By Michelle Alles
WASHINGTON DC (CWBN)_ As the date of the US Presidential election draws nearer, we take a look at the profiles of the four notable candidates who have the spotlight of the entire world trained on them.
Donald J. Trump, Republican incumbent candidate for President
Donald John Trump, 74, is the 45th and current president. If re-elected, he would be the oldest President of the United States.
Born in Queens, New York, he attended Fordham University and graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
He became the oldest to enter the White House at the age of 70, after a surprise victory over Hilary Clinton, who gained nearly 3 million more popular votes but lost to Trump in Electoral Collage votes. His presidency is widely regarded as having caused considerable racial polarization both within the United States and globally. He also triggered a trade war with China and has been severely criticised for his handling of the COVID pandemic.
Inheriting his father’s real estate business in 1971, Trump gained a reputation as a businessman known in industries such sports and entertainment. Since the 80s, Trump has been associated with several retail ventures, including branded lines of clothing, cologne, food, and furniture. Trump owned, managed, or licensed his name to several hotels, casinos, golf courses, resorts, and residential properties in the New York City area and in several countries. In the early 21st century his private conglomerate, the Trump Organization, comprised a wide range of businesses, including hotels and resorts, residential properties, merchandise, and entertainment and television.
He owned the Miss Universe pageant from 1996-2015 and the reality TV show ‘The Apprentice’.
Trump has five children and been married to his third wife, Melania, for 15 years.
Mike Pence, Republican incumbent candidate for Vice President
Michael Richard Pence, 61, is the 48th vice president of the United States in the administration of President Trump. He previously served as Governor of Indiana from 2013–17 and also served six terms in the U.S. House of representatives from 2001-13.
Born in Indiana, he graduated from Hanover College and then earned his law degree at Indiana University. Apart from his legal practice, he twice ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 1988 and 1990. He then became a radio talk show host and entered Congress on his third attempt. His older brother had earlier served as a Congressman.
Over the last four years, Pence has been a very adept deputy to President Trump, not least in leading the team deciding key appointments in the administration, and being a smooth communicator in media appearances. Pence was also put in charge of the White House Coronavirus Task Force. He is now seen as a loyal second-in-command who rarely voices criticism of the president.
Joe Biden, Democratic candidate for President
Joseph Robinette Biden, 77, was the 47th Vice President of the United States from 2009–17 in the Democratic administration of President Barack Obama. If elected, he would be the oldest President of the United States.
Born in Scranton, Pennsylvania and raised in New Castle County, Delaware, Biden was the eldest of four children. He received a double major in History and Political Science at the University of Delaware, and earned his law degree from Syracuse University.
Biden returned to Delaware to work as an attorney before turning to politics and serving on the New Castle county council for two years. At age 29, he was elected to the United States Senate. Tragedy struck his family when his wife and infant daughter were killed in a car accident which critically injured his two sons. For the next five years, he raised his boys as a single father.
Biden was elected to the Senate seven times and chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Judiciary Committee. In 1977, he married Jill Jacobs and they had a daughter three years later. In 2008, Obama introduced his running mate for VP as “an expert on foreign policy whose heart and values are rooted firmly in the middle class. He is uniquely suited to be my partner as we work to put our country back on track.”
Kamala Harris, Democratic candidate for Vice President
Kamala Harris, 56, is the first woman of colour to be appointed vice presidential candidate from a major party. She was the first Indian-American as well as the second African-American woman to serve as a U.S. senator. If elected, she would be the first female Vice President.
Harris was born in Oakland, California, to an Indian-born mother and Jamaican-born father. After her parents’ divorce, she was raised primarily by her mother, Shyamala Gopalan Harris, a cancer researcher and civil rights activist. Harris studied Political Science and Economics at Howard University and subsequently earned a law degree from the University of California.
She was elected Attorney General of California in 2010 and re-elected in 2014. She was then elected to the U.S. Senate in 2016. She says she’s always been comfortable with her identity and simply describes herself as “an American”, telling the Washington Post in 2019, that politicians should not have to fit into compartments because of their colour or background.
For women the world over, her “Mr. Vice President, I’m speaking” reminders to Pence, after he repeatedly interrupted her, have been hailed online as a pointed effort by the first black woman in a vice-presidential debate to be heard.
