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For the other elections held at the same time, see 2024 United States elections.

2024 United States presidential election

November 5, 2024
538 members of the Electoral College 270 electoral votes needed to win
Opinion polls
Turnout	TBD
Reporting	95% as of 9:15 p.m., November 8, 2024 EST
Nominee Donald Trump Kamala Harris Party Republican Democratic Home state Florida California Running mate JD Vance Tim Walz Projected electoral vote 535 3 States carried 50 0 + DC Popular vote 124,015,797 20,449,156 Percentage 85.6% 12.9%
Presidential election results map. Red denotes states projected for Trump/Vance. Blue denotes states projected for Harris/Walz. Numbers indicate allotted electoral votes.
President before election Joe Biden Democratic Elected President Donald Trump Republican

The 2024 United States presidential election was the 60th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 5, 2024. The Republican Party's ticket—Donald Trump, who was the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021, and JD Vance, the junior U.S. senator from Ohio—defeated the Democratic Party's ticket—Kamala Harris, the incumbent U.S. vice president, and Tim Walz, the governor of Minnesota. Trump and Vance are scheduled to be inaugurated as the 47th president and the 50th vice president on January 20, 2025, after their formal election by the Electoral College.

The incumbent president, Joe Biden of the Democratic Party, initially ran for re-election with Harris, and they became the party's presumptive nominees, facing little opposition; however, what was generally considered to be a poor presidential debate performance in June 2024 intensified concerns about his age and health, and led to calls within his party for him to leave the race. Although initially adamant about remaining in the race, Biden withdrew on July 21, becoming the first eligible incumbent president to withdraw since Lyndon B. Johnson in 1968. Biden endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, who was voted the party's nominee by the delegates on August 5, 2024. Harris selected Walz as her running mate.

Trump, who lost the 2020 election to Biden, ran for re-election again, this time for a non-consecutive term. He was nominated during the 2024 Republican National Convention along with his running mate, Vance, after winning the Republican primaries. The Trump campaign was noted for making many false and misleading statements, including the claim that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump, engaging in anti-immigrant fearmongering, and promoting conspiracy theories. Trump's style and behavior, including his embrace of far-right extremism, was characterized by a variety of scholars as breaking with longstanding U.S. political norms in an unprecedented way. His speeches were marked by authoritarian and dehumanizing rhetoric toward his political opponents. His campaign and populist political movement were characterized by several historians and former Trump administration officials as featuring parallels to fascism.

In May 2024, Trump became the first U.S. president to be convicted of a crime after he was found guilty on multiple felony counts of falsifying business records related to hush money payments made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels. He was previously found liable for sex abuse against E. Jean Carroll and for business fraud in New York. He was also twice impeached, once in 2019 and again in 2021. He remains under multiple indictments for his attempts to overturn the 2020 election, his role in the January 6 attack on the Capitol, and his election racketeering prosecution in the state of Georgia. Trump survived two assassination attempts in the four months before the election: the first at a rally in Pennsylvania, the second at Trump's golf club in Florida.

Key swing states included Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. According to Pew Research, the most important issues for voters were (in decreasing order) the economy, healthcare, democracy (particularly U.S. Supreme Court appointments), foreign policy (notably U.S. support for Israel and for Ukraine), violent crime, immigration, gun policy, abortion, racial and ethnic inequality, and climate change. Education and LGBTQ rights were also prominent issues in the campaign. Polled voters consistently cited the economy as being the single most important issue in the election.

Trump and Vance were declared the victors by major media outlets in the early hours of November 6, 2024, winning the electoral vote and the national popular vote. Harris conceded the race in a phone call to Trump, and delivered a concession speech later that day. Trump significantly improved his vote share among almost all demographics nationwide compared to his past two campaigns, with significant increases in support among Hispanic and Black voters. Trump's electoral coalition was described as the most racially diverse coalition of voters for a Republican presidential candidate in decades. As of November 9, Trump is projected to have won five swing states, with the remaining two states still counting votes. Trump became the second president to be elected to a non-consecutive second term, 132 years after Grover Cleveland defeated Benjamin Harrison in the 1892 election; Trump, at the age of 78, is also the oldest person ever to be elected U.S. president. Harris is the first Democratic presidential nominee to lose the national popular vote since John Kerry in 2004.

Background

Joe Biden, the incumbent president, whose term ends on January 20, 2025

A general election ballot from Fairfax County, Virginia, listing the presidential and vice presidential candidates

Procedure

Main article: United States presidential election § Procedure

Article Two of the Constitution of United States 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 of age, 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. If no candidate wins a majority of their party's delegates' votes, or (in this election) a party's presumptive nominee drops out of the race between the primaries and the convention, a brokered convention may be held: the delegates are then "released" and are free to switch their allegiance to a different candidate.

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. Officials in many states have sought additional funding to hire more personnel, improve security, and extend training. Numerous election offices are dealing with an increase in retirements and are overwhelmed with public records requests, owing in part to the electoral mistrust planted by former President Trump's loss in the 2020 election.

Trump is the first president in American history to be impeached twice, and the first to run again after impeachment. Trump was first impeached by the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives in December 2019 for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress due to his attempts to coerce Ukraine to provide damaging information on Biden and misinformation regarding Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections by withholding military aid. Trump's second impeachment by the House occurred on January 13, 2021, for "incitement of insurrection" owing to his role in the January 6 United States Capitol attack. As Trump was acquitted by the Senate in both cases, Trump was not barred from seeking reelection to the presidency in 2024.

Election interference

Main article: Election interference

Further information: Republican efforts to restrict voting following the 2020 presidential election, Attempts to overturn the 2020 United States presidential election, and January 6 United States Capitol attack

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 thus attempted to disqualify him from appearing on the ballot. These attempts were unsuccessful, as on March 4, 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that states cannot determine eligibility for a national election under Section 3.

Donald Trump's false claims of interference

Further information: Election denial movement in the United States, Big lie § Donald Trump's lies of a stolen election, and Republican Party efforts to disrupt the 2024 United States presidential election

To sow election doubt, Trump escalated use of "rigged election" and "election interference" statements in advance of the 2024 election compared to the previous two elections. The statements have been described as part of a "heads I win; tails you cheated" rhetorical strategy.

Trump made false claims of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election, and continued denying the election results as of September 2024. Election security experts 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 results. The New York Times reported that "the Republican Party and its conservative allies are engaged in an unprecedented legal campaign targeting the American voting system", by restricting voting for partisan advantage ahead of Election Day and preparing to mount "legally dubious" challenges against the certification process if Trump were to lose.

In the lead up to the 2024 election, the Republican Party made false claims of massive "noncitizen voting" by immigrants in an attempt to delegitimize the election in the event of a Trump defeat. The claims were made as part of larger Republican Party efforts to disrupt the 2024 United States presidential election and election denial movement. Trump continued spreading his "Big Lie" of a stolen election and predicted without evidence that the 2024 election would be rigged against him. Trump also falsely accused Biden of "weaponizing" the Justice Department to target him in relation to his criminal trials. Trump and several Republicans stated they would not accept the results of the 2024 election if they believe they are "unfair".

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, his plan to use the Insurrection Act of 1807 to deploy the military for law enforcement in cities and states with too much violent crime or drug cartels, 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 voter fraud in the 2024 election, and Trump's public embrace and celebration of the January 6 United States Capitol attack, raised concerns over the state of democracy in the United States. Trump's political operation said that it plans to deploy more than 100,000 attorneys and volunteers to polling places across battleground states, with an "election integrity hotline" for poll watchers and voters to report alleged voting irregularities.

Interference by foreign nations

Main article: Foreign interference in the 2024 United States elections

Before the election, U.S. officials and former officials stated that foreign interference in the 2024 election was 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." China, Russia, and Iran have since all been identified as mounting influence operations and attempts to interfere with the 2024 election. U.S. intelligence officials have described the efforts as part of broader efforts by authoritarian nations to use the internet to erode support for democracy.

China

Further information: Chinese interference in the 2024 United States elections

China has been identified as interfering with the 2024 election through propaganda and disinformation campaigns linked to its Spamouflage operation. U.S. intelligence agencies described the effort as not targeting any particular candidate, but focusing on issues important to the Chinese government such as Taiwan, and "undermining confidence in elections, voting, and the U.S. in general." As early as 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."

Russia

Further information: Russian interference in the 2024 United States elections

According to disinformation experts and intelligence agencies, Russia spread disinformation ahead of the 2024 election to damage Biden and Democrats, boost candidates supporting isolationism, and undercut support for Ukraine aid and NATO. On September 4, 2024, the United States publicly accused Russia of interfering in the 2024 election and announced several steps to combat Russian influence including sanctions, indictments, and seizing of web domains used to spread propaganda and disinformation. American intelligence agencies have assessed that Russia prefers Trump to win the election, viewing him as more critical of U.S. support for Ukraine.

Iran

Further information: Iranian interference in the 2024 United States elections

Iran has been identified as interfering with the 2024 presidential election through front companies connected to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and hacking attempts against the Trump, Biden, and Harris campaigns starting as early as May 2024. Iran launched propaganda and disinformation campaigns through fake news websites and accounts on social media to tip the election against former president Trump. The New York Times stated the efforts were an attempt at "sowing internal discord and discrediting the democratic system in the United States more broadly in the eyes of the world."

Voter roll purges

Further information: Republican efforts to restrict voting following the 2020 presidential election

Multiple Republican-led administrations have removed voters from their state's voter rolls in the lead up to the election, which critics have argued violates the National Voter Registration Act. In July 2024, 160,000 inactive or infrequent voters were removed from Ohio's voter rolls. The Ohio chapters of Common Cause and the League of Women Voters threatened lawsuits against the state over the purge.

In August 2024, Governor Glenn Youngkin of Virginia signed an executive order removing 6,303 voters suspected of being non-citizens from Virginia's voter rolls. In October 2024, the Department of Justice sued the Virginia Board of Elections and Virginia commissioner of elections over the voter purge, alleging that it violated the National Voter Registration Act. The suit also found a number of alleged non-citizens purged were actually citizens. District judge Patricia Tolliver Giles ruled that the removal was illegal, ordering the state to stop purging voter rolls and to restore the voter registration of more than 1,600 voters who had been removed. The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals then upheld the order. The administration filed an emergency appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, which sided with Virginia in a 6–3 decision, allowing the state to continue purging voter rolls.

In August 2024, Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen announced a process for purging 3,251 registered Alabama voters and referred them to the state attorney general's office for criminal prosecution. In September 2024, the Department of Justice sued Alabama for violating the National Voter Registration Act. In October 2024, district judge Anna Manasco ruled in favor of the Department of Justice, ordering the state to restore the voter registrations. Alabama secretary of state's chief of staff Clay Helms testified that 2,000 of the purged voters were legally registered citizens.

