It’s currently 2015, and we all know what that means. That’s right, it’s the year where we get flooded with all of the news about presidential candidates for 2016. There’s been a lot going on over the past couple months, so we’re going to be having a little bit of a recap to get the uninformed up to date. Since there are so many candidates (seriously, there’s like 18 Republican candidates), we’re just going to be mainly looking at the ones that are the most prevalent. So even though I would love to, we are not talking about Mike Huckabee or Chris Christie. Let’s begin.

To start things off, let’s go to the Democrat’s side and take a look at Hillary Clinton. Hillary Clinton announced her entry into the presidential race on April 12, by the means of a Youtube video and is running a more liberal campaign. This came after heavy speculation about whether she would run or not, so it wasn’t too much of a surprise when she entered the race. A lot of her current campaign tactics have to do with the fact that she’s already well known to the public, with her being Secretary of State from 2008 to 2013, and with having run for president back in 2008. However, even though she’s well recognized by the public, she has had a bit of a rough time so far. This is mainly due to the fact that she launched her campaign in the middle of several controversies, such as her use of a private email server while working as Secretary of State and multiple foreign donations to the Clinton Foundation. Even with all these controversies, it was thought that she would be the lead democratic candidate by far. However, she has recently lost her lead in the polls to the next candidate we’re talking about, Bernie Sanders.

Bernie Sanders, the current senator from Vermont announced his entry into the race as a Democrat on April 30. At first, not too many took him all that seriously (I mean does he ever comb his hair?). However in the last couple of months, he has been able to overtake Hillary in the polls in both Iowa and New Hampshire, both of which are very important states in the primaries. How has he been able to do this? Well, he’s been running a campaign that focuses more on improving the middle class and ending wars, so that has him favored by many. He also hasn’t been accepting money from Super PACs and has only been accepting small donations, which also puts him in a more positive light. As things go, if Bernie Sanders can keep Iowa and New Hampshire, he will have a very good chance of getting the national polls from Hillary too. At this point though, it’s hard to say who will get the Democratic nomination.

Moving on to the Republican side, let’s talk about Ben Carson. Ben Carson announced he was entering the presidential race on May 5. Now, if it wasn’t for one person in particular that we will be talking about in a minute, Carson would probably be leading in the polls on the Republican side. Overall, he hasn’t really done too much good or bad. Even so, that’s about all you need to do well on the Republican side this year, with all the other terrible things said by some of the other candidates of his party. I honestly wish I could say more about him, but all he’s really done is do good in the polls. The only other thing I can really say about him is that he probably has something to do with Jeb Bush’s poor performance in the polls.

Now lastly, but certainly not least, he is the myth, he is the legend. He is the one that wants to make a wall on the Mexican border, the person who calls all others losers. Ladies and gentleman, he’s the person you’ve all been waiting for, he’s the one, the only, Donald Trump. Donald Trump announced that he was entering the race on June 16, and at this point, who doesn’t know that he’s running? Of all the candidates,Trump has definitely said some of the most controversial things. As previously stated, he wants to build a wall on the Mexican border and have the Mexican government pay for it. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. He’s said that climate change is a “total hoax” and that he would ban abortions if elected. He has said so many offensive and controversial things, that it’s hard to keep track of them all. Despite all of this, he’s still winning in the polls, and not by a little bit either. I’m talking about a 20 point lead over Ben Carson. I’m talking about the kind of lead that pretty much took Jeb Bush out of the race as a serious contender. The way things are going now, it looks like Trump will take the Republican nomination unless Ben Carson can gain an outrageous amount of points in the polls.

Well, there you have it, all of the prevalent presidential candidates. With all of them doing fairly well right now, it’s still a mystery on which will be president.