With the 2016 presidential race on the horizon, all we have heard talk of is the more commonly known candidates.

Marco Rubio is a current republican senator for the state of Florida. He was born May 28, 1971 to Cuban immigrants and was raised in West Miami, where he still lives today with his wife Jeannette and four kids. He earned a football scholarship to Tarkio College in Missouri, but left after a year to enroll at the University of Florida. After earning a bachelor’s degree from UF, he went on to law school at the University of Miami. He began his political career in 1998 when he won a seat on the West Miami City Commission. He then ascended to state politics when he won his bid for the Florida House of Representatives in 1999. He then became the majority leader in 2003 and the speaker in 2006. In 2009, he ran as the republican underdog for a seat in the U.S. Senate.  Within the senate, he currently sits on the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, the Select Committee on Intelligence, the Committee on Foreign Relations, and the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. He beat Charlie Crist based on Crist’s connections to Obama and his own platform based on economic change.

Rubio’s position on major issues reflects the typical conservative opinion. In general, he believes in less government restriction, especially on business, and returning power to the states. He is opposed to gay marriage but emphasized that he does not believe in the discrimination of gays and lesbians and has recognized that gays may “feel humiliated by the law’s failure to recognize their relationship as a marriage.” Similarly, he cosponsored a bill in 2013 that banned abortion after 20 weeks from conception with the exception of rape, mother’s life, or incest. He is against net neutrality, saying it gives the government too much power and defines the haves and have-nots. He believes in climate change, but believes it is a natural pattern rather than being caused by man.  He, like most republicans, supports a simplified tax code, but proposes that corporations are taxed just 25 percent and individuals would be subject to just two rates: 15 percent for those earning under $75,000, and 35 percent for those earning above that. He wants the focus of the budget to be on defense, especially in regards to ISIS and Iran, where he hopes to expand presidential military authority. Also in line with the Republican Party is his desire to repeal Obamacare, but proposes the alternative of reforming Medicare and Medicaid as well as providing tax credits to make it easier to purchase health care.

Rubio has been campaigning as an “Ideas Man,” pointing to his time in the Florida Legislature where he held an “idea raiser” and published the book “100 Innovative Ideas for Florida’s Future.”  He has gained notoriety for picking up the slack on Congress’s “least sexy iss,” most notably his aforementioned tax reform. He has been playing a great deal off his compelling personal story of immigrant parents and humble beginnings. As a Latino, he offers the kind of diversity that the Republican party so desperately needs; and although Jeb Bush is in the lead, Rubio is a younger, fresher alternative. At a meeting in Iowa, he recounted him sitting beside his dying grandfather promising him in Spanish that he would study hard. He has spent most of his time in New Hampshire and Iowa, being careful when speaking of his dual identity to a largely white audience. While he is using his identity to appeal to minorities, he must be careful because the majority of the GOP is white.

Rubio’s candidacy is a testament to how quickly opinions can change. Once a name booed in his home state for his support of immigrant “amnesty,” Rubio’s name is now on the short list for Republican candidates. For now, he is in the shadow of former mentor Jeb Bush, who has already snatched up most of Florida’s establishment donors, but Rubio is appealing to wealthy benefactors eager to support a fresh-faced candidate who can reinvigorate the party.

Of course, Rubio faces some serious risks in campaigning for the 2016 nomination. If things go his way, he can play in any segment of his party. Even if he does not win the presidency, he has the opportunity to make a name for himself and gain widespread party support. On the flip side, he could be putting his entire career at risk should he come off as trying to attack other establishment party members, ostracize himself by not playing the Latino card correctly or flip flop on policy when the general election comes around.

