User:Desutch2/2024 Elections US

The 2024 United States presidential election will be the 60th quadrennial presidential election, set to be held on Tuesday, November 5, 2024. Voters will elect a president and vice president for a term of four years. Incumbent President Joe Biden, a member of the Democratic Party, is running for re-election. His predecessor Donald Trump, a member of the Republican Party, is running for re-election for a second, non-consecutive term, after losing to him in 2020. The election notably comes after Trump's prior attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election and the January 6 United States Capitol attack. This will mark the first presidential rematch since 1956. If Trump wins, he would become the second president to serve a non-consecutive term, the first being Grover Cleveland.

The winner of this election is scheduled to be inaugurated on January 20, 2025. It will occur at the same time as elections relating to the U.S. Senate, House, gubernatorial, and state legislative. On March 12, Biden and Trump became the presumptive nominees for the Democratic and Republican parties respectively by clinching a majority of delegates, although they have yet to be confirmed at the nominating conventions. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. emerged as the highest-polling third-party presidential candidate since Ross Perot in the 1992 and 1996 elections, running as an independent.

Abortion,For sources on this, see:


 * immigration, healthcare, education, the economy, foreign policy, border security, LGBT rights, climate change, democracy and lawsuits against Donald Trump are expected to be leading campaign issues.
 * immigration, healthcare, education, the economy, foreign policy, border security, LGBT rights, climate change, democracy and lawsuits against Donald Trump are expected to be leading campaign issues.
 * immigration, healthcare, education, the economy, foreign policy, border security, LGBT rights, climate change, democracy and lawsuits against Donald Trump are expected to be leading campaign issues.
 * immigration, healthcare, education, the economy, foreign policy, border security, LGBT rights, climate change, democracy and lawsuits against Donald Trump are expected to be leading campaign issues.

Procedure
Article Two of the United States Constitution states that for a person to serve as president, the individual must be a natural-born citizen of the United States, be at least 35 years old, and have been a United States resident for at least 14 years. The Twenty-second Amendment forbids any person from being elected president more than twice. Major party candidates seek the nomination through a series of primary elections that select the delegates who choose the candidate at the party's national convention. Each party's national convention chooses a vice presidential running mate to form that party's ticket. The nominee for president usually picks the running mate, who is then ratified by the delegates at the party's convention.

The general election in November is an indirect election, in which voters cast ballots for a slate of members of the Electoral College; these electors then directly elect the president and vice president.

Election offices are dealing with increased workloads and public scrutiny, so officials in many key states have sought for more funds to hire more personnel, improve security, and extend training. This demand emerges at a moment when numerous election offices are dealing with an increase in retirements and a flood of public record demands, owing in part to the electoral mistrust planted by former President Donald Trump's loss in the 2020 election. Both Biden and Trump are presumptive nominees for president in 2024, suggesting a rematch of the 2020 election, which would be the first presidential rematch since 1956. If Trump is elected, he would become the second president to win a second non-consecutive term, joining Grover Cleveland who did so in 1892.

The Colorado Supreme Court, a state Circuit Court in Illinois, and the Secretary of State of Maine ruled that Trump is ineligible to hold office under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution for his role in the January 6 Capitol attack, and as such, attempted to disqualify him from appearing on the ballot. However, on March 4, the United States Supreme Court unanimously ruled that states cannot determine eligibility for a national election under Section 3.

Election interference
Donald Trump has made false claims of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election, and has continued denying the election results. Election security experts have warned that officials who deny the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election may attempt to impede the voting process or refuse to certify the 2024 election results.

Current and former U.S. officials have stated that foreign interference in the 2024 election is likely. Three major factors cited were "America’s deepening domestic political crises, the collapse of controversial attempts to control political speech on social media, and the rise of generative AI." On April 1, 2024, The New York Times reported that the Chinese government had created fake pro-Trump accounts on social media "promoting conspiracy theories, stoking domestic divisions and attacking President Biden ahead of the election in November." According to disinformation experts and intelligence agencies, Russia spread disinformation ahead of the 2024 election to damage Joe Biden and Democrats, boost candidates supporting isolationism, and undercut support for Ukraine aid and NATO.

