With election year rearing its dreadful but inevitable head, The final lineup for presidential candidates is beginning to solidify within each party. Each election season, at least one person joins the race later than others or drops out of the race altogether. In this year’s lineup for the democratic is Colorado Senator Michael Bennet, former Vice President Joe Biden, former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, former HUD secretary Julián Castro, Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren, and several more. For the Republican Party, there is current president Donald Trump, Roque de la Fuente, Joe Walsh, and Bill Weld. Although it isn’t uncommon for original members of the race to drop out or for new members to join, this year’s edition of changes has shocked a majority of voters. 

One of the most shocking changes is the drop out of Camilla Harris from the Democratic race. Despite having a very forward mindset and inspiring several African American voters by running for president as a black woman, Kamala faced low poll numbers for months, and due to this, her financial support dropped too. Kamala started her campaign off with a bang but after months of relentless interrogation about her position and crippling new stories, Kamala began to lose her following. After Thanksgiving, it was concluded that in order to keep her campaign up and running, Kamala had to raise around five billion dollars, finally pushing her over the edge. Although it’s sad to see her leave what is reported to be “the most controversial presidential race” according to the New York Times, Kamala’s efforts towards taking political office will not be forgotten. Secondly, former South Carolina governor Mark Sanford also dropped out of the race. His main focus was on bringing light to the debate on government spending and decreasing the countries national debt but with the majority of Republican attention going to the impeachment of Trump, Sanfords actions and efforts were overlooked.

On the other hand, two new additions to the presidential race include Michael Bloomberg and Andrew Yang for the Democratic party. When Starting his campaign, Michael Bloomberg vowed to “defeat Donald Trump and rebuild America.” His funding for his campaign comes mainly from his immense wealth and refuses to take any donations or salary should he become president. This self-reliance has sparked tension between Bloomberg and other Democratic candidates, and his main goal of besting Donald Trump has provoked several Trump-supporting voters. Nonetheless, Michael’s addition to the race won’t let drama-loving voters down. Another addition to the Democratic party is Andrew Yang. This entrepreneur and author from New York filed to run for president on November sixth of 2019 and qualified for the December Presidential Debate by a sliver of a chance. This chance, however, allows Yang to become one of the few candidates of color to ever make it to the December presidential debates. Yang brings to the table very forward ideas and aims to “put Humanity first”.  Overall, the changes made to this year’s presidential candidate line up will undoubtedly make election year all the more interesting.