Who’s running for president in 2024? All the declared candidates

The 2024 election promises to be historic as a long slate of Republican candidates seek to unseat the sitting president, Joe Biden. After the pandemic changed the way Americans campaigned and voted four years ago, and three years after thousands of rioters waged violent protest at the nation’s Capitol to upend the last election’s results, the US will face new obstacles in carrying out the democratic process.

Here is the list of candidates in the primary elections, held beginning in early 2024.

Republicans

Democrats

Third party

Republicans

Doug Burgum

Governor of North Dakota

Burgum, the governor of North Dakota, announced his campaign in an opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal on 6 June. Viewed as a surprise, long-shot candidate, he touted his experience as a career businessman and leaned on his small-town roots in an announcement video titled Change. As governor, Burgum signed into law a near-total abortion ban, which makes the procedure illegal after six weeks, and only permissible in cases of rape, incest or medical emergency up to that point. He supported Donald Trump for president in 2016 and in 2020.

Chris Christie

Former governor of New Jersey

The former New Jersey governor has emerged as one of the harshest Republican critics of Donald Trump, whom he endorsed for president in 2016 after dropping out of the race. Christie says he broke ties with the former president after the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol, claiming that he hasn’t spoken to Trump since then. Christie, a lawyer and a lobbyist who served as a US attorney appointed by former President George W Bush, announced he is running for president a second time on 6 June in New Hampshire during a town hall.

Ron DeSantis

Governor of Florida

Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida is predicted to be the strongest contender for the GOP nomination against Donald Trump, consistently polling second among Republican primary voters. He made his formal announcement on Twitter, a Spaces event attended by roughly 300,000 users riddled with technological glitches, on 24 May. DeSantis, who has served as Florida’s governor since 2019 and handily defeated the Democratic challenger, Charlie Crist, in 2022, previously represented Florida’s sixth congressional district as a member of the US House from 2012 to 2018. As governor, DeSantis has signed a slate of laws banning minors from receiving gender-affirming care and restricting education on sexual orientation and gender identity in schools, and he has become an outspoken critic of the Chinese Communist party.

Larry Elder

Conservative radio host

The rightwing political commentator and radio talkshow host announced his run for president on Fox News as a guest on the now-canceled Tucker Carlson Tonight on 20 April 2023. In 2021, Elder joined a list of Republicans seeking to replace Gavin Newsom, the Democratic governor of California, in a failed recall. The Los Angeles resident was an outspoken critic of the state’s mask mandates, calling them “a joke”.

Nikki Haley

Former ambassador to the United Nations

Haley, who got her start in politics as a member of South Carolina’s general assembly, was governor of South Carolina from 2011 to 2017. She ended her second term early to serve as US ambassador to the United Nations under Donald Trump before announcing her resignation in 2018. She became the first Republican to announce a run against Donald Trump, even though she previously said she would not run against him. Haley has vowed to “fix” the US immigration system by “stopping illegal immigration” and described herself as pro-life, but said a federal abortion ban was unrealistic. Haley, who is the daughter of Indian immigrants, would be the first US president of Asian descent, as well as the first woman.

Asa Hutchinson

Former governor of Arkansas

Hutchinson is the former governor of Arkansas, a post he held from 2015 to 2023. The relatively unknown politician announced his candidacy in an interview on ABC days after Trump was indicted in a Manhattan court, saying the ex-president should drop out of the race. Hutchinson is a businessman and lawyer who was appointed by Ronald Reagan to serve as a US attorney. He also served a stint in the US House of Representatives, winning a congressional seat in 1996 when he replaced his brother, Tim, who ran for Senate.

Mike Pence

Former vice president of the United States

Mike Pence officially launched his campaign for president on 7 June, in a rare instance of a former vice-president challenging the president with whom he shared a ticket a few years ago. Pence joined a crowded Republican field in which he has consistently polled third, even before he officially announced his candidacy, though he trails far behind DeSantis and Trump. Pence is angling for a wide base among evangelical Christians and has vowed to ban abortion if he is elected. He denounced the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, and has used it as a talking point against Trump, who turned against him after he publicly refused supporters’ calls to overturn the results of the election.