Effects of the 2020 census
This will be the first U.S. presidential election to occur after the reapportionment of votes in the United States Electoral College following the 2020 United States census. If the results of the 2020 election were to stay the same (which has never occurred in the history of presidential elections) in 2024, Democrats would have 303 electoral votes against the Republicans' 235, a slight change from Biden's 306 electoral votes and Trump's 232, meaning that Democrats lost a net of 3 electoral votes to the reapportionment process. This apportionment of electoral college votes will remain only through the 2028 election. Reapportionment will be conducted again after the 2030 United States census.

Historical background


In recent presidential elections, most states are not competitive due to demographics keeping them solidly behind one of the major parties. Because of the nature of the Electoral College, this means that the various swing states — competitive states that "swing" between the Democratic and Republican parties — are vital to winning the presidency. As of now, these include states in the Rust Belt, such as Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, and states in the Sun Belt, such as Nevada, Arizona, and Georgia. North Carolina may also be considered a battleground state, due to the close result in the previous presidential election, in which Trump only won by 1.34%. Due to gradual demographic shifts, some former swing states such as Iowa, Ohio and Florida have shifted significantly towards the Republicans, favoring them in future statewide and local elections. Meanwhile, states like Colorado, New Mexico and Virginia have moved noticeably towards the Democrats, and the party has become the dominant political force there.

The Democratic electoral coalition, securing the "blue states" for Democratic presidential candidates, performs best among Jewish and Black voters; Whites who have attended college or live in urban areas. Working class voters were also a mainstay of the Democratic coalition since the days of the New Deal, but since the 1970s, many have defected to Republicans as the Democratic Party moved significantly to the left on cultural issues. Conversely, the traditional Republican coalition that dominates many "red states" is mainly composed of rural White voters, evangelicals, the elderly, and non-college educated voters. Republicans have also historically performed well with suburban, middle class voters since the 1950s, but this bloc has drifted away from them in recent years due to the rise of the Tea Party movement and later the Make America Great Again movement. The acceleration of this trend has been credited with tipping the 2020 presidential election in favor of Democrat Joe Biden, because the incumbent Trump was historically unpopular in the suburbs for a Republican candidate, underperforming there significantly.

Some polling for this election has indicated that Democratic strength among Hispanic, Asian, Arab, and youth voters appears to have somewhat eroded, while Republicans' durability with Whites and voters over the age of 65 also appears to be slipping. However, some political analysts have argued that these apparent trends in polling are not representative of the actual electorate, and are a polling mirage resulting from poor sampling months before the election, large numbers of voters who do not think the election will be between Biden and Trump, and heavy non-response bias. Other pollsters, such as YouGov, have shown no statistically significant generational or racial depolarization among the electorate.

Abortion
Abortion access is expected to be a key topic during the campaign. This is the first presidential election to be held in the aftermath of two major court rulings that affected access to abortion. The first is the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision, in which the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, leaving abortion law entirely to the states, including bans on abortion.For sources on this, see:
 * The second is the 2023 Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. U.S. Food and Drug Administration, in which a federal judge in northwest Texas overturned the FDA's approval of mifepristone in 2000, which could potentially pull the medication from the market if upheld by higher courts. Both rulings have received strong support from Republican politicians and lawmakers.
 * The second is the 2023 Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. U.S. Food and Drug Administration, in which a federal judge in northwest Texas overturned the FDA's approval of mifepristone in 2000, which could potentially pull the medication from the market if upheld by higher courts. Both rulings have received strong support from Republican politicians and lawmakers.
 * The second is the 2023 Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. U.S. Food and Drug Administration, in which a federal judge in northwest Texas overturned the FDA's approval of mifepristone in 2000, which could potentially pull the medication from the market if upheld by higher courts. Both rulings have received strong support from Republican politicians and lawmakers.
 * The second is the 2023 Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. U.S. Food and Drug Administration, in which a federal judge in northwest Texas overturned the FDA's approval of mifepristone in 2000, which could potentially pull the medication from the market if upheld by higher courts. Both rulings have received strong support from Republican politicians and lawmakers.