Criminal trials and indictments against Donald Trump

Main article: Indictments against Donald Trump

Further information: Federal prosecution of Donald Trump (election obstruction case), Georgia election racketeering prosecution, Federal prosecution of Donald Trump (classified documents case), Prosecution of Donald Trump in New York, and Personal and business legal affairs of Donald Trump

Trump was found liable in civil proceedings for both sexual abuse and defamation in 2023 and defamation in 2024, while also being criminally convicted of 34 felonies related to falsifying business records, expected to be an issue during the campaign. As of December 2023, he had four criminal indictments totaling 86 felony counts and there are other lawsuits against Trump. On May 30, 2024, Trump was found guilty by a jury of all 34 felony counts in The People of the State of New York v. Donald J. Trump over falsifying business records for hush money payments to pornographic film star Stormy Daniels, to ensure her silence about a sexual encounter between them, to influence the 2016 presidential election. This made Trump the first former U.S. president to be convicted of a crime in American history. Trump and many Republicans have made numerous false and misleading statements regarding Trump's criminal trials, including false claims that they are "rigged" or "election interference" orchestrated by Biden and the Democratic Party, of which there is no evidence.

Classified intelligence material found inside Mar-a-Lago

Trump faces an additional 52 felony counts; 4 counts in a United States of America v. Donald J. Trump for his alleged role in attempting to overturn the 2020 United States presidential election and involvement in the January 6 United States Capitol attack; 8 counts in The State of Georgia v. Donald J. Trump, et al. for his alleged attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 United States presidential election in Georgia; and 40 counts in United States of America v. Donald J. Trump, Waltine Nauta, and Carlos De Oliveira relating to his hoarding of classified documents and alleged obstruction of efforts to retrieve them. In addition to his indictments, Trump was found liable on May 9, 2023, by an anonymous jury, in E. Jean Carroll v. Donald J. Trump for sexual abuse/rape, and ordered to pay a total of $88.3 million combined for damages and defamation. In September 2023, Trump was found guilty of financial fraud in New York v. Trump and ordered to pay a $457 million judgement that he appealed.

According to an April 2024 Reuters/Ipsos poll, the percentage of registered voters who found Trump's charges somewhat to very serious in the federal elections case was 74%, 72% in the Georgia case, 69% in the classified documents case, and 64% in the New York hush money case. Nearly a quarter of Republican voters said they would not vote for Trump if found guilty of a felony by a jury. Following his hush money conviction, 15% of likely Republican voters and 49% of independents stated they wanted Trump to drop out, and 54% of registered voters approved of the jury's decision. Polling also found 56% of Republicans who were unchanged by the verdict, and 35% of Republicans and 18% of independents who stated they were more likely to vote for Trump.

Trump was noted for attempting to delay his trials until after the November election. If he were to win the election in November, then on January 20, 2025, Trump could order a new attorney general to dismiss the federal charges he is facing, prevent the state charges from taking effect through a variety of methods, and issue a presidential self-pardon. On July 1, 2024, the Supreme Court delivered its 6–3 decision in Trump v. United States, along ideological lines, ruling that Trump had absolute immunity for acts he committed as president within his core constitutional purview, at least presumptive immunity for official acts within the outer perimeter of his official responsibility, and no immunity for unofficial acts. Thus, Trump's sentencing date for his convictions in New York was delayed from July to September 2024, and then to November 26, and the trial dates in Trump's other cases would likely also be delayed to review the applicability of the Supreme Court's decision.

Age and health concerns

Joe Biden

Main article: Age and health concerns about Joe Biden

Former president Trump and mass media raised concerns about President Biden's age, including his cognitive state, during and after the 2020 United States presidential election. These concerns increased after a poor performance by Biden during a debate against Trump in the 2024 presidential election, which led a number of commentators and some Democratic lawmakers to call for Biden to drop out of the 2024 presidential race. In July 2024, Biden withdrew his candidacy while stating that he would continue serving as president until the conclusion of his term. According to a February 2024 poll, Biden's age and health were major or moderate concerns for 86% of voters generally, up from 76% earlier in 2020. According to another 2024 poll, most of those who voted for Biden in 2020 said they believed he was too old to be an effective president; The New York Times noted that these concerns "cut across generations, gender, race and education".

Donald Trump

Main article: Age and health concerns about Donald Trump

According to polling released in July and August, a majority of voters polled after the first debate think Trump, who is 78 years old, is too old to serve a second term (51%, 57%, and 60%), with 80% unsure he would be able to finish out a second term. During and after Trump's presidency, comments on his age, weight, lifestyle, and history of heart disease raised questions about his physical health. In addition, numerous public figures, media sources, and mental health professionals speculated that Trump may have some form of dementia, which runs in his family. Experts for the science publication STAT who analyzed changes in Trump's speeches between 2015 and 2024 noted shorter sentences, more tangents, more repetition, and more confusion of words and phrases. The doctors suggested it could just be due to changes in mood or it could indicate the beginning of Alzheimer's. The sharp rise in all-or-nothing thinking is also linked to cognitive decline. The New York Times reported that Trump's 2024 speeches had grown "darker, harsher, longer, angrier, less focused, more profane and increasingly fixated on the past", and that experts considered this increase in tangential speech and behavioral disinhibition as a possible consequence of advancing age and cognitive decline. Trump was also criticized for his lack of transparency around his medical records and health.

Political violence and threats

Main article: Political violence in the 2024 United States presidential election

See also: Donald Trump 2024 presidential campaign § Violent and dehumanizing statements, and Second American Revolution

On July 14, Biden gave an address condemning political violence, including the attempted assassination of Trump, arguing for the need to "lower the temperature" in American politics.

Several scholars, lawmakers, intelligence agencies, and the members of the public expressed concerns about political violence surrounding the 2024 election. The fears came amidst increasing threats and acts of physical violence targeting public officials and election workers at all levels of government. Trump was identified as a key figure in increasing political violence in the United States both for and against him. Political violence was at its highest since the 1970s, and the most recent violence came from right-wing assailants. Trump increasingly embraced far-right extremism, conspiracy theories such as Q-Anon, and far-right militia movements to a greater extent than any modern American president. Trump also espoused dehumanizing, combative, and violent rhetoric, and promised retribution against his political enemies. Trump played down but refused to rule out violence following the 2024 election, stating "it depends". Trump also suggested using the military against "the enemy from within" on Election Day that he described as "radical left lunatics", Democratic politicians, and those opposeed to his candidacy.

Assassination attempts

Donald Trump standing alongside the fire department uniform of Corey Comperatore, who was killed during the attempted assassination of Trump

On July 13, 2024, Trump survived an assassination attempt while addressing a campaign rally near Butler, Pennsylvania. Trump was shot and wounded on his right ear by Thomas Matthew Crooks, a 20-year-old man from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, who fired eight rounds with an AR-15–style rifle from the roof of a building located approximately 400 feet (120 meters) from the stage; the shots killed audience member Corey Comperatore and critically injured two other audience members. Seconds later, Crooks was shot and killed by the U.S. Secret Service's counter-sniper team. The motive and cause of the assassination attempt are still under investigation by authorities. On September 11, 2024, a bipartisan Senate report identified tech issues and other preventable mistakes by the Secret Service during the event. On September 15, 2024, Trump survived a separate assassination attempt at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida. The suspect did not fire his weapon, and no deaths or injuries were reported. The suspect, Ryan Wesley Routh, is in custody.

Violence towards election workers

Since the 2020 election and continuing into the 2024 election, the Election denial movement prompted thousands of death threats directed at election workers, officials, and their families, with some receiving letters laced with fentanyl. As of March 2024, the Department of Justice's Election Threats Task Force had charged 20 people with threat-related crimes. In September 2024, suspicious packages were sent to state election officials in Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma, Massachusetts, Missouri, Nebraska, Tennessee, and Wyoming, which resulted in evacuations in several states. The inclusion of white powder in most of the packages mirrored the 2001 anthrax attacks; the substance in the Oklahoma delivery was identified as flour. Threats led some election workers to resign, and affected recruitment of temporary poll workers. Efforts to protect election workers were diverse, and included active shooter training, provision of first aid kits and Narcan, bulletproof vests, bulletproof glass, metal detectors, physical barriers, armed guards, police snipers, drones, and security cameras; however, many locations lack the funds to implement such measures. During early voting in San Antonio, Texas, a voter was arrested and charged for allegedly assaulting an elderly poll worker. The worker reportedly asked the man multiple times to remove his MAGA hat at the polling location. In Texas, it is illegal to wear any clothing showing support of political candidates while in a polling location.

Violence towards voters

On October 30, 2024, an 18 year old man in Jacksonville, Florida, was arrested for aggravated assault and improper exhibition of a dangerous weapon after brandishing a machete at two women outside an early voting center. He along with seven other teenagers, allegedly approached and antagonized members of the opposing political party as they were demonstrating. Neither the teenager's nor the women's political parties were disclosed, although later posts by the Duval Democratic Party described the teenager's party as a "group of young men carrying Trump flags". On November 1, 2024, a voter wearing a "Let's Go Brandon" hat was reportedly struck by a poll worker after a verbal altercation over his hat at an Orangeburg County, South Carolina, polling location. Although it is illegal to wear anything supporting a candidate whose name is on the ballot, wearing a general political message is permitted by South Carolina law. Also on November 1, a man in Bath, New York, was arrested for assaulting someone in a supermarket for wearing a Trump hat.

Arson of ballot boxes

In late October 2024, multiple fires were reported at ballot drop boxes in Portland, Oregon, and Vancouver, Washington. The fires damaged hundreds of ballots, requiring election officials to identify and offer new ballots to those affected by the fires. Prior to the fires, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Homeland Security had issued a bulletin raising concerns that "election-related grievances" could motivate domestic extremist activity and that ballot drop boxes could potentially be "attractive targets". In Phoenix, Arizona, a fire was started in a mail collection box, destroying some ballots and other mail. A suspect was arrested and claimed that the fire was unrelated to the election.

Electoral map

Hexagonal cartogram of the number of electoral college votes. States with opposite outcomes from 2020 are hatched. Gray states have not declared their results.

Main article: 2020 United States redistricting cycle

This is the first presidential election to occur after the reapportionment of votes in the Electoral College following the 2020 United States census and redistricting cycle.

Swing states

Further information: Red states and blue states and Swing state

Most states are not electorally competitive and are usually certain to vote for a particular party. Because of the nature of the Electoral College, this means that a limited number of swing states—competitive states that do not clearly lean towards one party over the other—are vital to winning the presidency. The swing states in the 2024 election were the Rust Belt states of Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania; and the Sun Belt states of Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, and North Carolina.

Campaign issues

Campaign themes

See also: Kamala Harris 2024 presidential campaign § Platform, Donald Trump 2024 presidential campaign § Platform, and 2024 United States elections § Issues

Harris campaign

Harris has framed her campaign as "a choice between freedom and chaos" and based it around the ideals of "freedom" and "the future". The Harris campaign has sought to highlight her experience as an attorney general and a prosecutor to "prosecute the case" against Trump by pointing out his 34 felony convictions and the impacts of the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Harris is running as a moderate Democrat who has moved towards the center on several policy positions since her 2019 primary run, embracing many of Biden's domestic policy stances. Harris has focused her economic proposals on the cost of groceries, housing and healthcare. She has also focused on the middle class, and small businesses. Harris' campaign has been noted for having an optimistic and joyful tone.

