A guide to the 20 hopefuls running to be the Democratic candidate for the American presidency

In Britain, Brexit may have gone quiet but, in the United States, politics never stops – thanks to constant tweets from President Trump and regular announcements of yet another Democratic politician who would like to be the person to knock Donald out of the White House in November 2020.

The list of declared candidates in now 20 – the largest in modern political history – with the latest being the one currently in the lead in the polls: former Vice-President Joe Biden. And it is an amazingly diverse field.

In terms of age, Joe Biden (76) and Bernie Sanders (77) are more than twice the age of the youngest candidates (37 year old Pete Buttigieg and Tulsi Gabbard). In terms of experience, it ranges from being a two-term Vice-President (Biden) to being a city mayor (Buttigieg) to being a spiritual adviser to Oprah Winfrey (Marianne Williamson). Six of the runners are women and six are people of colour. One is openly gay (Buttigieg again). And there are some colourful names ranging from Beto O’Rourke to John Hickenlooper to Pete Buttigieg (yet again).

Most importantly, as we will learn more and more, in policy terms the consensus has shifted leftwards (thanks largely to Sanders’ run in 2016), but there are still significant differences between the candidates with plenty of time for new policies to be unveiled.

It’s going to be a fascinating race of worldwide importance and there are bound to be many highs and lows with plenty of scope for scandals and gaffes. You can find short profiles of the 20 Democratic runners here.


 




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