Two major Republican candidates are vying for their party’s nomination in the 2024 presidential election.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis suspended his campaign Sunday just before Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary. Bad finishes last week at The first Iowa caucuses has ended White House bids from biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson. Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie abandoned his campaign earlier this month.
A look at the top candidates vying for the Republican and Democratic nominations, as well as third-party contenders:
REPUBLIC PRIMARY FIELD
The former president announced his third campaign for the White House on November 15, 2022, at his Mar-a-Lago resort, forcing the party to decide whether to adopt a candidate whose refusal to accept defeat in 2020 instigated the attack on the US Capitol and still dominates his speeches.
The Republican frontrunner remains extremely popular within the Republican Party, despite making history as the first president to be impeached twice and inciting the Capitol insurrection on January 6 2021. Describing himself as America’s “most pro-life president,” Trump appointed three conservative justices to the Supreme Court, paving the way for overturning Roe v. Wade, who legalized abortion nationwide for nearly 50 years. The sweeping criminal justice reforms he signed into law in 2019 relaxed mandatory minimum sentences and gave judges more discretion in sentencing.
In March, Trump became the first former U.S. president to be criminally charged, facing 34 counts of falsifying business records as part of a secrecy scheme. Since then, he has been charged with 57 other crimes in three other criminal cases, accused of mishandling and illegally possessing classified documents and attempting to illegally overturn the results of the 2020 election.
His landslide victory in the early Iowa caucuses signaled his dominant position in the race for the GOP nomination.
The former United Nations ambassador and South Carolina governor became the Republican Party’s first major challenger to Trump when she launched her campaign Feb. 15 in Charleston. She is the only woman in the GOP field.
The former Trump Cabinet official once said she wouldn’t challenge her former boss for the White House in 2024. But she changed her mind, citing the country’s economic woes and the need for a “change in generation,” a nod to the 77-year-old former president. the age of old Trump.
Haley was third in the Iowa caucuses, finishing just behind DeSantis.
DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY FIELD
President Joe Biden formally announced his re-election campaign on April 25 in a video, asking voters for time to “finish this work.”
Biden, the oldest president in American history, would be 86 at the end of a second term, and his age has prompted some of his critics to question whether he can serve effectively. A notable number of Democratic voters have indicated they would prefer he not run, even though he should easily win the Democratic nomination.
Biden, who has pledged to “restore the soul of America,” plans to run on his record. He spent his first two years as president battling the coronavirus pandemic and pushing through major bills such as the bipartisan infrastructure package and legislation to promote high-tech manufacturing and climate measures .
Self-help author Marianne Williamson entered the Democratic primary March 4 in Washington, calling for “a vision of justice and love so powerful that it will prevail over the forces of hatred, injustice and fear.”
During her unsuccessful 2020 presidential campaign, she proposed the creation of a Department of Peace and argued that the federal government should pay significant financial reparations to Black Americans as atonement for centuries of slavery and discrimination.
The Minnesota congressman is the first Democratic elected official to challenge Biden for the nomination. After months of clamoring for a primary challenger, Phillips entered the race himself on October 27 with a speech in front of the New Hampshire statehouse.
While Phillips has effusively praised Biden, the 54-year-old also says Democrats need younger votes to avoid a nightmare scenario where Trump wins another election next fall.
Phillips is one of the richest members of Congress and the heir to his father-in-law’s Phillips Distilling Company empire, which owns major vodka and schnapps brands. He was once president of this company, but also managed the ice cream manufacturer Talenti. Her grandmother was the late Pauline Phillips, better known as the advice columnist “Dear Abby.”
INDEPENDENT OFFERS
The best-selling author and environmental lawyer announced Oct. 9 that he was ending his Democratic presidential bid and instead embarking on an independent campaign.
The nephew of President John F. Kennedy and son of Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, he initially launched a long-running campaign to challenge Biden for the Democratic nomination on April 19 in Boston. He said in announcing his party switch that he intended to be a spoiler candidate for both Biden and Trump.
Kennedy has become one of the leading voices in the anti-vaccine movement, with public health experts and even members of his own family calling his work misleading and dangerous. He has also been linked to far-right figures in recent years.
The environmental activist, whose 2016 presidential campaign was blamed by Democrats for helping Trump win the White House, says she is running again for the nation’s highest office.
Stein announced on November 9 that she would run again under the Green Party banner. “I’m running for president to provide that choice to people outside of the broken two-party system,” she said.
She ran against Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016 as the Green Party candidate and received about 1% of the vote. Some Democrats said her candidacy took votes away from Clinton, particularly in swing states like Wisconsin.
The progressive activist and academic announced on October 5 that he was ending his presidential bid under the Green Party banner and instead running as an independent.
West wrote on X that he was running as an independent to “end the iron grip of the ruling class and ensure true democracy!” ” He added: “We must break the hold of the duopoly and give power to the people. »
He initially announced in June that he would run as a member of the People’s Party before soon switching to the Green Party.
WHO GAVE UP
Republicans: the governor of Florida. Ron DeSantisformer vice president Mike Pencethe senator. Tim Scott from South Carolina, Christie, Ramaswamy, HutchisonGovernor of North Dakota. Doug Burgumradio show host Larry Elder, businessman Perry Johnsonformer US representative. Will hurt of Texas and Mayor of Miami Francois Suarez.
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Meg Kinnard can be contacted at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP.
