton race part two. If none of these reasons make you even a little excited for the upcoming race, then I’ll keep trying in the hopes of sparking some interest.

One life-changing issue that effects, for the most part, a lot of college students is the burden of student debt. Student debt is a large social issue in the United States because it is a life-changing burden that students have to endure, even preventing some students from seeking higher education. Therefore, most candidates targeting the student vote specifically state their opinions on the matter. In further posts, I will explain candidates opinions on the matter.

I typically find the amount of money gained versus spent on elections interesting, because, as a stereotypical poor college student, millions of dollars raised in money is completely unfathomable. The New York Times posted a fantastic graphic comparing the amount of money each candidate has raised.

Elections are quite dependent on the amount of funds raised, and just seeing the full comparison of the top nine candidates has me curious about the candidate who ends up winning versus the amount of money they spend on the campaign.

Overall, I hope that even if you don’t entirely care about politics there is something that encourages you to keep staying updated for the 2016 Presidential Election.