Democrats are predominantly supportive of viewing abortion access as a right while Republican politicians generally favor significantly restricting the legality of abortion. By April 2023, a large majority of Republican-controlled states had passed near-total bans on abortion, rendering it "largely illegal" throughout much of the United States. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, there are 15 states that have de jure early stage bans on abortion without exceptions for rape or incest.

Biden has called on Congress to codify abortion protections into federal law, and held many rallies on the issue. Trump has claimed credit for overturning Roe but has criticized Republicans pushing for total abortion bans.

Border security and immigration
Polling has shown that border security and immigration are among the top issues concerning potential voters in the 2024 presidential election. In 2023 and 2024, a surge of migrants entering the country through the United States' border with Mexico occurred. In response to the influx of migrants, Republican controlled states such as Texas and Florida have been busing migrants to major sanctuary cities controlled by Democrats such as New York and Chicago.

Donald Trump has stated that if elected, he would increase deportations, send the U.S. military to the border, expand ICE detentions, deputize local law enforcement to handle border security, increase Customs and Border Patrol funding as well as finish building the wall on the southern border. The Biden administration has undertaken a policy of punishing migrants who enter the country illegally and providing temporary protections to migrants from certain countries such as Venezuela, Ukraine, Nicaragua, Cuba and Haiti. This has resulted in a total increase in migrants legally arriving at points of entry, and a decrease in migrants attempting to illegally cross the border. In February 2024, Biden and congressional negotiators reached a bipartisan agreement on a bill to secure the border that included many conservative demands and also unlocked aid to Ukraine and Israel, but the bill was opposed by Trump who claimed it would hurt Republican's ability to run on immigration as a campaign issue. Biden has pushed back on Republican claims that he could secure the border without Congress.

Kennedy has stated that he supports securing the border, including efforts like Operation Lone Star by states in the absence of federal action.

Climate change
Climate change is expected to be an issue in the 2024 presidential election.

Biden has stated he believes in human-caused climate change. Biden previously strengthened environmental protections that had been weakened during the Trump administration. Biden passed the Inflation Reduction Act, the largest investment in addressing climate change and clean energy in US history. Biden has also overseen a record in US crude oil production with over 13.2 million barrels of crude per day beating the 13 million barrels per day produced at the peak of Trump's presidency. Biden has previously stated his intention to lower prices at the gas pump, which experts believe is key to his 2024 reelection campaign. Biden's first term dealt with supply shocks caused by the 2021-2024 global energy crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic and Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Trump is running on a climate change denial platform. Trump has repeatedly referred to his energy policy under the mantra "drill, baby, drill," has promised to increase oil drilling on public lands and offer tax breaks to oil, gas, and coal producers. Trump has stated his goal for the U.S. to have the lowest cost of electricity and energy of any country in the world. Trump has promised to rollback electric vehicle initiatives, proposed leaving the Paris Climate Accords, and rescinding several environmental regulations.

Democracy
Joe Biden has been framing the election as a battle for democracy, which was similar to his framing of contemporary geopolitics as "the battle between democracy and autocracy." Biden's rhetoric previously cited democracy and "a battle for the soul of our nation" as the key message of his 2020 presidential campaign, and uses it as a recurring element in his rhetoric since the 2020 presidential election.

Polling before the election has indicated profound dissatisfaction with the state of American democracy. Liberals tend to believe that conservatives are threatening the country with autocratic tendencies and their attempts to overturn the 2020 election. Many Republicans are concerned that Trump's former impeachment and four criminal indictments are attempts to influence the election and keep him from office.

Donald Trump's 2024 campaign has been criticized by the media for making increasingly violent and authoritarian statements,  which some believe the Trump campaign is intentionally leaning into. Trump's previous comments suggesting he can "terminate" the Constitution to reverse his election loss, his claim that he would only be a dictator on "day one" of his presidency and not after, his promise to use the Justice Department to go after his political enemies, attempts to overturn the 2020 United States presidential election, continued Republican efforts to restrict voting following the 2020 presidential election, Trump's baseless predictions of vote fraud in the 2024 election, and Trump's public embrace and celebration of the January 6 United States Capitol attack, have raised concerns over the state of democracy in America.

Democracy is expected to be a large issue in the 2024 election. An AP-NORC poll of 1,074 adults conducted between November 30 to December 4, 2023, found that 62% of adults said democracy could be at risk depending on who wins the next election.

