Bernie Sanders

Bernard "Bernie" Sanders (born September 8, 1941) is an American politician and the junior United States Senator from Vermont. He is a candidate for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. A Democrat as of 2015, Sanders had been the longest-serving independent in U.S. congressional history, though his caucusing with the Democrats entitled him to committee assignments and at times gave Democrats a majority. Sanders has been the ranking minority member on the Senate Budget Committee since January 2015, and previously served for two years as chair of the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee.

Sanders was born and raised in the New York City borough of Brooklyn and graduated from the University of Chicago in 1964. While a student, he was an active civil rights protest organizer for the Congress of Racial Equality and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. After settling in Vermont in 1968, Sanders ran unsuccessful third-party campaigns for governor and U.S. senator in the early to mid-1970s. As an independent, he was elected mayor of Burlington, Vermont's most populous city, in 1981, and was reelected three times. In 1990, he was elected to represent Vermont's at-large congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives. In 1991, Sanders co-founded the Congressional Progressive Caucus. He served as a congressman for 16 years before being elected to the U.S. Senate in 2006. In 2012, he was reelected with 71% of the popular vote. During the 2016 presidential primaries, Sanders became the first self-described democratic socialist and first Jewish American to win a presidential primary of a major party, namely the New Hampshire primary.

Rachel Maddow

Rachel Anne Maddow (ⁱ/ˈmædoʊ/, born April 1, 1973) is an American television host, political commentator, and author. She hosts a nightly television show, The Rachel Maddow Show, on MSNBC. Her syndicated talk radio program of the same name aired on Air America Radio. Maddow is the first openly gay anchor to host a major prime-time news program in the United States. She holds a doctorate in politics from Oxford University.

Asked about her political views by the Valley Advocate, Maddow replied, "I'm undoubtedly a liberal, which means that I'm in almost total agreement with the Eisenhower-era Republican party platform."

Early life and education

Maddow was born in Castro Valley, California. Her father, Robert B. "Bob" Maddow, is a former United States Air Force captain who resigned his commission the year before her birth and found civilian work as a lawyer for the East Bay Municipal Utility District. Her mother, Elaine Maddow (née Gosse), is a school program administrator. She has one older brother, David. Her paternal grandfather was from an Eastern European Jewish family (the original family surname being "Medwedof"), while her paternal grandmother was of Dutch (Protestant) background; her mother, originally from Newfoundland, Canada, is of English and Irish ancestry. Maddow has stated that her family is "very, very Catholic," and she grew up in a community that her mother has described as "very conservative." Maddow was a competitive athlete and participated in three sports in high school: volleyball, basketball, and swimming. Referencing John Hughes films, she has described herself as being "a cross between the jock and the antisocial girl" in high school.

Ellen Page

Ellen Philpotts-Page (born February 21, 1987), known professionally as Ellen Page, is a Canadian actress. She started her career in Canada with roles in television shows including Pit Pony, Trailer Park Boys, and ReGenesis. Page then ventured into mainstream films, winning attention after starring in the 2005 drama Hard Candy, a role that won her the Austin Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress. Her breakthrough role was the title character in Jason Reitman's comedy film Juno (2007), for which she received nominations for Academy Award, BAFTA, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actress, and won numerous other accolades including the Independent Spirit Award, MTV Movie Award and Teen Choice Award for Best Actress Comedy.

Her other notable film roles have been in the X-Men series, portraying Kitty Pryde in X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) and X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014). Her performance earned her a nomination for Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Scene Stealer. Then followed crime-drama film An American Crime (2007); drama The Tracey Fragments (2007), a role that won her the Vancouver Film Critics Award for Best Actress; Smart People (2008); sports comedy-drama film Whip It (2009); Super (2010); and Inception (2010). She also provided the voice acting, motion capture, and likeness for the character Jodie Holmes in the video game Beyond: Two Souls (2013).

Ted Cruz

Rafael Edward "Ted" Cruz (born December 22, 1970) is an American politician and the junior United States Senator from Texas. He is a candidate for the Republican nomination for President of the United States, in the 2016 presidential election.

Cruz graduated from Princeton University in 1992, and from Harvard Law School in 1995. Between 1999 and 2003, Cruz was the director of the Office of Policy Planning at the Federal Trade Commission, an associate deputy attorney general at the United States Department of Justice, and domestic policy advisor to President George W. Bush on the 2000 George W. Bush presidential campaign. He served as Solicitor General of Texas from 2003 to 2008, appointed by Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott. He was the first Hispanic, and the longest-serving solicitor general, in Texas history. From 2004 to 2009, Cruz was also an adjunct professor of law at the University of Texas School of Law in Austin, where he taught U.S. Supreme Court litigation.

Cruz ran for the Senate seat vacated by fellow Republican Kay Bailey Hutchison, and in July 2012 defeated Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst during the Republican primary runoff, 57%–43%. Cruz then defeated former state Representative Paul Sadler in the November 2012 general election, winning 56%–41%. He is the first Hispanic American to serve as a U.S. senator representing Texas, and is one of three Senators of Cuban descent. Cruz chairs the United States Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Oversight, Federal Rights and Agency Activities, and is also the chairman of the United States Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Space, Science and Competitiveness. In November 2012, he was appointed vice-chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.