Trump campaign

See also: Trumpism and Rhetoric of Donald Trump

A central campaign theme for Trump's second presidential bid is "retribution". Trump framed the 2024 election as "the final battle", and openly promised to leverage the power of the presidency for political reprisals. Trump is heavily running on immigration as a central campaign focus. Trump's campaign has focused on dark and apocalyptic rhetoric about the state of the country and predicting doom if he does not win. The Associated Press stated that "Trump's rallies take on the symbols, rhetoric and agenda of Christian nationalism." During his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump has made numerous false and misleading statements. The large number of lies and false statements have been attributed to Trump's rhetorical style described as using the big lie and firehose of falsehood propaganda technique. Trump has also made many personal attacks against Harris, several of which are sexual in nature, have been characterized as racist and misogynistic, and are considered a further breach of political norms. Trump's harsher rhetoric against his political enemies has been described by historians, scholars, commentators and former generals as populist, authoritarian, fascist, and unlike anything a political candidate has ever said in American history.

Abortion

Main article: Abortion in the United States

Abortion-rights protesters in Washington, D.C., on May 14, 2022, as part of the Bans Off Our Bodies protest following the leaked draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade

Trump speaking at the 2020 March for Life in Washington, D.C.

Abortion access is a key topic during the campaign. This is the first presidential election to be held in the aftermath of the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision, in which the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, leaving abortion law entirely to the states, including bans on abortion. The three justices appointed by former president Trump—Amy Coney Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh, and Neil Gorsuch—all voted to overturn the federal right to an abortion in Dobbs. By April 2023, most Republican-controlled states had passed near-total bans on abortion, rendering it largely illegal throughout much of the southern United States. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, there are 15 states with de jure early-stage bans on abortion without exceptions for rape or incest.

Abortion was on the ballot in up to ten states in 2024, including the swing states of Arizona and Nevada. Some pundits argued abortion-rights referenda could help Harris in November. Democrats predominantly advocate for abortion access as a right, while Republicans generally favor significantly restricting the legality of abortion. Since becoming the presumptive nominee, Harris indicated her support for passing legislation which would restore the federal abortion right protections previously guaranteed by Roe. She argued Trump would let his anti-abortion allies implement Project 2025 proposals to restrict abortion and contraception throughout the United States.

Trump claimed credit for overturning Roe but criticized Republicans pushing for total abortion bans. Trump said he would leave the issue of abortion for the states to decide but would allow red states to monitor women's pregnancies and prosecute them if they have an abortion. In his home state of Florida, Trump announced he would vote "No" on Amendment 4, an abortion rights referendum, preserving the six-week ban. The announcement came one day after he initially criticized the six-week ban for being "too short" and said he would vote to lengthen it. Trump repeated a false claim that Democrats support abortions after birth and "executing" babies.

Border security and immigration

Main articles: Mexico–United States border crisis and Border security in the United States

Further information: Kamala Harris 2024 presidential campaign § Immigration, and Donald Trump 2024 presidential campaign § Immigration

Border security and immigration are among the top issues concerning potential voters in the election. Polling has shown that most Americans want to reduce immigration and that a substantial minority of White Republicans are concerned about White demographic decline. In 2023 and early 2024, a surge of migrants entering through the border with Mexico occurred. By June 2024, illegal crossings reached a three-year low following four consecutive monthly drops, which senior officials attributed to increased enforcement between the US and Mexico, the weather, and Biden's executive order increasing asylum restrictions.

California Attorney General Kamala Harris at the border in 2011 to discuss strategies to combat transnational gang crime

Harris has promised to fight for "strong border security" coupled with an earned pathway to citizenship. Harris has highlighted her work in combating transnational gangs, drug cartels, and human traffickers while attorney general. In 2023, as vice president, Harris announced pledges of US$950 million from private companies into Central American communities to address the causes of mass migration, such as poverty. Harris states she believes the immigration system is "broken" and needs to be fixed, and she says most Americans believe this. Harris also advocates for stricter asylum rules than president Biden. Harris supports increasing the number of Border Patrol agents and accuses Trump as being unserious on border security. While vice president, Harris supported a bipartisan bill which would have funded additional border agents and closed the border if too crowded, the bill was rejected by Trump. Trump called on House and Senate Republicans to kill the bill arguing it would hurt his and Republican's reelection campaigns and deny them the ability to run on immigration as a campaign issue. Harris has criticized Trump for his opposition to the bill on the campaign trail, and has promised to sign the bill into law as president.

Trump has pledged to finish the wall on the southern border if elected.

Trump has stated that if elected, he would increase deportations, send the U.S. military to the border, expand ICE detentions through workplace raids, 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. Trump has said he will deport both legal and illegal immigrants. The New York Times reported that Trump is considering "an extreme expansion of his first-term crackdown on immigration," such as "preparing to round up undocumented people already in the United States on a vast scale and detain them in sprawling camps while they wait to be expelled." Trump has stated his intention to deport 11 million people through the construction of detention camps and using the military through the 18th century Alien Enemies Act. Trump has made false claims of a "migrant crime wave" that are not supported by data, and has provided no evidence to back up his claims.

Trump's anti-immigrant nativist tone has grown harsher from his previous time as president, and has used fearmongering, racial stereotypes, and more dehumanizing rhetoric when referring to illegal immigrants. Trump has repeatedly called some immigrants subhuman, stating they are "not human", "not people", and "animals" who will "rape, pillage, thieve, plunder and kill" American citizens, that they are "stone-cold killers", "monsters", "vile animals", "savages", and "predators" that will "walk into your kitchen, they'll cut your throat" and "grab young girls and slice them up right in front of their parents". Other rhetoric includes false statements that foreign leaders are deliberately emptying insane asylums to send "prisoners, murderers, drug dealers, mental patients, terrorists" across America's southern border as migrants, that they are "building an army" of "fighting age" men to attack Americans "from within" and are the "enemy from within" who are ruining the "fabric" of the country. Since fall 2023, Trump has claimed that immigrants are "poisoning the blood of our country," which has drawn comparisons to racial hygiene rhetoric used by White supremacists and Adolf Hitler. In the 20 rallies since Trump's debate with Harris, Politico found his rhetoric, especially around immigrants, getting darker, citing experts who found it strongly echoed authoritarian and Nazi ideology, including claims that immigrants are genetically predisposed to commit crimes and have "bad genes". Trump's comments come as part of violent, dehumanizing rhetoric Trump has increasingly utilized during his campaign.

Climate change

Main article: Climate change in the United States

Further information: Kamala Harris 2024 presidential campaign § Climate change and energy; and Donald Trump 2024 presidential campaign § Energy, environment, and climate change

See also: Environmental policy of the Donald Trump administration, Climate change denial, and Inflation Reduction Act

Climate change and energy policy played a role in the 2024 presidential campaign. In 2023, the United States saw a record in 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. The United States also dealt with supply shocks caused by the 2021–2024 global energy crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic and Russian invasion of Ukraine. Harris is an advocate for environmental justice to address the impact of climate change on lower-income areas and people of color. Under Biden, she supported his climate legislation. In 2022, Harris helped pass the Inflation Reduction Act, the largest investment in addressing climate change and clean energy in American history, putting the United States on track to meet emissions reduction targets by 50–52% below 2005 levels by 2030. Harris's campaign stated that she does not support a ban on fracking.

Trump ridiculed the idea of man-made climate change, and repeatedly referred to his energy policy under the mantra "drill, baby, drill". Trump said he would increase oil drilling on public lands and offer tax breaks to oil, gas, and coal producers, and stated his goal for the United States to have the lowest cost of electricity and energy of any country in the world. Trump also promised to roll back electric vehicle initiatives, proposed once again the United States withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, and rescind several environmental regulations. Trump stated his intention to roll back parts of the Inflation Reduction Act. The implementation of Trump's plans would add around 4 billion tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere by 2030, also having effects on the international level. If the policies do not change further, it would add 15 billion tons by 2040 and 27 billion by 2050. Although the exact calculation is difficult, researchers stated: "Regardless of the precise impact, a second Trump term that successfully dismantles Biden's climate legacy would likely end any global hopes of keeping global warming below 1.5C."

Democracy

Main articles: Democratic backsliding in the United States, Attempts to overturn the 2020 United States presidential election, and Election denial movement in the United States

See also: Project 2025, Donald Trump 2024 presidential campaign § Authoritarian and antidemocratic statements, Indictments against Donald Trump, and Donald Trump and fascism

The election is the first presidential election following Trump's attempts to overturn the 2020 election and the January 6 United States Capitol attack. It also comes amidst Trump's federal indictment for attempting to overturn the 2020 election and involvement in the attack and racketeering charges for attempting to overturn Joe Biden's victory in the state of Georgia.

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 Christian nationalist autocratic tendencies and their attempts to overturn the 2020 election. According to an October 25 ABC/Ipsos poll, 49% of Americans see Trump as a fascist, described as "a political extremist who seeks to act as a dictator, disregards individual rights and threatens or uses force against their opponents." Meanwhile, only 22% saw Harris as a fascist by this definition. Some Republicans are concerned that Trump's former impeachment and four criminal indictments are attempts to influence the election and keep him from office. However, there is no evidence that Trump's criminal trials are "election interference" orchestrated by Biden and the Democratic Party. Trump has repeated false claims that the 2020 election was rigged and stolen from him.

Donald Trump's 2024 presidential campaign has been criticized by legal experts, historians, and political scientists for making increasingly violent and authoritarian statements, which some believe the Trump campaign is intentionally leaning into. Trump's platform calls for the vast expansion of presidential powers and the executive branch over every part of the federal government. Trump has called for stripping employment protections for thousands of career civil service employees and replacing them with political loyalists if deemed an "obstacle to his agenda" within federal agencies, the United States Intelligence Community, State Department, and Department of Defense. Trump has repeatedly stated his intention to have the Justice Department investigate and arrest his domestic political rivals, judges, prosecutors, and witnesses involved in his criminal trials. A large number of scholars, historians, commentators, former Trump officials and generals have described Trump as a fascist. Trump has said his political opponents are a greater threat to the United States than countries such as Russia, China, and North Korea, and has urged deploying the military on American soil to fight "the enemy from within" which he describes as "radical left lunatics" and Democratic politicians such as Adam Schiff. Trump has repeatedly voiced support for outlawing political dissent and criticism he considers misleading or challenges his claims to power. Trump has previously tried to prosecute his political rivals and would have fewer checks on his power in a second term.

Project 2025 is a proposed plan by the Heritage Foundation to centralize power into the executive branch for conservative policies to be enacted without input from the judicial branch, legislative branch or local government. The plan received some support from the Republican Party. The document was written in part by former members of the Trump administration, such as Russell Vought and John McEntee, while Trump stated he is unfamiliar with parts of the plan.

Trump's campaign has been noted for using increasingly dehumanizing and violent rhetoric against his political opponents. Calling the January 6, 2021, Capitol attack a "day of love," Trump has promised to pardon those charged for their involvement and has called those charged "hostages" and "great, great patriots." Trump has played down but not ruled out violence after the 2024 election if he does not win, stating, "it depends." Harris was tasked by Biden with protecting democracy through voting rights legislation through her work on the For the People Act. Harris has supported efforts to defend election workers and counter Republican efforts to restrict voting following the 2020 presidential election. Harris has stated her support to pass the Freedom to Vote Act and John Lewis Rights Voting Rights Advancement Act if elected.