While Rubio could potentially out-campaign Jeb Bush and Scott Walker, it will be an uphill battle. Although they may not be better candidates, they have already carved out their space with the conservatives and establishment Republicans— the two most important constituencies of the GOP. As of March, 56 percent of Republicans said they would vote for him, and yet only 5.6 percent listed him as a top candidate. While some have pointed to Barack Obama as a Senator like Rubio is now (lacking experience and major accomplishments), Obama also lacked major failures. Rubio, however, was somewhat outcast by the Republicans after his failed push for immigration reform. He is now in much better shape, and many people view him as a good candidate, but his best bet to even get through the primaries is to hope Bush and Walker self-destruct. Most political analysts, with the exception of Fox News, believe that Rubio will most likely not get the nomination.

Bernard “Bernie” Sanders is the current Independent Vermont junior-senator and was born September 8, 1940. He was born in Brooklyn, New York to Polish-Jewish immigrant parents and later went on to attend Brooklyn College and the University of Chicago where he graduated with a BA in Political Science. During his college career, he was a student organizer for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, where he made contributions to the Civil Rights Movement. He later moved to Vermont as a carpenter and filmmaker. After experiencing “frustrating results” in politics for the next ten years, his political career truly began in 1981 when he won the position of Mayor of Burlington by 10 votes.  He opted for a few years to teach political science at Harvard University then returned to politics in 1991 to become a Representative for Vermont, becoming the first independent in over 40 years and the longest standing Independent in Congress in American history after 16 years. He is currently serving his second term as a senator after reelection in 2012 by 71% of the vote. He is chairman of the Committee of Veterans Affairs, the Environment and Public Works Committee, the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

Sander’s opinions on major issues tend to stem from the far left. He believes a woman’s healthcare decisions “should be between a woman and her doctor, not a woman and her employer,” and so strongly opposes the Hobby Lobby Decision. In 2014 he cosponsored the Protect Women’s Health From Corporate Interference Act of 2014, which would require employers to provide coverage for health benefits their employees are entitled to receive under federal law. He also supports full access to birth control and a woman’s right to abortion. He supports Obama’s executive action on immigration but calls for a control on immigrant workers who fuel youth unemployment. He believes strongly in human-caused global warming and has voted yes on nearly every motion that has promoted environmental improvement, such as cars for clunkers, stricter car emissions standards, and supports more unorthodox ideas like storing CO2 to delay global warming. He opposed the war in Iraq and warned against getting too “bogged down” in Afghanistan, and so believes countries like Saudi Arabia should be fighting ISIS because he claims they have the resources and finances to do so. He similarly supports Obama’s sanctions against Russia and his nuclear talks with Iran. Sanders spends most of his time, however, focusing on the growing inequality of wealth and trying to turn over the Citizens United case, which he believes is widening the income gap and allowing corporations and a few wealthy families to buy candidates.

Because Sanders is so against over-spending in campaigns, his campaign strategy is largely based off the idea that a candidate can complete without wooing billionaires. His campaign kicked off in his hometown of Burlington with a fair-like rally complete with a sic-piece band and free Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream. He has used social media to his advantage, becoming popular as an “older-guy-who-gets-the-Internet.” He believes that the Republican take over in 2014 was not a showing of the population’s support of the GOP, but rather their attempt to spite Obama. It has been suggested that he may adopt the Republican’s strategy of doing anything to distance themselves from the President’s policies. Like many other candidates, he has been spending a good deal of time in early primary states like Iowa. He told Rolling Stones Magazine “We’re going to win. . . by establishing a very strong grassroots campaign involving millions of people. That’s the only way to win.” Still, he has not directly mentioned Hillary Clinton, his biggest threat, or a strategy to beat her, but his agenda is far more transparent than anything she has offered to date.

Sanders is generally well-liked and ranked the third most well-liked senator, but he faces some risks. He could receive some serious backlash from his far-left views, and ultimately give the Republicans the upper hand. However, chances of him even getting through the primaries are slim, and thus chances of him securing the presidency are even slimmer. Whether or not he is a good candidate, he does not have the kind of name recognition Hillary Clinton has, nor the kind of funds, despite his insistence that he does not need large amounts of money.