By now, most people who have tuned in to one or more presidential debates have heard the candidates’ stump speeches, and know their basic stories. But there are some elements to these stories that are repeated by the candidates ad nauseam.
Here is what we know about each candidate, based on what they won’t shut up about.
Donald Trump
He’s a billionaire, a “tremendously” successful business man. He wants to build a wall to keep the Mexicans out, and to ban all Muslims from coming to the U.S. He wants to shut down the part of the Internet where the Islamic State lives.
Hillary Clinton
She’s a woman. She was secretary of state. She was the first lady. She’s a woman. She’s running to be the first woman president. She isn’t great with email.
Ted Cruz
His father is a Cuban immigrant. He’s conservative and he loves God. George W. Bush doesn’t like him much. He caused a government shutdown in late 2013 and is hated by the Senate’s Republican leadership.
Bernie Sanders
Vermont. Income inequality. Talks a lot about Wall Street and “millionaires and billionaires.”
Marco Rubio
His father was a bartender and his mother was a housekeeper. They were both immigrants from Cuba. He’s from Florida. He beat Charlie Crist (who later became a democrat) as one of the premier Tea Party candidates of 2010. He famously took a drink of water in the middle of his response to President Obama’s 2013 State of the Union Address.
Martin O’Malley
He was the governor of Maryland. Everything any of the other two Democratic candidates proposes, he’s already signed into law, in Maryland, while he was governor.
Ben Carson
He is a world-class neurosurgeon. His mother raised him in Detroit, Mich.
Jeb Bush
“Here’s the deal,” as he likes to say: He was the governor of Florida. His wife is from Mexico. He’s a man of action, gosh darn it, and he’s made decisions. He loves his brother George, the former president, and praises him for “keeping us safe.”
Chris Christie
Did you know that he was a federal prosecutor? He’ll make sure you never forget it, nor that he was a prosecutor after 9/11 who dealt with terrorist cases. He is now the governor of New Jersey. He knows how to work with — and deal with — Democrats. And hecklers.
John Kasich
He is the governor of Ohio and a former House Budget Chairman. He has daughters who often ask him about politics and complain that it involves too much shouting. He explained his support for expanding Medicaid in his state under Obamacare in religious terms. In debates, he sometimes faults himself for having too big a heart.
Carly Fiorina
She is a woman, running to be the first woman president, against Hillary Clinton. She worked her way up from secretary to CEO of a tech company. She had to make tough choices, including mass layoffs. She lost a longshot Senate bid in 2010 against Democrat Barbara Boxer.
Rand Paul
Hates the NSA. Metadata. Wants to reconsider the U.S. policy of regime change and shift to a more modest foreign policy. Often accused of isolationism. From Kentucky.
Mike Huckabee
He was only the second Republican governor of Arkansas since Reconstruction. He was once a full-time Baptist minister and president of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention. He was also a FOX News television host. His father was a fireman and a mechanic.
Lindsey Graham
His father was a bartender. He shares Cruz’s love of The Princess Bride. Both of his parents are dead, he never married, and he has no children of his own. He served in the military, including 20 years as a reservist during his service in the U.S. House and Senate. He has made 36 trips to Iraq and Afghanistan in the last decade.
George Pataki
He was the Republican governor of New York for twelve years, before and after 9/11. When he first ran, he was endorsed by Howard Stern and opposed by Rudy Guiliani. He is Hungarian-American and speaks a bit of the language. He is the only avowedly pro-choice candidate on abortion in the GOP field this year.
Rick Santorum
He was a senator and chairman of the Senate Republican Conference. He is Catholic and advocates a hawkish foreign policy. As he likes to remind people, he wrote those sanctions against Iran, as well as the ban on partial-birth abortion and part of the historic welfare reform bill. He has eight kids.