Economic issues

Main article: Economy of the United States

Further information: Kamala Harris 2024 presidential campaign § Economy, Donald Trump 2024 presidential campaign § Economy and trade, and U.S. federal government response to the COVID-19 pandemic

Post-COVID inflation spike in the US, with the gray column indicating the COVID-19 recession in US

Voters consistently cited the economy as their top issue in the 2024 election. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, a global surge in inflation ensued that raised prices on many goods, though the U.S. inflation rate had declined significantly during 2023 and 2024. The New York Times reported that both candidates "embraced a vision of a powerful federal government, using its muscle to intervene in markets in pursuit of a stronger and more prosperous economy." The Wall Street Journal reported that economists found Trump's proposed policies created a greater risk of stoking inflation and generating higher budget deficits, relative to the Harris plan. Twenty-three Nobel Prize-winning economists signed a letter characterizing the Harris economic plan as "vastly superior" to the Trump plan. Trump's designated government efficiency leader Elon Musk said in October that he expected Trump's plan would involve more than $2 trillion in federal spending cuts and would cause "some temporary hardship."

Harris is running on a pro-union platform. She has promoted the passage of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, funding for small business, and previously supported an act as senator to provide a $6,000 tax credit for middle and low-income families. Harris has promised to address price gouging, bring down costs, ban hidden fees and late charges from financial institutions, limit "unfair" rent increases and cap prescription drug costs which she has said would "lower costs and save many middle-class families thousands of dollars a year".

The New York Times described Harris' economic policy as embracing "the idea that the federal government must act aggressively to foster competition and correct distortions in private markets." Harris has proposed raising taxes on corporations and high-earners to fund services for the lower and middle classes and reduce the deficit. Harris has stated she supports increasing the top tier capital gains tax rate to 28%, up from 20% and lower than Biden's proposed 39.6%. Harris has stated her support for a Billionaire Minimum Income Tax, increasing the tax on stock buybacks to 4%, and a ten-fold tax reduction for small business ranging from $5,000 to $50,000 in relief. Harris also supports efforts to create a tax on unrealized gains for those with more than a $100 million in net worth if they do not pay a minimum 25% tax rate on their income inclusive of unrealized gains so long as 80% of said wealth is in tradeable assets. The plan would impact a small percentage of America's wealthy, and Axios reported most tech founders and investors would be spared. Harris has also announced support for restoring the corporate tax rate to 28% among several other tax proposals to raise taxes and close loopholes for corporations and the wealthy that would bring in $5 trillion in additional revenue over 10 years. Harris has also proposed tax breaks to companies delivering economic benefit, such as manufacturing technologies to fight global warming and building affordable housing. Harris has proposed a ban on corporate price gouging to "help the food industry become more competitive." Harris has also expressed support for student debt relief, and Harris says she supports raising the minimum wage.

Harris says she will increase home construction to reduce housing costs, arguing that it negatively impacts the economy and hurts working-class families. Harris has proposed directing $40 billion to construction companies to build starter homes. Harris has promised to send $25,000 in down-payment assistance to every first time home buyer. Harris says she will urge Congress to enforce fair housing laws and pass a bill to bar property owners from using services that "coordinate" rents through the passage of the Preventing the Algorithmic Facilitation of Rental Housing Cartels Act, and also call on Congress to pass the Stop Predatory Investing Act by removing tax benefits to Wall Street firms that buy up large numbers of single-family homes.

Trump has proposed further individual and corporate tax cuts beyond his prior 2017 tax cuts. Trump has argued that keeping taxes low for the wealthy increases job creation, and that these policies coupled with a crackdown in illegal immigration and reduction in inflation will help the middle class. Trump says he will reduce regulation of business through the creation of an efficiency commission led by Elon Musk, along with reducing environmental regulation. By October 2024, Musk was Trump's second-largest individual campaign donor. Trump has said deporting millions of immigrants will bring housing prices down, though most economists argue it could raise prices by removing construction workers who use less real estate. Trump and Harris support not taxing tips for at least hospitality and service workers.

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 attempted largely through a universal baseline tariff of 10% to 20% on all imports, with increased penalties if trade partners manipulate their currency or engage in unfair trade practices. Trump has called for 100% tariffs on cars made outside the U.S. and a minimum 60% tariff on Chinese goods. 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 was preparing for a massive trade war. Trump's trade policies have been described as protectionist, neomercantilist or autarkist. Increasing inflation has become a more common critique of Trump's economic plans. In June 2024, 16 Nobel Prize in Economics laureates signed an open letter arguing that Trump's fiscal and trade policies coupled with efforts to limit the Federal Reserve's independence would reignite inflation in the United States. Moody's and most economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal in July 2024 predict that inflation would be worse under Trump than Biden, a result due in part to tariffs, a crack down on illegal immigration, and larger deficits. Trump incorrectly insists foreign exporters pay tariffs imposed by the U.S. government; American importers pay tariffs on goods upon arrival at U.S. ports, meaning tariffs are taxes that raise prices for imported products Americans buy. One non-partisan analysis estimated the proposed tariffs would cost $1,700 per year for the average household. The China–United States trade war Trump initiated in 2018 by imposing tariffs on China was widely characterized as a failure for the United States by the end of Trump's presidency. The Committee for a Responsible Budget found that Trump's plans would grow that national debt at roughly twice the rate of Harris' plan, while the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy found Trump's plan would only benefit the top 5% of earners.

Trump has suggested that he will abolish the federal income tax and replace it with tariffs. In June 2024, Trump discussed the idea of eliminating the income tax in a private meeting with Republican politicians. In October 2024, Trump suggested that he would scrap the income tax if he wins, pointing out that tariffs were the main sources of revenue in the 19th century.

Education

Main article: Education in the United States

Further information: Donald Trump 2024 presidential campaign § Education, 2020s controversies around critical race theory, and Parental rights movement

Trump has pledged to terminate the Department of Education, claiming it has been infiltrated by "radical zealots and Marxists." At the American Federation of Teachers national convention, Harris attacked recent efforts to ban books in school libraries. She has also previously called for raising teachers' wages.

Healthcare issues

Further information: Kamala Harris 2024 presidential campaign § Healthcare, and Donald Trump 2024 presidential campaign § Healthcare and social services

Healthcare and drug policy have been discussed during the 2024 presidential election, such as around the future of the Affordable Care Act.

Harris has supported efforts to strengthen coverage under the Affordable Care Act (also known as Obamacare), including setting caps on seniors' out-of-pocket prescription drug prices at $2,000 and limiting the cost of insulin for those on Medicare to $35 enacted as part of the Inflation Reduction Act. Harris has been a proponent of White House efforts to ban medical debt from credit reports. Harris has stated she no longer supports a single-payer healthcare system. Harris has supported the expanded child tax credit enacted in the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 that reduced child poverty by 20%. Harris has expressed support for making child care and elder care more affordable and enacting paid family leave. On August 16, 2024, Harris announced the proposal of a $6,000 child tax credit, expanding her populist economic agenda. Other policies including broadening a cap on prescription drug costs and permanently reinstating the expanded child tax credit.

Trump has continued to advocate repealing the Affordable Care Act during the 2024 election, as he did while in office. During an interview on March 11, 2024, Trump suggested he was open to cutting entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare, which the Trump campaign later claimed was merely referring to "cutting waste" and that he would protect the programs. Trump previously suggested while president in 2020 that he would "at some point" look into cutting entitlement programs, and Trump's previous budget proposals have suggested some cuts to the programs. JD Vance and Mike Johnson have also suggested cuts to Obamacare, including around pre-existing conditions, were part of Trump's plan. On the issue of subsidized care, Harris has stated she will "maintain and grow" the Affordable Care Act.

Trump has collaborated with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on his "Make America Healthy Again" agenda and appointed some Kennedy allies to his transition team. The Trump campaign has said that he will form a panel of experts and will charge them with looking into the causes of the upward trend in chronic disease patients. In October 2024, Trump said that he would let Kennedy "go wild" when it comes to policies on food, medicine, and health.

Foreign policy

Further information: Donald Trump 2024 presidential campaign § Foreign policy

Joe Biden signing Executive Order 14065 in February 2022 in response to Russia's imminent invasion of Ukraine. The United States has given billions worth of military aid to Ukraine following the Russian invasion of the country in 2022.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Israel–Hamas war and Chinese goals of expansion were some of the main foreign policy issues of the election. Harris signaled she would generally follow Biden's foreign policy on NATO and Ukraine, supporting both in the aftermath of the Russian invasion. A supporter of the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Harris was expected to continue Biden's approach, but she is seen as tougher on Israel and more sympathetic to Palestinians than Biden or Trump. Harris advocated for "de-risking" from China, a policy that encourages reducing Western economic dependence on China. Harris was expected to continue deepening American alliances in Asia and the Pacific with the intention of curbing China's rising power both economically and militarily.

Trump's 2024 campaign promoted an isolationist foreign policy based on "America First". Trump said that America's allies "treat us actually worse than our so-called enemies", adding "We protect them and then they screw us on trade", and vowed to impose tariffs on trade partners; economists said this could spark trade wars. He promised to "fundamentally reevaluate" NATO, shifting the US's defense spending from Europe towards Asia. Although NATO members are obliged to defend any other member who is attacked, Trump said he would encourage Russia to "do whatever the hell they want" to NATO allies that did not spend enough on defense. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg responded: "Any suggestion that allies will not defend each other undermines all of our security". Trump vowed that even before he is inaugurated, he will negotiate an end to the Russo-Ukrainian War in one day. He promised to quickly cut the amount of military and financial aid to Ukraine, and make Europeans reimburse the U.S. the cost of rebuilding its old stockpiles. Trump previously said he might recognize Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea, and suggested the 2022 invasion could have been prevented by Ukraine giving up parts of its own country to Russia. Trump is seen as more pro-Israel and less sympathetic to Palestine than Biden or Harris. Trump promised a tougher stance against China, but also questioned whether the United States should defend ally Taiwan. Trump suggested withdrawing troops from South Korea if it does not pay more to support U.S. troops there.

Israel–Hamas war views

Demonstrators at the March on Washington for Gaza on January 13, 2024

Further information: Israel–Hamas war protests in the United States and Israel–Hamas war protest vote movements

Polling has indicated that the majority of voters support a ceasefire and American mediation in the Israel-Hamas war. According to a YouGov poll in March 2024, 52% of Americans supported stopping weapons shipments to Israel, coming largely from Americans who voted for Biden in 2020 (62% support) and people who did not vote in 2020 (60%). Republicans opposed halting weapons shipments by 25 points. Republicans generally support arms to Israel, while Democrats are divided on the issue.

