Author: Lizbeth Acevedo

Candidates for the 2020 Democratic Nomination for President

Cory Booker is from New Jersey and has always had a passion for politics as he was previously Newark’s Mayor for quite some time and then moved on to be New Jersey’s Senator. Andrew Yang is from Manhattan, New York and has been passionate about entrepreneurship and created his own company but recently has stepped up to the plate and is seeking to become America’s next president. It seems unusual as he has not had political experience like Booker but has worked closely with the White House when Obama was president. Looking closely as both websites, they do have some background information on where they come from. Booker definitely emphasizes his background more than Yang. Booker tells his story of being a lawyer for his people who are being taking advantage by slumlords. That clearly shows the injustice he sees in the community and how he used his college degree and overall education to help others. He uses his community, his passion and the injustice in the world to be able to motivate him to be even more of a role model for all Americans.

One thing that he doesn’t have on his website are his policies and what he strives to work for as a president. Booker creates an environment where his community can come to his aid and he will work with his resources to find a solution.  Based on Fenno, he uses a person to person approach with his public. He wants people to know where he came from and who got him to where he is now. Booker wants to represent the unrepresented. I wouldn’t say he is issue-oriented due to his lack of policy representation on his website. He wants people to know he is willing to hear their stories and what their solutions could be. His slogan, “We Rise”, shows his commitment to engage with his community and Americans together in order to create a better America.

Yang, on the other hand, has included all of his policies. His main policy is UBI, Universal Basic Income, which advocates for all Americans 18 and older to receive about $12,000 a year as a replacement for welfare, food stamps, and homelessness. He also talks about his background like Booker but doesn’t go in depth on how it helped him get to where he is now. He is more involved in making Americans know that he is an entrepreneur and willing to find solutions on creating more jobs now that technology is getting more advanced. Based on Fenno, he is more issue-oriented, he works better with technology and showing his policies than engaging with people on a personal level. This could be because he doesn’t have that much experience with politics like Booker, which could not give him much credibility. Through his policies, he is able to communicate what he wants to do with the presidency and gain voters that way. He shows how passionate he is in creating more jobs for Americans. Unlike Booker, Yang has more experience in the business world, so he definitely knows about the burden of being responsible for people’s livelihood. His slogan, “Humanity First”, shows the difference in agenda between both candidates, Yang is more concerned with improving lives of humanity in the way he sees fit while Booker wants to improve the lives of American people with them coming along. There is definitely a different perspective of campaigning by the two candidates showing each distinct traits, accomplishments, and motivations.

Chicago, IL: Member of Congress:

I currently live in Chicago, IL which means I am situated in Illinois’s Congressional District #4. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia is a member of the Democratic Party as well as our US representative. He is a Mexican- born politician, he has been serving as our representative since January 3^rd, 2019.  Before that, he served on the Cook County Board of Commissioners, the Illinois State Senate and Chicago City Council. In 2015, he went against Rahm Emmanuel for Mayor of Chicago but unfortunately lost. He has been a part of our legislature since 1986 but has only been our member of Congress for a couple weeks, prior to him Luis Gutierrez was in office. I would say based on his previous election results he is in a safe seat. Unfortunately, during his run for Mayor he did not win but he did have a big support system from voter and endorsements. Bernie Sanders was one of the people that endorse him and his political beliefs as well as Luis Gutierrez after announcing his retirement from Congress. During his campaign for Member of Congress, he won 60% of the primary votes. I think being Hispanic really helps him relate to the minorities of our district. As far as him being member of any caucus, it has only been stated he will be joining the Congressional Progressive Caucus but nothing else has been stated. My district is very urban-rural, many immigrants for decades now have established themselves here but over the years under Mayor Rahm Emmanuel gentrification has been started to arise, condos are being made as well as supermarkets like Walmart and Target are being built as well as housing cost like Mortgage and rent are increasing. Out of 700, 585 residents in my district 479,290 are Hispanic/Latino. For the past couple of years, the democratic party has taken office.

State House Representative

 In this position, I am listed in a different district. Our state representative is Iris Martinez and she represents Illinois’s 20^th state senate district. She has been in this position since 2003, her election marked the first time a Hispanic woman had been elected to the state senate in Illinois history. Martinez is involved in the Illinois legislative Latino caucus, which she has given her a platform to give voice to initiatives that are important to minorities. She is involved in committees like Commerce and Economic Development, Education, Energy, and Public Utilities, Executive, Government Accountability/Pensions and Transportation. I do believe she has a safe seat, for the 2018 re-elections she had won 100% of the votes. Since 2003, she has continued to earn and maintain her position because of the voters’ favor towards her. Martinez has continuously used her position to advocate for affordable housing, expanding health care access and ensuring seniors and the disabled to given proper care. She is also a strong voice for children and has started an initiative that involves children receiving health check-ups, screening, dental check-ups, immunizations as well as backpacks. Since she represents one of Chicago’s most diverse neighborhoods, she is a voice to a lot of minorities that are not given the same equal rights as everyone else.

Hawaii: Control & Party Structure

The Governor of Hawaii is currently David Ige, he has been in this official position since 2014 and will be serving another term based on the 2018 elections. Currently, Hawaii runs a Democratic state government, which means that the democratic party has continuously led the Hawaiian government over any other political party. The democratic party has been in power for about forty years. The Current leaders are Ronald Kouchi (Senate President), Scott Saiki (House Speaker), Jamie Kalani English and Della Au Belatti (Majority Leaders) and Gene Ward (Minority Speaker).  These leaders were re-elected after the 2018 elections, some have been in the same position for a couple of years. The way the Hawaiian government structures their government is through having 25 members of Senate and 51 members of the House, 88% of their government are Democrats while 11% of their members are republican. The total terms for a Senate official are 4 years while a house representative is 2 years. The constitution they follow in order for their structure to work is Article III of the Hawaii Constitution, which is a guideline of what the role each member has and does not have.

The Agenda

Based on David Ige’s website, he lists the important priorities that the legislature has to come into terms with. The legislature’s mission is to restore faith into the government and preserve the Hawaiian Islands, so future generations are able to call Hawaii home. They prioritize their time in laws concerning education, housing and homelessness, health, effective, efficient, and open government, economy, energy, agriculture, environment, treatment of native Hawaiians, traffic, taxes and preserving their core values. Ige has been very involved in making sure housing can be affordable for everyone and create shelters for the homeless in order to keep them out of the streets. He seemed to accomplish a lot of these goals during 2017. So, it may seem he will continue to do more projects on this.

Illinois: Who represents you at the state level?

I currently live in the US Congressional District #4 in Chicago, IL, which means Iris Martinez is our state senator and for the house, Jaime Andrade is our representative. They are both members of the democratic party as well as Latinos. Martinez has been in office for 16 years while Andrade has only been in office for about 6 years. The issues that they are currently trying to resolve seem to be the same but what they prioritize is different. For Martinez, her priorities are education, energy, labor, and pensions. Andrade is more focused on business licenses, Cybersecurity, Human services and regulations of roads and bridges. I think I feel more represented by Iris Martinez because it seems to care more about how the people of Illinois leave in an everyday life, while Andrade seems to be more focused on the technological aspect of our lives, which is also important, but interactions socially seem to be more my priority, and Martinez seems to understand that.