Economic issues
Voters consistently cite economic issues as their top issue for the 2024 election. The COVID-19 pandemic left behind significant economic effects which are likely to persist into 2024. A period of high inflation began in 2021, caused by a confluence of events including the pandemic and a supply-chain crisis, which was then heightened by economic effects of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Opinion polling over Biden's handling of the economy has consistently been negative since late 2021.

Women were particularly affected by the economic downturn in the wake of the pandemic, particularly those who left their work for childcare responsibilities. Temporary childcare measures, including an expanded child tax credit as part of the American Rescue Plan, were introduced as methods designed to help the economic situation of parents, but these would expire before the 2024 election.

Both Biden and Trump signed pieces of economic legislation in their first terms which they may tout in the 2024 campaign. Biden signed the American Rescue Plan, Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, Inflation Reduction Act, CHIPS and Science Act, and the Fiscal Responsibility Act. Trump signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the CARES Act, and several executive orders providing for de-regulation.

Biden has dubbed his economic policy "Bidenomics" and has promised to create middle-class jobs and reject trickle-down economics. Biden's trade agenda has been noted to reject traditional neoliberal economic policies and the Washington Consensus in favor of de-risking supply chains from China and reverse neoliberal policies that resulted in the offshoring of manufacturing and thus resulted in increased populist backlash. Trump's stated trade policy involves the United States decoupling from the global economy and having the country become more self-contained and exerting its power through individual trade dealings. This would be accomplished through a universal baseline tariff of "perhaps 10%" on most foreign goods, with increased penalties if trade partners manipulate their currency or engage in unfair trade practices. Trump stated his plans to urge Congress to pass a "Trump Reciprocal Trade Act" to bestow presidential authority to impose a reciprocal tariff on any country that imposed one on the United States. The Washington Post reported in January 2024 that Trump had discussed with advisors imposing a 60% tariff on all Chinese imports and was preparing for a massive trade war. Trump's trade policies have been described as neomercantilist or autarkist.

Education
Under the Biden administration, several rounds of student loan forgiveness have been issued, totaling over $132 billion. The forgiveness has largely focused on public servants, people who were defrauded, and people in repayment for long periods of time. In August 2022, Biden announced he would sign an executive order that would forgive large amounts of student debt, including $10,000 for student loan debt for single graduates making less than $125,000 or married couples making less than $250,000 and $20,000 for recipients of Pell Grants. In June 2023, this plan was overturned in the Supreme Court decision Biden v. Nebraska. In the aftermath of the decision, Biden has continued with more limited student loan forgiveness. His plans have been criticized by Republicans as irresponsible spending. Biden stated that offering universal pre-kindergarten services as well as caregiver support would be a priority of a second term.

Some Republican candidates saw education as a winning campaign issue. Dozens of states have created laws preventing the instruction of critical race theory, an academic discipline focused on the examination of racial inequality. Supporters of the laws claim that conversations about racial identity are not appropriate for a school environment. Critics of the laws against critical race theory claim they whitewash American history and act as memory laws to rewrite public memory of U.S. history. Trump has pledged to terminate the Department of Education, claiming it has been infiltrated by "radical zealots and Marxists."

Foreign policy
The ongoing Israel–Hamas war and Russian invasion of Ukraine are expected to be significant issues of the election.

The United States has provided significant military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine throughout the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Biden has made strengthening the NATO alliance and preparing for great power competition a cornerstone of his first term in office, and has promised to defend the NATO alliance during his second term. Donald Trump claims that Ukraine and suppressing Russian intervention should not be a significant interest to the United States, and that the plan should be more limited. Trump previously stated he would potentially recognize Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea, and made suggestions that he could have prevented the war by ceding parts of eastern Ukraine to Russia. Trump's 2024 campaign has reiterated its isolationist "America First" foreign policy agenda, and has promised to "fundamentally reevaluate" NATO's purpose and mission. Trump has stated he would encourage Russia to "do whatever the hell they want" to countries that did not contribute enough to NATO.

During the Israel–Hamas war, Biden announced "unequivocal" military support for Israel, and condemned the actions of Hamas and other Palestinian militants as terrorism. Biden has requested 10.6 billion dollars of aid for Israel to Congress. Biden's support for Israel has been criticized by progressives and Muslim leaders, many of whom have indicated they will not vote for Biden over the war. By March 2024, Biden has become increasingly critical of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, and has authorized air drops of aid and announced the construction of a military port to facilitate the delivery of aid to the enclave. Kennedy condemned Hamas' attacks on Israeli civilians and declared support for aid to Israel. Trump has given mixed messages on the war, pledging to support Israel and take a tough line on Iran, while also criticizing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and praising Hezbollah as "very smart."

Polling has indicated a significant divide between government policy on the Israel–Hamas war and the views of the general public. A November 2023 poll had 68% of Americans agreeing with a statement that "Israel should call a ceasefire and try to negotiate" and a plurality opposed military aid to Israel, favoring the United States as a neutral meditator. A February 2024 Associated Press poll found that 44% saw Israel as "a partner that the U.S. should cooperate with, but doesn't share its interests and values", while 35% saw Israel "as an ally that shares U.S. interests and values". 50% of Americans believed Israel had "gone too far" in its response, 31% thought Israel had "been about right" and 15% thought Israel had "not gone far enough". Young Americans are significantly less supportive of Israel than older generations.

Healthcare issues
Trump has made repealing the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare, a key issue of the 2024 election. The issue of healthcare and drug policy, including whether the United States should shift to a universal healthcare system, and the COVID-19 pandemic is expected to play a key role in the 2024 presidential election. Kennedy has been a prominent anti-vaccine advocate, but according to Deseret News, he has attempted to moderate his anti-vaccine position before the election, stating that he is not against all vaccines. West is running on a platform of Medicare-for-all. Biden has touted the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which expanded the Affordable Care Act and included provisions to reduce prescription drug prices for people on Medicare.

LGBT rights
In recent years, conservative politicians in state legislatures have introduced a large and growing number of bills that restrict the rights of LGBT people, especially transgender people.

In his term as president, Biden signed the Respect for Marriage Act, which codified protections for same-sex and inter-racial marriage into law. Additionally, he has endorsed the Equality Act, legislation aiming to extend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to offer protection on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation across various domains such as in the workplace, housing, and health care sectors. In 2023, Biden directed the federal government to provide strategies to states on how to enhance access to healthcare and suicide prevention resources for the LGBT community.

In a February 2023 campaign message, Donald Trump said that if reelected, he would enact a federal law that would recognize only two genders and claimed that being transgender is a concept made up by "the radical left."

Democratic Party
On April 25, 2023, President Joe Biden announced his run for re-election, keeping Vice President Kamala Harris as his running mate. Consequently, Republicans have intensified their criticism of Harris since Biden declared his intention to run for office. During late 2021, as Biden was facing low approval ratings, there was speculation that he would not seek re-election, and some prominent Democrats (Representatives Carolyn Maloney, Tim Ryan and former Representative Joe Cunningham) publicly urged Biden not to run. In addition to Biden's unpopularity, many are concerned about his age; he was the oldest person to assume the office at age 78 and would be 82 at the end of his first term. If re-elected, he would be 86 at the end of his second term. According to an NBC poll released in April 2023, 70 percent of Americans—including 51 percent of Democrats—believe Biden should not run for a second term. Almost half said it was because of his age. According to the FiveThirtyEight national polling average, Biden's current approval rating is 41 percent, while 55 percent disapprove. There was also speculation that Biden may face a primary challenge from a member of the Democratic Party's progressive faction. After Democrats outperformed expectations in the 2022 midterm elections, many believed the chances that Biden would run for and win his party's nomination had increased.

Author Marianne Williamson announced her candidacy in February 2023, before Biden announced his own candidacy for re-election. Williamson had previously sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020. In April 2023, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced his candidacy for the nomination. Then on October 9, 2023, Kennedy announced that he would be dropping out of the Democratic primary and would instead run as an independent candidate. Representative Dean Phillips announced his run against Biden on October 26.

On March 6, 2024, Philips suspended his campaign after failing to win any primaries the previous night on Super Tuesday. Biden, Palmer, and Williamson remain the only major candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination.