Vivek Ramaswamy

Entrepreneur and author

The biotech entrepreneur and political newcomer announced his campaign in a video describing attacks on the “culture of free speech in America” and again on Fox News in an interview with now-fired Tucker Carlson. He is the author of Woke, Inc., a book that lobbies against “ESG” – a framework of corporate governance that encourages companies to consider the environment and social justice issues. Ramaswamy, the youngest candidate vying for the Republican nomination, has lobbied in favor of raising the national voting age to 25. Ramaswamy would be the first president of Asian and Indian descent. He has also vowed to pardon federally indicted Donald Trump.

Tim Scott

Senator from South Carolina

In May, Scott became the second politician from South Carolina to run for the Republican nomination. He has served as a senator from South Carolina since 2013 when he was appointed by Republican challenger Nikki Haley to fill a vacancy. Scott, who is one of three Black members of the Senate and is the only Black Republican senator, said in his announcement speech that “America is not a racist country.” Scott joined fellow Republicans in opposing the Respect for Marriage Act in 2022. Scott served as a member of the House from 2011 to 2013 and before that spent stints in South Carolina’s general assembly and Charleston’s county council. During his 2010 campaign for the House of Representatives, Scott told Newsweek that homosexuality was a morally wrong choice.

Francis Suarez

Mayor of Miami

Suarez, the mayor of Miami, is the first major Hispanic candidate seeking the Republican party nomination this election cycle. The son of Miami’s first Cuban-born mayor, Suarez has said he would broaden support for Republicans among Latino voters. He is the third candidate from Florida to join the crowded primary field, alongside frontrunners Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis. Suarez, who was first elected in 2017, filed paperwork to run the day after Trump appeared in a Miami court over federal charges and made his formal announcement on Good Morning America the day after that.

Donald Trump

Former president of the United States

Former president Donald Trump is the top contender for the Republican party nomination, even as he faces several legal hurdles, including federal charges over obstructing justice and violating the Espionage Act. Trump, a longtime businessman, unsuccessfully ran for re-election as president in 2020, and refused to accept the outcome of the results. Trump most recently said he is pro-life, and would continue his hardline immigration stance in a second term if elected. He has also renewed attacks on trans people, especially athletes, and his anti-China agenda.

Democrats

Joe Biden

President of the United States

Biden is the likely Democratic nominee for the 2024 presidential election. He announced his campaign for re-election on 25 April, exactly four years after he announced his previous, successful presidential campaign. While approval for Biden remains low, hovering just above 40%, political experts say he is the most likely candidate to defeat Donald Trump, the frontrunner for the Republican nomination. Biden has served in politics for over five decades and is running on a platform that includes abortion rights, gun reform and healthcare. At 81, he is the oldest president in US history.

Robert F Kennedy Jr

Lawyer and author

Robert F Kennedy Jr, known for his work as an environmental lawyer and his anti-vaccine views, said he is running for president to end the “chronic disease epidemic”. Kennedy, who compared vaccine mandates during the Covid-19 pandemic to “Hitler’s Germany”, has promoted other baseless conspiracy theories such as telecom networks being used to control people. He is the nephew of former President John F Kennedy, a Democrat, who was assassinated in office, and is the son of 1968 Democratic presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy, who was assassinated on the campaign trail.

Marianne Williamson

Author

Failed 2020 presidential candidate Marianne Williamson, who also unsuccessfully ran for a seat in the US House of Representatives in 2014, became the first Democratic candidate to announce she is running for president as a challenge to Joe Biden. Williamson, an author of self-help books, launched her long-shot bid with campaign promises to address climate change and student loan debt. She previously worked as “spiritual leader” of a Michigan Unity church.

Third party

Cornel West

Professor and progressive activist

Progressive activist Cornel West announced in a video posted to Twitter that he is running for president as a member of the People’s party, a third party headed by a former campaign staffer for Bernie Sanders. West is currently a professor of philosophy at Union Theological Seminary and previously worked at Harvard but resigned, saying the school had an “intellectual and spiritual bankruptcy of deep depths”.

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