2024 United States Presidential Election (Pear's Future)

The 2024 Presidential Election was the 60th Presidential Election. The Democratic Ticket of Incumbent President Joe Biden and incumbent Vice President Kamala Harris. In a rematch of the 2020 Presidential election, former President Donald Trump challenged President Biden, choosing former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie as his running mate. Trump became the first president since Grover Cleveland to run for President after leaving office. Biden defeated Trump by a narrower margin than 2016. Although Trump was the original favourite due to Biden's unpopularity, his polarizing campaign ultimately hurt his campaign. Like with the 2020 Presidential election, Trump made claims of voter fraud after the 2020 election.

Background
Trump was expected to run in this election since his defeat in the 2016. In late 2021, Trump reportedly "made up his mind" on whether he will run in the election or not. On January 12th, 2023, Trump officially announced he will run. Trump's campaign focused on Biden's failure to combat inflation and the rise in gas prices, as well as the DCCC scandal that took place from 2022-2024, where many Democrats were investigated for illegally donating to Far-right Republicans running for national office. Biden continued to attack Trump for the January 6th Attack and Trump's effort to overturn the election result.

DCCC Scandal
In 2022, Republican Senate Candidate Joe O'Dea went on TV to attack Senator Michael Bennet and the DCCC for spending massive amounts of ad money to support his opponent, far right conservative Ron Hanks. O'Dea criticized the Democrat's unethical participation in the Republican primary. Many Republicans across the nation said the same thing as O'Dea, leading to massive outrage. Despite this, no federal investigation was performed and it was not heavily publicized.

On July of 2023, Democrats spent Millions of dollars in add money supporting far right candidates in the upcoming Governor elections and special house elections. This time, many Republicans sued, causing a scandal in the Democratic primary. Most of these cases were dismissed as immoral, but legal, which was the stance taken by Biden and the Democrats. However, in Maryland, the Republican Majority in the State Supreme Court rule deemed this 'unconstitutional' in the Schulz vs Brown case. Throughout the next 2 years, Democrats continued to promote far-right candidates. A poll done in December 2023 showed that 59% of potential voters disapproved of the Democrat's involvement in the Republican primary.

Republican Primary
Further Information: 2024 Republican Presidential Nomination

Trump vs. Pence
The same day Trump announced his candidacy, many potential Republican candidates, such as Chris Christie, Josh Hawley, Tom Cotton, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Nikki Hailey and Mike Pompeo all declined to run and endorsed Trump. Following the next month, most Republicans would endorse Trump and/or decline to run. However, on August 2023, former Vice President Mike Pence, who was on the ticket with Trump in 2016 and 2020, announced he would seek the Republican nomination. Polls showed Trump with a 11 point lead, however over the months, Pence gained momentum. On October 2023, former Representative Liz Cheney announced she would run for the nomination. Cheney's candidacy was seen as a potential spoiler effect on Pence's campaign.

A poll taken a week before the Iowa Caucus showed Pence leading Trump by 4 points 39-35, with Cheney far behind at just 9. Trump won the Iowa caucus by a 16-point margin. Cheney, who wasn't able to win a single delegate, withdrew afterwards. Trump would also later win the New Hampshire and Nevada primary by relatively large margins.

Although Trump was leading in the South Carolina primary for most of the campaign, Pence won the primary in an upset. Pence would later go on to do well in Super Tuesday, winning several primaries in the South and the Midwest. However, Pence's campaign fell there, and Trump was declared the winner in July, when Pence withdrew.

Democratic Primary
Biden easily won re-election, defeating several minor candidates.