On March 12, 2024, Biden officially became the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.

Republican Party
Donald Trump, the then-incumbent president, was defeated by Biden in the 2020 election and is not term-limited to run again in 2024, making him the fifth ex-president to seek a second non-consecutive term. If he wins, Trump would be the second president to win a non-consecutive term, after Grover Cleveland in 1892. Trump filed a statement of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) on November 15, 2022, and announced his candidacy in a speech at Mar-a-Lago the same day. Trump is considered an early frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination, following his 2024 campaign announcement on November 15, 2022. Trump announced in March 2022 that if he runs for re-election and wins the Republican presidential nomination, his former vice president Mike Pence will not be his running mate.

In March 2023, Trump was indicted over his hush money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels. Trump was again indicted in June over his handling of classified documents which contained materials sensitive to national security. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all the charges related to these indictments.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis was seen as the main challenger to Trump for the Republican nomination; he raised more campaign funds in the first half of 2022 and had more favorable polling numbers than Trump by the end of 2022. On May 24, 2023, DeSantis announced his candidacy on Twitter in an online conversation with Twitter CEO Elon Musk. "American decline is not inevitable—it is a choice...I am running for president of the United States to lead our great American comeback", DeSantis added. His campaign stated to have raised $1 million in the first hour following the announcement of his candidacy. Speaking on Fox & Friends, he stated that he would "destroy leftism" in the United States. At the end of July 2023, FiveThirtyEight's national polling average of the Republican primaries had Trump at 52 percent, and DeSantis at 15.

Following the Iowa caucuses, in which Trump posted a landslide victory, DeSantis and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy dropped out of the race and endorsed Trump, leaving the former president and Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor who served in Trump's cabinet, as the only remaining major candidates. Trump continued to win all four early voting contests while Haley's campaign struggled to gain momentum. On March 6, 2024, the day after winning only one primary out of fifteen on Super Tuesday, Haley suspended her campaign. Trump became the only remaining major candidate for the Republican presidential nomination.

On March 12, 2024, Trump officially became the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

Third party and independent candidates
Third-party and independent candidates have also announced presidential runs. They include socialist activist and intellectual Cornel West, who announced a campaign as an independent after initially announcing a run as a People's Party and later a Green Party candidate. Centrist political organization No Labels intended to field a third-party "unity ticket", before abandoning their efforts in April 2024. Some established third parties, such as the American Solidarity Party, the Prohibition Party, and the Party for Socialism and Liberation have announced presidential nominees, while others, such as the Libertarian Party, the Green Party and the Constitution Party, have begun their primaries. While independent/third-party candidates often do better in opinion polls than actual election performance, third-party candidates, as of October 2023, have the strongest showing in polls since Ross Perot's high poll numbers in the 1990s.

Notable party nominations
The following individuals have been nominated by their respective parties to run for president.

With partial ballot access
These parties have ballot access in some states, but not enough to get 270 votes to win the presidency, without running a write-in campaign.
 * American Solidarity Party: Peter Sonski, Connecticut local politician
 * Prohibition Party: Michael Wood, businessman
 * Party for Socialism and Liberation: Claudia De la Cruz, political activist

Without ballot access

 * Socialist Party USA: Bill Stodden, nonprofit executive
 * Socialist Equality Party: Joseph Kishore, writer and SEP nominee in 2020
 * Socialist Workers Party: Rachele Fruit, hotel worker and trade unionist
 * Transhumanist Party: Tom Ross, technology and political activist

