In Part 2 of this BBC News Article you'll learn about
Pete Buttegieg
If elected, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, would achieve a number of presidential firsts - the youngest president, aged 37, the first mayor elected directly to the White House, the first Afghanistan War veteran and the first openly gay president.On Sunday at a CNN event, he showed flashes of the charisma that turned heads in the party when he mounted an upstart, although ultimately unsuccessful, bid to be head of the Democratic National Committee in 2017.
In one line that has caught particular attention, he blasted Vice-President Mike Pence, the former governor of his home state.
"How can he allow himself to be the cheerleader for the porn star presidency?" he asked. "Is it that he stopped believing in scripture when he started believing in Donald Trump?"
His big idea: Many of the Democrats in the presidential field have endorsed universal government-managed health insurance by expanding to everyone the Medicare programme that provides healthcare for the elderly. Mr Buttigieg didn't go that far on Sunday night, instead opting for what he called "Medicare for all who want it". The way he described it, "you take some flavour of Medicare, you make it available on the exchange as a kind of public option, and you invite people to buy into it".
His biggest obstacle: The possible "first" are also obstacles. He's young. And the mayor's office of a small Indiana town, with its small constituency, is an unlikely seat from which to launch a presidential campaign. Mr Buttigieg will be hard-pressed to break through against better-funded, more experienced candidates. Chances are, however, he'll still be around in politics long after many of them are gone and he thinks his age is a plus. "It allows me to communicate to the country a vision about what our country is going to look like in 2054," he said. "That's the year I get to the current age of the current president."
Reception:
BBC Awarded 5 Stars
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Julián Castro
The former housing and urban development secretary was reportedly on Hillary Clinton's vice-presidential short list in 2016. He was passed over for Virginia Senator Tim Kaine, but now he's angling for the top job. Or, perhaps, he's trying to make a more compelling case for the second spot on the 2020 nominee's ticket.He said his goal is to make the US the smartest, healthiest, fairest and most prosperous nation on earth. Maybe it's his response to "make America great again", although it will be considerably harder to print on a hat.
His big idea: In an interview earlier in the day, he criticised fellow candidate Bernie Sanders for his willingness to write "big cheques" for things like healthcare or education, but being unwilling to consider reparations to African-Americans descended from slaves. The US constitution mandates that Americans be compensated if their property is taken, he noted, so why shouldn't people who were treated as property themselves also receive compensation?
"I've long believed that the country should consider reparations because of the atrocity of slavery," Mr Castro told me. "I believe that we're never going to fully heal as a country from the racial divide until we've addressed the tremendous wrong that was done with slavery."
His biggest challenge: While Mr Castro is staking out a reparations position to the left of most of the Democratic field, he's spent most of his political career talking and acting like a moderate. On Sunday he identified himself as a "progressive" - in favour of universal healthcare, universal pre-kindergarten and tuition-free college.
"I don't think that with any one candidate you're going to consistently find them in one place," he said. That may not be enough to convince progressives he is legitimately one of their own.
Reception:
BBC Awarded 4 Stars
*********************************John Hickenlooper
The geologist turned brewpub owner turned politician turned up at South by Southwest just three days after he formally launched his presidential campaign with a speech in Denver. The former Colorado governor echoed similar themes in Austin on Saturday, preaching his ability to work with Republicans to advance progressive priorities like gun control, environmental regulation and healthcare coverage expansion.His biggest idea: During his hour-long interview Mr Hickenlooper said that the 2020 presidential race would be a "campaign of ideas".
So, after his talk, I asked him which ideas set him out from the crowd. "I think I'm the one person that demonstrates the idea of action, of actually accomplishing things," he said.
"Action" isn't really an idea, I said.
He went on to talk about healthcare, environmental regulation and workforce training. It wasn't exactly stand-apart-from-the-crowd material.
His biggest challenge: Mr Hickenlooper's focus on co-operation may have won him political success in Colorado, but it also made him some fierce critics. Some environmentalists, in particular, weren't all that thrilled that the former oil industry scientist sat down with energy industry executives for friendly negotiations. In one particularly memorable instance, the governor drank a glass of fracking fluid to prove that it didn't harm humans.
Mr Hickenlooper explained that he was trying to gain their trust - and that the talks led to real regulation of methane emissions. "They're mad that I did stuff," he said. "We actually did stuff. So sue me." They won't sue him, but they might not vote for him, either.
Reception:
