2024 United States presidential election

For related races, see 2024 United States elections

The 2024 United States Presidential Election was the 60th quadrennial presidential election, held on November 5, 2024. Incumbent Democratic President Joe Biden and his running mate, incumbent  Vice President Kamala Harris were re-elected to a second term. They defeated the Republican ticket consisting of Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida and Governor Mike DeWine of Ohio as well as the  Liberty Party ticket consisting of the former President Donald Trump of Florida and Governor  Kristi Noem of  South Dakota.

As the incumbent president, Joe Biden faced no serious opposition in getting the Democratic nomination. The Republicans, meanwhile, experienced a very competitive primary process. Though Donald Trump was the favorite to win the primary for a long time, Ron DeSantis mounted a primary challenge against the former president, citing poor midterm performances by the Republican Party in the  2022 midterm elections. DeSantis enetually won the Republican nomination and chose Mike DeWine, the  Governor of Ohio, to be his running mate.

Biden campaigned on his legislative achievements like the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the CHIPS and Science Act, the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, and the Respect for Marriage Act while promising to do more in his second term. He also took the attack to the Republican Party, criticizing them for election denialism and their overall rhetoric. Biden slammed on Trump for his various scandals and election denialism. DeSantis campaigned on his various achievements as Governor of Florida, parental control over education, and fiscal conservativism. He also criticized Donald Trump for splitting the Republican Party and its base in a critical election. Trump, in turn, attacked DeSantis and the Republican Party for "stealing" the nomination from him, claiming to have been the only person who could have won against Joe Biden. He also attacked Joe Biden for the economic woes faced by the United States under his presidency and for signing the railroad strike agreement that left railroad employees with few improvements in regards to their job.

Though the usage of mail-in ballots continued to rise, ballot processing did not take as long as it did in 2020 due to reforms made after the 2020 and 2022 elections. This, in addition to the relative certainty in the outcome of the election in the critical states meant that news agencies projected Joe Biden and Kamala Harris being re-elected to the Presidency and Vice-Presidency by November 6, 2024, the day after the election.

Biden ultimately received the Electoral College majority, receiving 366 Electoral votes to DeSantis's 172. Though his vote-share in many states declined, he prevailed over DeSantis as the conservative vote was split between DeSantis and Trump. This split was especially pronounced in the Rust Belt states, where Trump registered strong gains in 2016, causing Biden to cruise to victory in these state. However, DeSantis won the critical swing states of Florida, his home state, and Ohio, his running-mate's home state. Biden flipped Texas,  North Carolina, and  Iowa. Biden was the first Democrat to win Texas since 1976, North Carolina since  2008, and Iowa since  2012.

Procedure
Article Two of the United States Constitution states that for a person to serve as president, the individual must be a natural-born citizen of the United States, be at least 35 years old, and have been a United States resident for at least 14 years. Candidates for the presidency typically seek the nomination of one of the various political parties in the United States. Each party develops a method (such as a primary election) to choose the candidate the party deems best suited to run for the position. Primary elections are usually indirect elections where voters cast ballots for a slate of party delegates pledged to a particular candidate. The party's delegates then officially nominate a candidate to run on the party's behalf. The presidential nominee typically chooses a vice presidential running mate to form that party's ticket, which is then ratified by the delegates at the party's convention (except for the Libertarian Party, which nominates its vice-presidential candidate by delegate vote regardless of the presidential nominee's preference). The general election in November is also 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. If no candidate receives the minimum 270 electoral votes needed to win the election, the United States House of Representatives will select the president from among the three candidates who received the most electoral votes, and the United States Senate will select the vice president from among the candidates who received the two highest totals. The presidential election occurred simultaneously alongside elections for the House of Representatives, the Senate, and various state and local-level elections.

Democratic Party
Being the incumbent president, Joe Biden did not face any serious challengers for the Democratic Party nomination. Though it initially seemed likely that a progressive candidate like Bernie Sanders or  Nina Turner might challenge President Biden for the party's nomination, such a scenario never bore fruit and Biden was easily re-nominated to be the Democratic Party's nominee to run for the Presidency.