US History/2024 Vote

The 2024 presidential election was held to choose who would replace Joe Biden. It took place during a period of deep political and societal division.

Donald Trump, the 45th president of the United States, was elected in 2016 but lost reelection to a second term in 2020 to Joe Biden. On November 15, 2022, he announced his bid for the Republican nomination for the 2024 presidential election^[1]

Trump won the Iowa caucuses on January 15, 2024 in a landslide.^[2] He ran against his former Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, Florida governor Ron DeSantis, and Vivek Ramaswamy, a wealth management executive.^[3] Following the Iowa caucuses, DeSantis and Ramaswamy withdrew their bids. On March 6, Haley withdrew her campaign. Trump won every state's Republican primary except Vermont's. Due to his role in the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, Trump's eligibility to be on the ballot was challenged by Colorado, Illinois, and Maine, with the Supreme Court ultimately ruling these disqualification efforts unconstitutional.^[4] Trump secured enough delegates to win the Republican nomination on March 12, becoming the Republican presumptive nominee. ^[5]

Trump official accepted the Republican nomination on at the 2024 Republican National Convention on July 19, 2024.^[6]

Democrat Joe Biden, elected the 46th president of the United States in the 2020 election, announced his run for a second term on April 25, 2023 with Vice President Kamala Harris as his running mate.^[7]

Biden's main opponents in the Democratic primaries included Representative Dean Phillips of Minnesota and venture capitalist Jason Palmer. Biden easily won every state primary and became the Democratic presumptive nominee on March 12, 2024.^[8]

However, after his poor debate performance against Donald Trump, Biden dropped out from the race and endorsed Kamala Harris. Harris became the official nominee through a virtual roll-call of Democratic National Convention delegate held on August 1-5, 2024.^[9]

On July 13, Donald Trump became the Republican Party presidential nominee for the third consecutive election. He appointed Ohio Senator JD Vance as his running mate and vice presidential pick.^[10] The Republican National Convention, where the nomination was held, was hosted in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, suspended his campaign on July 21 and endorsed his vice president Kamala Harris to run in his stead.^[11] Harris quickly garnered the necessary delegates to make her the Democratic nominee for president, and she formally accepted the nomination on August 22 at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois.^[12] Harris became the first woman of color to be a major party presidential nominee. On August 6, she had chosen Minnesota governor Tim Walz as her running mate.^[13]

Biden was faced with widespread concerns about his age (81 at the time) and health during his 2024 campaign. At that point, Biden was the oldest sitting president in the nation's history. A widely-criticized debate performance with Trump on June 27 exacerbated these concerns. Ultimately, Biden decided to withdraw his bid for reelection on July 21. Biden became the first president to drop his reelection bid since Lyndon B. Johnson in the 1968 election. Biden would serve until the end of his term on January 20, 2025.^[14]

In 2023 and 2024, Trump was found liable and guilty across multiple legal proceedings. He was indicted four times in 2023 on charges related to his efforts to overturn the outcome of the 2020 election, mishandling national security documents, and falsifying business records. He was convicted of falsifying business records on May 30, 2024, becoming the first former President to be convicted of a felony.^[15]

Biden is the first presidential candidate to drop out of the race after receiving a majority of the delegates during the primary elections.^[16] This situation presented Harris and her team to address unprecedented situations.

After announcing his withdrawal, the campaign committee set up to manage his presidential run changed its name from "Biden for President" to "Harris for President".^[17][18] This allowed Harris to "hit the ground running" so to speak, with access to Biden's field offices and staff, campaign headquarters, and the $96 million in campaign funds. This smooth transition was only possible because Harris was officially on the ticket for the Biden campaign as the Vice Presidential candidate. Some election law experts questioned the legality of this transition, though it was never officially contested and remains an "untested issue".^[19][20]

In the first twenty-four hours of her candidacy, her campaign raised $81 million, the highest single-day total in presidential history.^[21]

On July 13, 2024, during an outdoor rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, Trump was shot in his upper right ear by Thomas Matthew Crooks in a failed assassination attempt.^[22][23] One attendee was murdered, while multiple others were injured. This marked the first time that a president or former president was injured in an assassination attempt since the 1981 shooting of President Ronald Reagan.

On September 15, Trump was again targeted for assassination at his golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida by Ryan Routh. Trump was not shot at and no injuries were reported.^[24]

Some main campaign issues during the election cycle were abortion,^[25] border security and immigration,^[26] climate change,^[27] democracy,^[28] the economy,^[29] education,^[30] foreign policy,^[31] healthcare,^[32] and transgender healthcare.^[33]

Harris focused on a narrow set of issues in her short campaign, namely taxation, abortion, democracy, and the economy.^[34] Given the growing dissatisfaction with the cost-of-living and inflation, her campaign speeches and materials focused heavily on her plans to lower home, grocery, and energy prices.^[35]

Trump focused on immigration, inflation, ending foreign military engagements, promotion of tariffs, promotion of oil and gas drilling expansion, and lowering the crime rate.^[36]

The election was held on November 5, 2024. In the early hours of the next day, the race was called for Trump and Vance. Trump's victory was largely attributed to to voters' complaints about the economy, immigration, and state of the nation. Trump won decisively, with 312 electoral college votes to Harris' 226. With 49.8% of the nationwide vote to Harris' 48.3%, Trump became the first Republican to win the national popular vote since George W. Bush in the 2004 election.^[37] Harris called Trump on November 6 to congratulate him.^[38] She delivered a concession speech later that day.^[39][40] Trump became the second president to be elected to a nonconsecutive second term, 132 years after Grover Cleveland won the 1884 election. Trump also became the first felon elected president and the oldest person ever elected president, at the age of 78.^[41] Trump and Vance were inaugurated as the 47th president and 50th vice president respectively on January 20, 2025.