Election 2016: U.S. Election 2016:
Candidates & Platforms

The Democratic ticket consists of
Hillary Clinton and Senator Tim Kaine.

The Democratic Platform was formally approved at the convention. It was the result of interactions between the more moderate wing of the party represented by Hillary Clinton and progressives such as Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. The list below provides an overview of some of its key planks. You can also click on the links to access the actual document as well as summaries and analyses.

• Raising the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour.
• Making community colleges tuition-free and enabling holders of student debt to refinance their loans at lower interest rates.
• Introducing an "updated and modernized version of Glass-Steagall," a 1933 law, repealed during the Clinton administration, that separated commercial banking from investment banking.
• Reducing or eliminating tax loopholes for wealthy individuals and corporations.
• Abolishing the death penalty.
• Opposing or eliminating restrictions on women's reproductive rights.
• Expanding the 2010 Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) by adding a public option and extending Medicare to people aged 55-64.
• Endorsing the Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage and expanding sex discrimination laws to include LGBT people.
• Addressing climate change by adopting clean energy sources, particularly solar; reducing fossil fuel emissions; expanding the power of the EPA; and opposing the Keystone XL Pipeline.
• Proposing a constitutional amendment to overturn the Citizens United and Buckley decisions that eliminated limits on campaign spending.
• Advocating gun control measures such as strengthening background checks and keeping assault weapons "off our streets."

Constitution Ticket consists of
Darrell Castle and Scott Bradley

*Brief summary, Click for Complete Constitution Party  Platform

We declare the platform of the Constitution Party to be predicated on the principles of

THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES, AND THE BILL OF RIGHTS,

according to the original intent of the Founding Fathers. These founding documents are the foundation of our Liberty and the Supreme Law of the Land.

The sole purpose of government, as stated in the Declaration of Independence, is to secure our unalienable rights given us by our Creator. When Government grows beyond this scope, it is usurpation, and liberty is compromised.

We believe the major issues we face today are best solved by a renewed allegiance to the original intent of these founding documents.

The Libertarian Party ticket consists of
Gary Johnson and William Weld

As its name suggests, the Libertarian Party endorses maximum individual freedom "without interference from government or any authoritarian power." Its candidates are former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson for president and former Massachusetts Governor William Weld for vice president. Both held office as Republicans. The links below will take you to the party's website and platform.

*Brief summary, Click for Complete LP Platform

Preamble, as adopted in Convention, May 2016, Orlando Florida.

As Libertarians, we seek a world of liberty; a world in which all individuals are sovereign over their own lives and no one is forced to sacrifice his or her values for the benefit of others.

We believe that respect for individual rights is the essential precondition for a free and prosperous world, that force and fraud must be banished from human relationships, and that only through freedom can peace and prosperity be realized.

Consequently, we defend each person’s right to engage in any activity that is peaceful and honest, and welcome the diversity that freedom brings. The world we seek to build is one where individuals are free to follow their own dreams in their own ways, without interference from government or any authoritarian power.

In the following pages we have set forth our basic principles and enumerated various policy stands derived from those principles.

These specific policies are not our goal, however. Our goal is nothing more nor less than a world set free in our lifetime, and it is to this end that we take these stands.

Statement of Principles

We, the members of the Libertarian Party, challenge the cult of the omnipotent state and defend the rights of the individual.

We hold that all individuals have the right to exercise sole dominion over their own lives, and have the right to live in whatever manner they choose, so long as they do not forcibly interfere with the equal right of others to live in whatever manner they choose.

Governments throughout history have regularly operated on the opposite principle, that the State has the right to dispose of the lives of individuals and the fruits of their labor. Even within the United States, all political parties other than our own grant to government the right to regulate the lives of individuals and seize the fruits of their labor without their consent.

