Christopher Cervantes
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When the Democratic debate was advertised, it was made out to be a grandiose event, in which two heavy hitters would go head to head against one another on the political battlefield. The matchup of Hillary Clinton versus Bernie Sanders was more talked about than a theoretical bout pitting Tyson and Ali. But there exists a few factors that a lot of people failed to factor into the equation: Martin O’Malley, Jim Webb, and Lincoln Chafee, three other candidates who hope to garner the Democratic nomination.

In all honesty, did anyone know these three were running?

I went around campus, asking anyone I could find if they knew anything about any one of those three presidential hopefuls. I found three people that knew about them, and that was all. Everyone is so wrapped up in the Clinton-Sanders drama that the other candidates were resigned to the station of electoral cannon fodder. It only seems fair that these three overshadowed contenders got their day in the spotlight.

Let’s begin with O’Malley, who has held the positions of Baltimore mayor and Maryland governor. Prior to this current election process, O’Malley endorsed Hillary Clinton in the 2008 presidential election. Currently, he is known as the Glass-Steagall Candidate because his emphasis on financial regulation. Other planks in his platform include immigration reform, Right-to-Vote Amendment, and gun control.

Chaffee is a political veteran who has served the state of Rhode Island as a mayor, governor, and senator. He is a candidate with a self-proclaimed “high ethical standards” and an advocate for the adoption of the metric system. He is a standout for his foreign policy.

Webb is the last of the forgotten campaigners. He has served in the Marine Corps and has held the positions of senator, secretary of the Navy, assistant secretary of Defense for Reserve affairs, and counsel for the United States House Committee On Veterans’ Affairs. Unlike his colleagues, Webb holds a moderate ideology rather than a strictly liberal one, with skepticism about gun control and foreign policy toward the Middle East being notable conservative points.

O’Malley, Chaffee, and Webb are all qualified for the office and have more political experience than some of our nation’s previous presidents. The biggest difference between them and the heavy hitters is the marketability.

Clinton is essentially the comeback kid, a candidate who has been down this road before and wants a shot at redemption. Sanders is the democratic-socialist who connects to the future generation. While O’Malley has a specific platform, it is a financial one. People are more interested in social issues because of their easily grasped progressive nature. Webb was the third most researched candidate in the Democratic field after the debate, according to the Washington Post, but he is a moderate. In an era where conservatives and liberals are so combative, a moderate may not survive the crossfire. And then there’s Chafee, who is hard to fully understand because of the lacking amount of coverage he receives (his air time in the debate didn’t even reach 10 minutes).

This is an instance in which the public must look outside of what is popularly reported and work toward their own understanding. In order for the best candidate to shine, it must be done.