Notable declared candidates
The following individuals have declared their intent to run for president.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., after initially running in the Democratic primary, became an independent candidate in October 2023. A member of the Kennedy family, he is an environmental lawyer who promotes conspiracy theories. Multiple sources:
 * He has drawn support among independent and anti-establishment voters disillusioned with mainstream American political parties. His polling, as of November 2023, was at the highest levels for a candidate outside the two major parties since 1992. A member of the Kennedy family, Kennedy is a son of U.S. attorney general and senator Robert F. Kennedy and nephew of U.S. president John F. Kennedy and senator Ted Kennedy. On March 26, 2024, Kennedy announced Nicole Shanahan, an attorney from California, as his running mate.
 * He has drawn support among independent and anti-establishment voters disillusioned with mainstream American political parties. His polling, as of November 2023, was at the highest levels for a candidate outside the two major parties since 1992. A member of the Kennedy family, Kennedy is a son of U.S. attorney general and senator Robert F. Kennedy and nephew of U.S. president John F. Kennedy and senator Ted Kennedy. On March 26, 2024, Kennedy announced Nicole Shanahan, an attorney from California, as his running mate.
 * He has drawn support among independent and anti-establishment voters disillusioned with mainstream American political parties. His polling, as of November 2023, was at the highest levels for a candidate outside the two major parties since 1992. A member of the Kennedy family, Kennedy is a son of U.S. attorney general and senator Robert F. Kennedy and nephew of U.S. president John F. Kennedy and senator Ted Kennedy. On March 26, 2024, Kennedy announced Nicole Shanahan, an attorney from California, as his running mate.
 * He has drawn support among independent and anti-establishment voters disillusioned with mainstream American political parties. His polling, as of November 2023, was at the highest levels for a candidate outside the two major parties since 1992. A member of the Kennedy family, Kennedy is a son of U.S. attorney general and senator Robert F. Kennedy and nephew of U.S. president John F. Kennedy and senator Ted Kennedy. On March 26, 2024, Kennedy announced Nicole Shanahan, an attorney from California, as his running mate.
 * He has drawn support among independent and anti-establishment voters disillusioned with mainstream American political parties. His polling, as of November 2023, was at the highest levels for a candidate outside the two major parties since 1992. A member of the Kennedy family, Kennedy is a son of U.S. attorney general and senator Robert F. Kennedy and nephew of U.S. president John F. Kennedy and senator Ted Kennedy. On March 26, 2024, Kennedy announced Nicole Shanahan, an attorney from California, as his running mate.

Other independent candidates

 * Shiva Ayyadurai, engineer, entrepreneur, and anti-vaccine activist; candidate for U.S. Senate from Massachusetts in 2018 and 2020
 * Johnny Buss, part-owner and vice president of strategic development of the Los Angeles Lakers
 * Joseph "Afroman" Foreman, rapper
 * Taylor Marshall, podcaster and author

Libertarian Party

 * Chase Oliver, customer service specialist and nominee for U.S. Senator from Georgia in 2022
 * Art Olivier, former mayor of Bellflower, California (1998–1999) and Libertarian nominee for vice president in 2000
 * Michael Rectenwald, author and former liberal studies professor at New York University

Green Party

 * Jill Stein, physician and 2012 and 2016 Green presidential nominee, member of the Lexington Town Meeting (2005–2010) (campaign)
 * Randy Toler, political activist and co-chair of the Green Party of Florida

Withdrawn candidates
The following notable individual(s) announced and then suspended their campaigns before the election:


 * Kanye West, rapper, candidate for president in 2020

Forecasts
Elections analysts and political pundits issue probabilistic forecasts to give readers a sense of how probable various electoral outcomes are. These forecasts use a variety of factors to determine the likelihood of each candidate winning each state. Most election predictors use the following ratings:
 * " tossup ": no advantage
 * " tilt " (used by some predictors): advantage that is not quite as strong as "lean"
 * " lean " or " leans ": slight advantage
 * " likely ": significant, but surmountable, advantage
 * " safe " or " solid ": near-certain chance of victory

Below is a list of states considered by one or more forecast to be competitive; states that are deemed to be "safe" or "solid" by all forecasters (The Cook Political Report, Sabato's Crystal Ball, Inside Elections, CNalysis, and CNN) are omitted for brevity.

Debates
The Commission on Presidential Debates announced the schedule on November 20, 2023. It will host four debates in 2024.


 * 1) September 16 at Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas (presidential debate).
 * 2) September 25 at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania (vice presidential debate).
 * 3) October 1 at Virginia State University in Petersburg, Virginia (presidential debate).
 * 4) October 9 at University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah (presidential debate).

To qualify for the debates, candidates must appear on enough ballots to be able to win a majority of the electoral votes, must be constitutionally eligible, and poll an average of at least 15% in national polls from organizations selected by the commission.