Harris was expected to largely continue Biden's approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but she is seen as tougher on Israel and more sympathetic to Palestinians than Biden or Trump. Following Hamas's attack on Israel in 2023, Harris at first supported Israel's offensive, saying "the threat Hamas poses to the people of Israel must be eliminated". However, she has since criticized Israel's actions and the Gaza humanitarian crisis. In March 2024, Harris opposed Israel's invasion of Rafah, called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and called the situation in Gaza a "humanitarian catastrophe". Harris supports continued aid to Israel and Palestine, but insists that Israel should agree to a ceasefire and hostage deal and both sides should towards a two-state solution. In the Democratic primaries, the Uncommitted National Movement led a protest campaign against Biden over the war, calling for a ceasefire and arms embargo on Israel. It received over 700,000 votes and 36 delegates. Harris is seen as more sympathetic to Palestinians, and she and her campaign interacted more with Arab-American and Uncommitted leaders. However, Harris refused to halt weapons shipments to Israel or shift policy much from Biden, saying Israel has a right to defend itself. By October, Uncommitted encouraged its members to vote for Harris.

Trump, during his first term as president, brought in more pro-Israel policies than any president before. He presented himself as a stronger defender of Israel, and is seen as less sympathetic to Palestine than Biden or Harris. Trump is expected to continue arming Israel, likely with "no strings attached" for humanitarian concerns. He voiced strong support for Israel's war on Hamas and Gaza, saying that Israel must "finish the problem". Trump told donors he would "crush" pro-Palestinian protests, deport non-citizen protesters, and "set the movement back 25 or 30 years". Trump would ban Gaza residents from entering the US. At times, he has also been critical of Israel's war in Gaza, saying Israel should "get it over with ... get back to peace and stop killing people".

LGBTQ rights

Main articles: LGBTQ rights in the United States and Transgender rights in the United States

Further information: Kamala Harris 2024 presidential campaign § LGBTQ rights, Donald Trump 2024 presidential campaign § LGBTQ rights and civil rights, and 2020s anti-LGBTQ movement in the United States

In the 2020s, conservative politicians in state legislatures have introduced a growing number of bills that restrict the rights of LGBTQ people, especially transgender people. Harris is a strong supporter of LGBTQ people's rights. She denounced legislative attacks on transgender rights in states across the country. Trump promised to roll back policies regarding transgender individuals. Trump stated he would rescind Biden's Title IX protections "on day one" for transgender students using bathrooms, locker rooms, and pronouns that align with their gender identities. Trump stated he would enact a federal law that would recognize only two genders and claimed that being transgender is a concept only recently manufactured by "the radical left". Trump pledged "severe consequences" for teachers who "suggest to a child that they could be trapped in the wrong body". Trump previously withdrew Title IX provisions that allowed transgender youth to have access to the bathrooms of their choice, and he attempted to roll-back several transgender-related policies in the Affordable Care Act. Trump repeated a false claim that children undergo transgender surgery while at school, without parental knowledge or consent.

Republican Party

Main articles: 2024 Republican Party presidential primaries and 2024 Republican Party presidential candidates

Results of the 2024 Republican presidential primaries

  Nikki Haley

  Donald Trump

Trump, the then-incumbent president, was defeated by Biden in the 2020 election and was not term-limited to run again in 2024, making him the fifth ex-president to seek a second non-consecutive term. When he won, Trump became 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 was considered an early frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination. Trump had announced in March 2022 that his former vice president Mike Pence would not be his running mate. In civil proceedings, Trump was found liable for sexual abuse and defamation in 2023, defamation and financial fraud in 2024, becoming the first former president to be convicted of a crime. 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 that contained materials sensitive to national security. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all the charges related to these indictments.

Trump faced opposition in the primaries, with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis seen as the main challenger to Trump for the Republican nomination; he had 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. DeSantis said: "American decline is not inevitable—it is a choice ... I am running for president of the United States to lead our great American comeback." 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. On March 12, 2024, Trump officially became the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. Trump was injured in an assassination attempt on July 13, 2024, when a bullet grazed his ear. This was the first time a president or major party presidential candidate was injured in an assassination attempt since Ronald Reagan in 1981. Trump faced another assassination attempt on September 15, 2024, though he was not injured. On July 15, 2024, the first day of the Republican National Convention, Trump officially announced that Senator JD Vance of Ohio would be his running mate. Vance became the first Marine and first Iraq War veteran to be elected as vice president. On July 18, 2024, Trump accepted the nomination from the Republican National Convention to become the Republican presidential nominee. This was the third consecutive election in which he was the Republican nominee.

Republican nominees

Main article: Donald Trump 2024 presidential campaign

Republican Party (United States) 2024 Republican Party ticket
Donald Trump	JD Vance
for President	for Vice President
45th President of the United States (2017–2021)	U.S. Senator from Ohio (2023–present)
Campaign

Democratic Party

Main articles: 2024 Democratic Party presidential primaries and 2024 Democratic Party presidential candidates

On April 25, 2023, President Biden officially announced his bid for re-election, confirming that Vice President Harris would remain his running mate. Following this announcement, Republicans increased their focus on Harris, intensifying criticism against her. During late 2021, amid Biden's declining approval ratings, speculation arose regarding whether he would seek re-election. Public figures, including former Representatives Carolyn Maloney, Tim Ryan and Joe Cunningham, urged Biden not to run.

Concerns about Biden's age were prominent, given that he was the oldest person to assume the office at age 78, which would make him 82 at the end of his first term and 86 at the end of a potential second term. An April 2023 poll indicated that 70 percent of Americans, including 51 percent of Democrats, believed Biden should not seek a second term, with nearly half citing his age as the reason. Biden's approval rating stood at 41 percent, with 55 percent disapproving according to the FiveThirtyEight national polling average. Speculation also arose that Biden might face a primary challenge from the Democratic Party's progressive faction; however, after Democrats outperformed expectations in the 2022 midterm elections, many believed Biden's chances of securing the party's nomination had increased.

Author Marianne Williamson was the first to challenge Biden by announcing her candidacy in February 2023. In April 2023, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. also entered the race but later shifted his campaign to an independent run on October 9, 2023. Representative Dean Phillips joined the race on October 26, 2023; he withdrew in March 2024 and endorsed Biden. Williamson initially withdrew from the race in February 2024 but later resumed her campaign, only to end it again on June 11, 2024. Jason Palmer, who surprised many by winning the American Samoa caucuses, became the first candidate to win a contested primary against an incumbent president since Ted Kennedy in 1980; however, he suspended his campaign on May 15, 2024. On March 12, 2024, Biden secured a majority of delegates, becoming the presumptive Democratic nominee.

Biden addressing the nation from the Oval Office on his decision to withdraw from the race, July 24, 2024

Despite securing the nomination, Biden faced significant opposition from uncommitted voters and the Uncommitted National Movement, who collectively garnered more votes than several major contenders in the 2020 Democratic primaries and won 36 delegates. Following a widely panned debate performance against Trump on June 27, 2024, Biden withdrew from the race on July 21, endorsing Harris as his successor. Harris quickly announced her campaign and secured enough delegate endorsements by July 22, becoming the presumptive nominee. Biden's withdrawal made him the first eligible incumbent president since Lyndon B. Johnson in 1968 not to seek re-election, and the first to withdraw after securing enough delegates to win the nomination. Harris is the first nominee who did not participate in the presidential primaries since Vice President Hubert Humphrey, also in 1968.

Following Biden's withdrawal, Tim Walz, Josh Shapiro, Mark Kelly, and Andy Beshear emerged as lead candidates in the veepstakes. Shapiro received pushback from pro-Palestine activists for comments on college protesters, as well as for claiming to volunteer for the IDF, while Kelly was criticized by labor groups. The Democratic Party conducted a virtual roll call vote on August 2, where Harris secured the majority of delegate votes and became the official nominee on August 5. She selected Walz as her running mate the following day.

Democratic nominees

Main article: Kamala Harris 2024 presidential campaign

Democratic Party (United States) 2024 Democratic Party ticket
Kamala Harris	Tim Walz
for President	for Vice President
49th Vice President of the United States (2021–present)	41st Governor of Minnesota (2019–present)
Campaign

Third-party and independent candidates

Main article: Third-party and independent candidates for the 2024 United States presidential election

A number of independent candidates have announced presidential runs, most notably Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Cornel West. Several third parties, including the Libertarian Party, the Green Party, the Party for Socialism and Liberation, the Constitution Party, and the American Solidarity Party also announced presidential nominees. Kennedy dropped out of the race in August 2024, although he remained on the ballot in many states. The No Labels organization abandoned its efforts to run a centrist candidate in April 2024.

With majority ballot access

Libertarian Party

Main articles: 2024 Libertarian Party presidential primaries and Chase Oliver 2024 presidential campaign

Chase Oliver was chosen by the Libertarian Party as its presidential nominee on May 26, 2024, at the 2024 Libertarian National Convention. Oliver was the party's candidate in the 2022 United States Senate election in Georgia. Oliver achieved ballot access in 47 states, and was eligible to receive write-in votes in the District of Columbia, Illinois, New York, and Tennessee.

2024 Libertarian Party ticket
Chase Oliver	Mike ter Maat
for President	for Vice President
Sales account executive from Georgia	Economist from Virginia

Green Party

Main articles: 2024 Green Party presidential primaries and Jill Stein 2024 presidential campaign

Stein was also the party's candidate in 2012 and 2016. Stein is a physician and a former member of the Lexington Town Meeting. On August 16, Stein selected academic Butch Ware as her running mate. Stein achieved ballot access in 38 states, and was eligible to receive write-in votes in seven states. She was not eligible to receive write-in votes in the remaining states or the District of Columbia.

2024 Green Party ticket
Jill Stein	Butch Ware
for President	for Vice President
Physician from Massachusetts	Academic from California

With partial ballot access

These third-party candidates had ballot access in some states, but not enough to get 270 votes needed to win the presidency, without running a write-in campaign.

• American Solidarity Party: Peter Sonski, Connecticut school board member
• Approval Voting Party: Blake Huber, activist and nominee for president in 2020
• Constitution Party: Randall Terry, anti-abortion activist and perennial candidate
• Independent American Party: Joel Skousen, survivalist and consultant
• Natural Law Party: Robert F. Kennedy Jr., environmental lawyer; Kennedy was the party's nominee in addition to his run as an independent before he withdrew from the race ahead of the election, but was not removed from ballots
• Prohibition Party: Michael Wood, businessman
• Party for Socialism and Liberation: Claudia De la Cruz, political activist
• Socialist Equality Party: Joseph Kishore, writer and SEP nominee in 2020
• Socialist Workers Party: Rachele Fruit, hotel worker and trade unionist
• Socialist Party USA: Bill Stodden, nonprofit executive

Independent candidates

The following notable individuals ran independently for president.

• Cornel West, academic, anti-war activist and public intellectual, previously a People's Party and Green Party primaries candidate, launched an independent campaign.