We, on the contrary, deny the right of any government to do these things, and hold that where governments exist, they must not violate the rights of any individual: namely, (1) the right to life—accordingly we support the prohibition of the initiation of physical force against others; (2) the right to liberty of speech and action—accordingly we oppose all attempts by government to abridge the freedom of speech and press, as well as government censorship in any form; and (3) the right to property—accordingly we oppose all government interference with private property, such as confiscation, nationalization, and eminent domain, and support the prohibition of robbery, trespass, fraud, and misrepresentation.

Since governments, when instituted, must not violate individual rights, we oppose all interference by government in the areas of voluntary and contractual relations among individuals. People should not be forced to sacrifice their lives and property for the benefit of others. They should be left free by government to deal with one another as free traders; and the resultant economic system, the only one compatible with the protection of individual rights, is the free market.

The Republican ticket consists of
Donald Trump and Governor Mike Pence

The Republican platform was approved on the first night of the National Convention. It is an extremely conservative document, reflecting the influence of prominent Republican groups such as corporations, evangelical Christians, and Tea Party activists. Below is an overview of some of its key planks. The links below will take you to the official platform as well as summaries of its major provisions.

• Opposing Supreme Court decisions that upheld same-sex marriage and denied the people "their legitimate constitutional authority to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman."
• Supporting a constitutional human life amendment and extending 14th Amendment protections to "children before birth."
• "Raising or repealing contribution limits" in elections.
• Building a wall along the Mexican border.
• Instituting voter ID laws and proof of citizenship when registering to vote.
• Opposing most restrictions on the ownership of guns and ammunition.
• Encouraging economic growth by lowering the corporate tax rate and "relieving the burden and expense of punishing government regulations."
• Reinstating the Glass-Steagall Act, a 1933 law, repealed during the Clinton administration, that separated commercial banks from investment banks.
• Supporting the death penalty.
• Repealing the 2010 Affordable Care Act (Obamacare).
• Eliminating federal student loans.
• Promoting "energy security for centuries to come" through measures such as greater use of coal, construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline, hydraulic fracturing (fracking), and repeal of the Obama administration's Clean Power Plan.
• Publicly displaying the Ten Commandments and teaching the Bible in public schools.

The Green Party ticket consists of
Jill Stein and Ajamu Baraka

The Green Party describes itself as "grassroots activists, environmentalists, advocates for social justice, nonviolent resisters and regular citizens who’ve had enough of corporate-dominated politics." The party's presidential candidate is Jill Stein, a physician and political activist who has never held any major elected office. Her vice presidential candidate is human rights activist and scholar Ajamu Baraka. Click on the links below to access the party's website and platform.

*Brief summary, Click for Complete GP Platform

Preamble, Approved by the Green National Committee, August 2016

Never has our country faced as many challenges and crises as we do now. Levels of federal revenue are the lowest they have been since 1950 because of tax cuts and breaks for the very rich and for corporations. Government agencies charged with safeguarding public health and safety are operating with slashed budgets that paralyze their efforts. Jobs are being permanently relocated outside the country, while social and educational programs are being gutted. Our food, water, air, and soil are increasingly found to bear toxins and debilitating pollution. Every single level of government—local, county, state, and federal—is operating in the red, running up crushing amounts of debt. Many of our allies and former friends around the world are disgusted with our imperialist foreign policy, militarism, and arrogant corporate behavior. Realizing that our actions will be judged by future generations, we ask how we can draw on the best of our traditions, calling forth a spirit of ingenuity and citizen participation to achieve a free, democratic, just, and responsible society, one that actively responds to the crucial ecological challenges of our time, rather than denying them.

We submit a bold vision of our country's future, a Platform on which we stand:

• Our Ten Key Values as a guide to a politics of vision and action,
• A creative, pragmatic plan for a prospering sustainable economy, and
• A call to restore and protect a healthy, diverse environment and to cultivate a sense of community at all levels, from the local to the planetary.

Ten Key Values

1. Grassroots Democracy

2. Social Justice And Equal Opportunity

3. Ecological Wisdom

4. Non-Violence

5. Decentralization

6. Community-Based Economics

7. Feminism And Gender Equity

8. Respect For Diversity

9. Personal And Global Responsibility

10. Future Focus And Sustainability