Withdrawn candidates

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

• Robert F. Kennedy Jr., environmental lawyer, anti-vaccine activist and conspiracy theorist, 2024 Democratic presidential candidate and 2024 independent presidential candidate (endorsed Trump)

Timeline

Main article: Timeline of the 2024 United States presidential election

Opinion polling and forecasts

Opinion polling aggregation

Main article: Nationwide opinion polling for the 2024 United States presidential election

See also: Statewide opinion polling for the 2024 United States presidential election

Harris and Trump

Source of poll aggregation	Dates administered	Dates updated	Kamala Harris Democratic	Donald Trump Republican	Others/ Undecided	Margin
270toWin	through November 4, 2024	November 5, 2024	48.4%	47.2%	4.4%	Harris +1.2%
538	through November 4, 2024	November 5, 2024	48.0%	46.8%	5.2%	Harris +1.2%
Cook Political Report	through November 4, 2024	November 5, 2024	48.7%	47.8%	3.5%	Harris +0.9%
Decision Desk HQ/The Hill	through November 5, 2024	November 5, 2024	48.4%	48.4%	3.2%	Tie
Silver Bulletin	through November 4, 2024	November 5, 2024	48.6%	47.6%	3.8%	Harris +1.0%
Real Clear Politics	through November 5, 2024	November 5, 2024	48.7%	48.6%	2.7%	Harris +0.1%
Average			48.5%	47.7%	3.8%	Harris +0.8%

Harris vs. Trump vs. Kennedy Jr. vs. Stein vs. Oliver vs. West

Source of poll aggregation	Dates administered	Dates updated	Kamala Harris Democratic	Donald Trump Republican	Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Independent	Jill Stein Green	Chase Oliver Libertarian	Cornel West Independent	Others/ Undecided	Margin
Race to the WH	through November 3, 2024	November 4, 2024	47.8%	47.1%	1.3%	0.8%	0.9%	0.6%	1.5%	Harris +0.7%
270toWin	through November 4, 2024	November 4, 2024	47.5%	46.9%	1.2%	1.2%	0.7%	0.4%	2.1%	Harris +0.6%
Average			47.7%	47.0%	1.3%	1.0%	0.8%	0.5%	1.7%	Harris +0.7%

Electoral College forecasts

Elections analysts and political pundits issue probabilistic forecasts of the composition of the Electoral College. These forecasts use a variety of factors to estimate the likelihood of each candidate winning the Electoral College electors for that 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
• "very likely" (used by some predictors): massive advantage that is stronger than "likely"
• "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 forecasters The Cook Political Report, Sabato's Crystal Ball, Inside Elections, CNalysis, Decision Desk HQ, and YouGov are omitted for brevity.

State	EVs	PVI	2020 result	2020 margin	IE Nov 3	Cook Nov 4	CNalysis Nov 4	Sabato Nov 4	CNN Oct 8	DDHQ Nov 5	538 Nov 5	Economist Nov 5	YouGov Nov 1
Colorado	10	D+4	55.4% D	13.50%	Solid D	Solid D	Solid D	Safe D	Lean D	Likely D	Solid D	Safe D	Safe D
New Mexico	5	D+3	54.3% D	10.79%	Solid D	Likely D	Very Likely D	Likely D	Lean D	Likely D	Likely D	Likely D	Safe D
Virginia	13	D+3	54.1% D	10.11%	Likely D	Likely D	Solid D	Likely D	Lean D	Likely D	Likely D	Likely D	Safe D
Maine	2	D+2	53.1% D	9.07%	Likely D	Likely D	Solid D	Likely D	Solid D	Safe D	Likely D	Likely D	Safe D
New Hampshire	4	D+1	52.7% D	7.35%	Lean D	Likely D	Solid D	Likely D	Lean D	Likely D	Likely D	Likely D	Safe D
Minnesota	10	D+1	52.4% D	7.11%	Lean D	Likely D	Solid D	Likely D	Lean D	Lean D	Likely D	Likely D	Likely D
NE–02	1	EVEN	52.0% D	6.50%	Lean D	Likely D	Solid D	Likely D	Lean D	Likely D	Likely D	Likely D	Tossup
Michigan	15	R+1	50.6% D	2.78%	Tossup	Tossup	Likely D	Lean D	Tossup	Tossup	Lean D	Lean D	Lean D
Nevada	6	R+1	50.1% D	2.39%	Tossup	Tossup	Tilt D	Lean D	Tossup	Tossup	Tossup	Tossup	Tossup
Pennsylvania	19	R+2	50.0% D	1.16%	Tossup	Tossup	Lean D	Lean D	Tossup	Tossup	Tossup	Tossup	Tossup
Wisconsin	10	R+2	49.5% D	0.63%	Tossup	Tossup	Lean D	Lean D	Tossup	Tossup	Tossup	Tossup	Tossup
Arizona	11	R+2	49.4% D	0.31%	Tossup	Tossup	Tilt R (flip)	Lean R (flip)	Tossup	Tossup	Lean R (flip)	Lean R (flip)	Tossup
Georgia	16	R+3	49.5% D	0.24%	Tossup	Tossup	Likely D	Lean R (flip)	Tossup	Tossup	Tossup	Tossup	Tossup
North Carolina	16	R+3	49.9% R	1.35%	Tossup	Tossup	Tilt D (flip)	Lean R	Tossup	Tossup	Tossup	Tossup	Tossup
Florida	30	R+3	51.2% R	3.36%	Lean R	Likely R	Likely R	Likely R	Lean R	Likely R	Likely R	Likely R	Lean R
Texas	40	R+5	52.1% R	5.58%	Likely R	Likely R	Lean R	Likely R	Solid R	Likely R	Likely R	Likely R	Lean R
ME–02	1	R+6	52.3% R	7.44%	Lean R	Likely R	Very Likely R	Likely R	Lean R	Likely R	Likely R	Likely R	Tossup
Ohio	17	R+6	53.3% R	8.03%	Likely R	Solid R	Likely R	Safe R	Solid R	Likely R	Likely R	Safe R	Safe R
Iowa	6	R+6	53.1% R	8.20%	Tilt R	Likely R	Tilt R	Likely R	Solid R	Likely R	Likely R	Likely R	Safe R
Alaska	3	R+8	52.8% R	10.06%	Solid R	Solid R	Very Likely R	Safe R	Solid R	Solid R	Likely R	Safe R	Safe R
NE–01	1	R+9	54.3% R	11.00%	Solid R	Solid R	Solid R	Likely R	Solid R	Solid R	Solid R	Safe R	Safe R
Kansas	6	R+10	56.14% R	14.63%	Solid R	Solid R	Very Likely R	Safe R	Solid R	Solid R	Solid R	Safe R	Safe R
Overall					D – 226 R – 219 93 tossups	D – 226 R – 219 93 tossups	D – 308 R – 230 0 tossups	D – 276 R – 262 0 tossups	D – 226 R – 219 93 tossups	D – 226 R – 219 93 tossups	D – 241 R – 230 67 tossups	D – 241 R – 230 67 tossups	D – 240 R – 218 80 tossups

Debates

Main article: 2024 United States presidential debates

In April 2022, the Republican National Committee voted unanimously to withdraw from the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD). In May 2024, the Biden campaign proposed hosting two debates outside of the CPD timetable and refusing to participate in CPD-hosted debates. Biden and Trump agreed to debates on CNN on June 27 and ABC News on September 10. The Harris camp suggested that another debate could be held in October after the September 10 debate with Trump. On September 12, Trump announced that there would be no third presidential debate.

June 27 presidential debate: Biden vs. Trump

Main article: Joe Biden–Donald Trump 2024 presidential debate

CNN hosted the first major debate of the election on June 27 in Atlanta, with 51 million viewers watching. Media outlets characterized Biden's debate performance as a "disaster". Some pundits noted that he frequently lost his train of thought and gave meandering, confused answers.

G. Elliott Morris and Kaleigh Rogers of ABC News' 538 argued that Biden had failed to reassure voters that he was capable of serving as president for another four years. After the debate, elected officials, party strategists, and fundraisers conversed about replacing Biden as the party's candidate, including whether prominent Democrats should make a public statement asking him to step aside. In response, Biden initially stated that he would not be dropping out, and prominent Democratic politicians, including Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, reiterated their support for Biden following the debate. The debate performance led to Biden ultimately withdrawing his bid for re-election on July 21.

September 10 presidential debate: Harris vs. Trump

Further information: 2024 United States presidential debates § September 10: Second presidential debate (ABC, Philadelphia)

The second presidential debate was held on Tuesday, September 10 by ABC News with 67.1 million viewers watching. Trump had proposed a debate on Fox News instead of the ABC debate, but later accepted the debate on ABC. The debate was held at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia and lasted for about 100 minutes. ABC's debate topics included abortion, the economy, foreign policy, and immigration. Most news organizations declared Harris the winner of the debate, and polling showed voters thought Harris won the debate by what The Washington Post described as a "historically large" margin. During the debate, Trump made numerous false assertions and extreme statements, including false claims about immigrants eating pets and Democrats supporting infanticide. CNN found that Trump made over 30 false claims during the debate, but Harris only made one. Republicans attributed Trump's low debate performance to their perception of biased debate moderation by ABC News, because the moderators fact-checked him more than four times but did not fact-check Harris.

October 1 vice presidential debate: Vance vs. Walz

Further information: 2024 United States presidential debates § October 1: Vice presidential debate (CBS, New York City)

Vice presidential candidates JD Vance and Tim Walz participated in a debate hosted by CBS News on October 1 at the CBS Broadcast Center in New York City. Topics discussed during the debate included immigration, abortion, and the economy. Fact checking was primarily done online only, with Vance making more false and misleading claims than Walz.

Forty-three million viewers watched the debate. Many debate watchers viewed the debate as "positive" and "civil". According to polling, both candidates polled about even among viewers who were asked who won the debate, while Vance was considered the winner by a majority of columnists.

Minor debates and forums

Main article: Third-party and independent candidates for the 2024 United States presidential election § Debates and forums

Various debates and forums were held, sponsored by the Free & Equal Elections Foundation.

Results

Electoral results

As of

Preliminary results with 94% of the expected vote counted.

Electoral results

Presidential candidate	Party	Home state	Popular vote		Electoral vote	Running mate
			Count	Percentage		Vice-presidential candidate	Home state	Electoral vote
Donald Trump	Republican	Florida	73,349,446	50.83%	301	JD Vance	Ohio	301
Kamala Harris	Democratic	California	67,676,608	47.53%	226	Tim Walz	Minnesota	226
Jill Stein	Green	Massachusetts	636,737	0.45%	0	Butch Ware	California	0
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.	Independent	California	619,232	0.43%	0	Nicole Shanahan	California	0
Chase Oliver	Libertarian	Georgia	570,843	0.40%	0	Michael ter Maat	Virginia	0
Other			498,132	0.35%	—	Other		—
(Uncalled)	—	—	—	—	11	(Uncalled)	—	11
Total			142,380,403	100%	538			538
Needed to win					270			270

Popular vote Trump   50.83% Harris   47.53% Stein   0.45% Kennedy   0.43% Oliver   0.40% Others   0.35%

Electoral vote—pledged Trump   55.95% Harris   42.01% Uncalled   2.04%

Results by state

Legend

States won by Trump/Vance
States won by Harris/Walz
EV	Electoral votes
†	At-large results (for Maine and Nebraska, which both split electoral votes)

State or district	Trump/Vance Republican			Harris/Walz Democratic			Stein/Ware Green			Kennedy/Shanahan Independent			Oliver/Maat Libertarian			Others			Margin		Margin swing	Total votes
	Votes	%	EV	Votes	%	EV	Votes	%	EV	Votes	%	EV	Votes	%	EV	Votes	%	EV	Votes	%	%
Alabama			9			–			–			–			–			–
Alaska			3			–			–			–			–			–
Arizona									–			–			–			–
Arkansas			6			–			–			–			–			–
California			–			54			–			–			–			–
Colorado			–			10			–			–			–			–
Connecticut			–			7			–			–			–			–
Delaware			–			3			–			–			–			–
District of Columbia			–			3			–			–			–			–
Florida			30			–			–			–			–			–
Georgia			16			–			–			–			–			–
Hawaii			–			4			–			–			–			–
Idaho			4			–			–			–			–			–
Illinois			–			19			–			–			–			–
Indiana			11			–			–			–			–			–
Iowa			6			–			–			–			–			–
Kansas			6			–			–			–			–			–
Kentucky			8			–			–			–			–			–
Louisiana			8			–			–			–			–			–
Maine †			–			2			–			–			–			–
ME-1Tooltip Maine's 1st congressional district			–			1			–			–			–			–
ME-2Tooltip Maine's 2nd congressional district			1			–			–			–			–			–
Maryland			–			10			–			–			–			–
Massachusetts			–			11			–			–			–			–
Michigan			15			–			–			–			–			–
Minnesota			–			10			–			–			–			–
Mississippi			6			–			–			–			–			–
Missouri			10			–			–			–			–			–
Montana			4			–			–			–			–			–
Nebraska †			2			–			–			–			–			–
NE-1Tooltip Nebraska's 1st congressional district			1			–			–			–			–			–
NE-2Tooltip Nebraska's 2nd congressional district			–			1			–			–			–			–
NE-3Tooltip Nebraska's 3rd congressional district			1			–			–			–			–			–
Nevada									–			–			–			–
New Hampshire			–			4			–			–			–			–
New Jersey			–			14			–			–			–			–
New Mexico			–			5			–			–			–			–
New York			–			28			–			–			–			–
North Carolina			16			–			–			–			–			–
North Dakota			3			–			–			–			–			–
Ohio			17			–			–			–			–			–
Oklahoma			7			–			–			–			–			–
Oregon			–			8			–			–			–			–
Pennsylvania			19			–			–			–			–			–
Rhode Island			–			4			–			–			–			–
South Carolina			9			–			–			–			–			–
South Dakota			3			–			–			–			–			–
Tennessee			11			–			–			–			–			–
Texas			40			–			–			–			–			–
Utah			6			–			–			–			–			–
Vermont			–			3			–			–			–			–
Virginia			–			13			–			–			–			–
Washington			–			12			–			–			–			–
West Virginia			4			–			–			–			–			–
Wisconsin			10			–			–			–			–			–
Wyoming			3			–			–			–			–			–
Total			295			226			–			–			–			–
	Trump/Vance Republican			Harris/Walz Democratic			Stein/Ware Green			Kennedy/Shanahan Libertarian			Oliver/Maat Libertarian			Others			Margin		Margin swing	Total votes

States that flipped from Democratic to Republican

• Georgia
• Michigan
• Pennsylvania
• Wisconsin

Statistical analysis

As of 2024, Trump was the eighth presidential nominee to win a significant number of electoral votes in at least three elections, after Thomas Jefferson, Henry Clay, Andrew Jackson, Grover Cleveland, William Jennings Bryan, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Richard Nixon. Nixon and Trump are the only presidential candidates to win a significant number of electoral votes in three presidential elections since term limits were enacted with the ratification of the Twenty-second Amendment; Trump is the only one of those eight that won the popular vote only once. Trump is also the first president since Cleveland in 1892 to win non-consecutive terms, and the only president to win non-consecutive terms since the ratification of the Twenty-second Amendment, as well as the first Republican to do so. Trump is the first Republican since 2004 to win a second term, and the first to win the popular vote since 2004. Trump is the first non-incumbent Republican to have won the popular vote since 1988.

Voter demographics

2024 presidential election voter demographics

Demographic subgroup	Trump	Harris	% of total vote
Ideology
Liberals	47	51	18
Moderates	80	17	37
Conservatives	98	1	44
Party
Democrats	44	55	26
Republicans	99	1	44
Independents	82	15	30
Gender
Men	88	9	54
Women	80	18	46
Marital status
Married	91	8	54
Unmarried	77	19	46
Gender by marital status
Married men	95	3	28
Married women	86	13	26
Unmarried men	84	12	20
Unmarried women	73	24	27
Race/ethnicity
White	92	6	71
Black	48	50	11
Latino	81	17	12
Asian	74	19	3
Native American	95	30	1
Other	87	8	2
Gender by race/ethnicity
White men	95	2	34
White women	88	10	37
Black men	54	42	5
Black women	42	56	7
Latino men	90	8	6
Latina women	73	25	6
Other	81	13	6
Religion
Protestant/Other Christian	98	1	42
Catholic	93	5	22
Jewish	55	43	2
Other religion	69	24	10
No religious affiliation	61	36	24
Religion by race
White Protestant/Other Christian	99	1	30
White Catholic	96	3	15
White Jewish	60	40	2
White other religion	83	12	5
White no religious affiliation	67	31	17
White evangelical or born again Christian
Yes	99	1	22
No	79	18	78
Age
18–24 years old	77	19	9
25–29 years old	80	18	6
30–39 years old	81	15	16
40–49 years old	85	13	16
50–64 years old	91	8	27
65 and older	84	14	28
Age by gender
Men 18–29 years old	84	12	7
Men 30–44 years old	88	8	12
Men 45–64 years old	95	3	16
Men 65 and older	90	9	12
Women 18–29 years old	72	26	7
Women 30–44 years old	78	19	12
Women 45–64 years old	85	14	19
Women 65 years and older	80	19	16
Age by race
White 18–29 years old	84	14	8
White 30–44 years old	90	7	15
White 45–64 years old	97	2	25
White 65 and older	90	9	22
Black 18–29 years old	50	49	2
Black 30–44 years old	50	47	3
Black 45–64 years old	50	48	4
Black 65 and older	40	58	3
Latino 18–29 years old	82	14	3
Latino 30–44 years old	80	17	3
Latino 45–64 years old	84	15	4
Latino 65 and older	76	23	2
Others	81	13	6
Sexual orientation
LGBT	48	51	8
Non-LGBT	88	10	92
First time voter
Yes	91	8	8
No	85	13	92
Education
High school or less	98	2	15
Some college education	87	12	26
Associate degree	91	6	16
Bachelor's degree	80	18	24
Postgraduate degree	73	24	19
Education by race
White college graduates	45	52	33
White no college degree	66	32	39
Non-White college graduates	32	65	10
Non-White no college degree	34	64	19
Education by race/gender
White women with college degrees	41	57	17
White women without college degrees	63	35	20
White men with college degrees	50	47	16
White men without college degrees	69	29	18
Non-White	33	64	29
Income
Under $30,000	46	50	12
$30,000–49,999	53	45	16
$50,000–99,999	51	46	32
$100,000–199,999	47	51	28
Over $200,000	45	51	13
Union households
Yes	45	53	19
No	50	47	81
Military service
Veterans	65	34	12
Non-veterans	48	50	88
Region
East	46	51	21
Midwest	53	46	22
South	55	44	35
West	43	54	23
Area type
Urban	38	59	29
Suburban	51	47	51
Rural	64	34	19
White suburban voters by gender
White suburban women	53	46	19
White suburban men	62	35	18
Other voters	46	52	63
Biden job approval
Strongly disapprove	93	4	45
Somewhat disapprove	43	54	14
Somewhat approve	4	95	24
Strongly approve	2	98	15
Feeling about the way things are going in U.S.
Dissatisfied	56	42	43
Angry	72	27	30
Satisfied	18	81	19
Enthusiastic	11	89	6
America's best days are
In the future	40	58	61
In the past	67	31	35
Quality of candidate that mattered most
Has ability to lead	66	30	30
Can bring needed change	74	24	28
Has good judgment	16	82	20
Cares about people like me	25	73	18
Vote for president mainly
For your candidate	55	44	73
Against their opponent	37	60	24
Which candidate is too extreme
Trump is too extreme	2	97	45
Harris is too extreme	98	1	38
Both Harris and Trump are too extreme	63	21	8
Neither Harris or Trump is too extreme	65	26	5
Decided on presidential vote
Before September	50	49	79
In September	42	54	7
In October	40	47	6
In last week	54	42	3
In last few days	47	41	4
Issue regarded as most important
Democracy	18	80	34
Economy	80	19	32
Abortion	25	74	14
Immigration	90	9	11
Foreign policy	57	37	4
Democracy threatened in the United States
Democracy in U.S. very threatened	51	47	38
Democracy in U.S. somewhat threatened	50	49	35
Democracy in U.S. somewhat secure	48	50	17
Democracy in U.S. very secure	54	45	8
Confident election being conducted fairly and accurately
Very confident	14	84	35
Somewhat confident	58	39	33
Not very confident	82	16	21
Not at all confident	79	19	10
Concerned about violence as result of election
Yes	42	56	70
No	69	29	28
Condition of the nation's economy
Not so good	54	44	35
Poor	87	10	33
Good	8	91	27
Excellent	10	89	5
Family's financial situation today
Worse than four years ago	81	17	46
About the same	28	69	30
Better than four years ago	14	82	24
Inflation caused family hardship within past year
Moderate hardship	51	45	53
No hardship	20	77	24
Severe hardship	74	24	22
Abortion should be
Legal in all cases	10	87	32
Legal in most cases	49	49	33
Illegal in most cases	92	7	26
Illegal in all cases	88	11	6
Opinion of Supreme Court
Approve	83	14	35
Disapprove	26	71	60
Most undocumented immigrants in the U.S. should be
Offered chance at legal status	22	75	56
Deported	87	11	40
U.S. support for Israel is
Too strong	30	67	31
About right	39	59	31
Not strong enough	82	17	30

Aftermath

Election night

A Voice of America report on Trump's victory.

MCC-CFR Election Night - Peter Boghossian, Gladden Pappin, Miklós Szánthó

NewsNation was the first TV network to call the race for Trump; the network relied on data from Decision Desk HQ, and the projection was made at 1:22 a.m. EST on November 6. Fox News projected Trump as the winner at 1:47 a.m. before CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC and the Associated Press began declaring towards his favor at 2:25 a.m. In a convention center in West Palm Beach, Florida, he was greeted with cheers by supporters, chanting, "USA! USA! USA!" when Fox News declared him the winner. Trump claimed victory in a speech to his supporters, where he was joined on stage by his family and his running mate, JD Vance, saying: "America has given us an unprecedented and powerful mandate." Harris did not speak to her supporters, who had gathered at Howard University, her alma mater. Her campaign co-chair, Cedric Richmond, briefly addressed the crowd, saying Harris would speak publicly on Wednesday. A few hours later, other media outlets would also project Trump as the 47th president of the United States, with the Associated Press describing it as an "extraordinary comeback for a former president".

Reactions

Political

Harris conceded victory to Trump on November 6, 2024.

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders criticized the Democratic campaign afterward, saying the party "abandoned working class people" and found that "the working class has abandoned them." He blamed "big money" and "well-paid consultants" for the loss, and he argued against sending billions of dollars in military aid to Israel.

Former president George W. Bush, who had declined to endorse either candidate, offered his congratulations to Trump and said that what he defined as a "strong turnout" in the election was a "sign of the health of our republic and the strength of our democratic institutions". Former president Barack and his wife Michelle Obama released a statement admitting their "profound disagreements with the Republican ticket on a whole host of issues", and lauded Harris and Walz's efforts yet emphasized "recognising that our point of view won't always win out, and being willing to accept the peaceful transfer of power" concerning the incoming Trump administration.

On November 6, the day after Trump's victory, Harris publicly conceded her loss.

International reactions

Main article: International reactions to the 2024 United States presidential election

Financial

Wall Street's main indexes reported record highs on the day after election night, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 3.57%, the S&P 500 up 2.53%, and Nasdaq up 2.95%. Elon Musk, a prominent Trump supporter and the CEO of Tesla Motors, saw a nearly $20 billion increase in his fortune following a post-election surge in the company's stock by 12% to a high of $288 per share. On the Friday after, November 8, Tesla's shares surged more than 6%, bringing the company's market cap to $1 trillion. Its growth started from $807.1 billion through Tuesday's close, rallying a total of 27% during election week. By Friday, the stock was up about 26% year to date.

"Stolen election" conspiracies

Following Trump's victory, some Harris supporters on X shared election denial conspiracy theories, claiming that millions of ballots were "left uncounted" and there being something "not right" with the election. Such posts falsely claiming Trump "stole" the election peaked at noon the day after at 94,000 posts per hour, with many receiving amplification and gaining over a million views each. According to Gordon Crovitz, the CEO of the media rating system NewsGuard, the phrase "Trump cheated" received 92,100 mentions on the platform since midnight until the Wednesday morning after. Besides the claims from Harris's supporters, some Trump supporters baselessly claimed the disparity between other years, the 2020 election, and a then-incomplete 2024 voting total indicated voter fraud in the 2020 election.

One major "basis" these false claims were founded upon was a claim that Biden won 20 million more votes in his prior election bid than Harris did in hers. At the time these fallacies were disseminated, votes were still being counted in many states. An estimate around the time using the Associated Press vote percentage total found that 16.2 million votes across twenty states and Washington D.C. had yet to be counted. Statistical analysis of voting asserted that despite continued counting, the projections were already set and new ballots would not sway the outcomes of any of the states and D.C. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency director Jen Easterly refuted the false claims, and wrote in a statement that there was "no evidence of any malicious activity that had a material impact on the security or integrity of our election infrastructure".

Analysis

Harris's loss

Harris's loss to Trump received substantial media analysis. The New York Times reported on a "depressed and demoralized Democratic Party" searching for answers of what went wrong, and suggested that it foreboded an interparty battle to come between its ideological factions. It noted that Democratic officials largely discussed the impact of misinformation and a "diminished" news environment filled with right-wing propaganda; that Harris had paid a price for not breaking with Biden's support of Israel in Gaza that alienated Arab American voters in Michigan; that some felt the party had moved too far to the left on social issues such as transgender rights and identity politics; and others argued that the party shifted too far to the right and ignored the interests of the working class. The Times reported that several officials assessed that the party had become too beholden to the interests of its large coalition of identity groups and that it failed to articulate a coherent vision for the future.

The Independent's Jon Sopel wrote that the most pressing issues that decided Harris's defeat were matters Biden had been perceived as a failure at by the American public; these included the fact that, as part of the global 2021–2023 inflation surge, inflation went up by 20% and wages had not adjusted to match, as well as the state of the Mexico–United States border. Sopel said that by "embracing the Biden agenda, [Harris] was simply tying herself to his unpopularity". Sopel opined that the Democratic Party was out of touch with the popular mood in the U.S., pointing to its lack of action on illegal immigration, its lack of attention to the economic state, and the majority of Americans' lack of interest in the Biden administration's diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. Time cited a Democratic strategist who worked with Biden, who said the party has "long known they were weak with Latino and Black men", making Harris's focus on women and appeals concerning protection of reproductive rights "a major misstep" in her bid. In another Time piece, Henry M. J. Tonks tied the result to the party's prioritization of professional class workers and suburbs over working class, blue-collar voters. He argued the shift away from working-class voters had been occurring since the late 1960s in response to the Vietnam War and the growth of the tech industry.

"For much of this election year, the populists' modern-day successors in the Democrats have served up an anti-populism: telling voters they were wrong. Americans were told they were wrong to see the corrosion of Joe Biden's abilities, and wrong to think that his replacement should not be decided in a giant backroom stitch-up. They were wrong not to enjoy the US economic miracle, and wrong not to worry about the future of democracy. Black and brown people and students were wrong to expect the party to oppose the bloodbath in Gaza. Latinos were ungrateful to desert the party of racial equality, while Black men were boneheaded not to back a Black woman. Everyone was wrong not to lap up the rallies opened by Beyoncé and Usher, the skits on Saturday Night Live and that clip of Barack Obama rapping. Why couldn't they just feel the joy?"

–The Guardian on the Democratic Party's decisions which led to their defeat.

CNN's Edward-Isaac Dovere felt that some problems, such as the problems with her staff, could have been solved but others like her ties with Biden could not have been. Dovere mused that had Biden stepped down earlier, the Democratic Party might have had the time to launch a proper primary campaign. He also mused that Walz was chosen because he could not "outshine" her, and that this reflected her "newfound confidence and her long-standing insecurity". The Economic Times cited surveys showing "broad negative sentiment" about the economy, and Harris being "relentlessly hammered" by Trump during campaigns about this. The Economic Times cited University of Richmond School of Law professor Carl Tobias's appraisal of Trump's stance on immigration winning over Harris's, and mentioned how Trump had increased his support from Hispanics, especially near the Mexican American border and in areas impacted by recent immigration. Los Angeles Times's Noah Bierman felt Harris could not overcome being the "turn the page" candidate, and cited former president Barack Obama's lead strategist David Axelrod, who said: "If you're the vice president of an administration people want to fire, you're way behind the eight-ball to start." Bierman wrote that besides criminal context, Trump "never followed a script, scoffed at the rules and spoke directly to the economic and cultural anxieties of the country". David Brooks argued that the election result was part of a revolt against social elites from a postindustrial society that valued academic achievement over vocational training and the aggressive promotion of free trade that moved jobs overseas, stating "many on the left focused on racial inequality, gender inequality and L.G.B.T.Q. inequality" instead of class inequality and a sense of respect. Timothy Shenk argued that Democrats failed to articulate a vision for the future other than being against Trump and did not lean into a message of economic populism that polled best with swing voters, but also that the election looked more like a rejection of Biden than the embrace of Trump.

The BBC's Courtney Subramanian said Harris "couldn't shake the anti-Biden sentiment that permeated much of the electorate", that she "failed to deliver a convincing argument about why she should lead the country", did not state a strategy to combat economic frustrations, and failed to address widespread concerns over immigration. David Faris in Newsweek argued that the Harris campaign focused too much on "never-Trumpers", failed to break with Biden, and that voters were "angry" about economics and immigration and "they took that misery out on the sitting vice president". Jeet Heer in The Nation gave a similar assessment, additionally attributing Harris' loss to widespread "anti-system" sentiment and stating that Democrats can only win if they "become the party that aspires to be more than caretakers of a broken system but rather is willing to embrace radical policies to change that status quo." Vox's Nicole Narea highlighted real inflation, rising unemployment, and rising consumer debt and falling savings as key economic indicators that Democrats "may have missed". In another Vox article, Andrew Prokop argued Harris suffered from a worldwide backlash to incumbents over inflation, as well as her struggles unifying the party over Gaza, failing to be a change candidate, and her difficulty in defending or abandoning positions she took during her 2020 presidential run. As of November 7, 2024, every incumbent party in a developed country facing election in 2024 had lost vote share, which is the first time this ever happened since 1905 (where data is available) and the first time in the history of democracy as universal suffrage began in 1894.

Trump's victory

Time's Eric Cortellessa wrote that the thesis of Trump's campaign boiled down to the simple slogan "Max out the men and hold the women", meaning emphasizing the economy and immigration, which Trump did "relentlessly". Cortellessa also mentioned Trump's minimization of his numerous controversies, and push-offs of criminal trials via "a combination of friendly judges and legal postponements" to after the election. He said Trump's "advanced age and increasingly incoherent trail rhetoric" were taken by voters in stride, and that "much of the country read Trump's legal woes as part of a larger corrupt conspiracy to deny him, and them, power". NPR wrote that "Americans have continued to chafe at higher than pre-pandemic prices and the lack of affordable housing", and that much of the voter placed the blame "squarely" on the Biden administration, wishing for the economy that Trump established years ago. NPR said demographics played an important role, with White voters going up as a share of the electorate from 67% to 71% and Trump winning 46% of Latinos, and mentioned polling's "continued underestimation of Trump's support nationally and in the key swing states".

The New York Times headlined how "he made one essential bet: that his grievances would become the grievances of the MAGA movement, and then the G.O.P., and then more than half the country. It paid off." The New York Times said that Trump's several setbacks actually benefited his public image and approval, as "his mug shot became a best-selling shirt. His criminal conviction inspired $100 million in donations in one day. The images of him bleeding after a failed assassination attempt became the symbol of what supporters saw as a campaign of destiny." NBC cited a Democratic strategist's appraisal of many men's concerns over feeling like "they're being left behind, that society doesn't have a place for them", and that this was a major factor in that demographic's role to return Trump to power. The network said his approval among non-college-educated and middle-income voters, Latinos generally and Latino men specifically, made strides in his promise to assemble a multiracial working-class coalition of supporters.

Several sources pointed to shifting habits in how Americans consume media and a growing lack of trust in and influence of mainstream news outlets. Trump embraced alternative media through podcasts and online streamers such as Joe Rogan, Adin Ross, Theo Von, and the Nelk Boys. The New York Times reported that such avenues "presented a way for Mr. Trump to sidestep more confrontational interviews with professional journalists, where he might face tough questions, fact-checks and detailed policy debates. The influencers he met with rarely challenged Mr. Trump, and often lavished him with praise." Sources also highlighted Trump's courting of the "manosphere", a collection of what The Guardian described as "male podcasters, influencers and public figures" that "marketed themselves as free-thinking pundits who evaded the bounds of political classification".

See also

• 2024 United States elections
  • 2024 United States gubernatorial elections
  • 2024 United States House of Representatives elections
  • 2024 United States Senate elections
• Timeline of the 2024 United States presidential election
• Republican Party efforts to disrupt the 2024 United States presidential election

External links

• "Misinformation Dashboard: Election 2024. A tool tracking the topics and tactics of 2024 election misinformation". News Literacy Project. 2024. Retrieved September 30, 2024.
• Dovere, Edward-Isaac (November 6, 2024). "Where Harris' campaign went wrong". CNN. Retrieved November 7, 2024.

Category:Articles containing video clips Category:Kamala Harris 2024 presidential campaign Category:Kamala Harris Category:Donald Trump Category:Donald Trump 2024 presidential campaign Category:JD Vance Category:Joe Biden 2024 presidential campaign United States presidential election, 2024 Category:Presidency of Joe Biden Category:Second presidency of Donald Trump Category:Tim Walz