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 45th President Donald Trump and his running mate, activist and gubernatorial candidate from Arizona, Kari Lake, were re-elected to a second, non consecutive term, this being Lake’s first term as Vice President. They defeated the Democrat ticket consisting of incumbent President Joe Biden of Delaware and Vice President Kamala Harris of California.

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 Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida was the favorite to win the primary for a short time, Donald Trump mounted a primary challenge against the governor, citing DeSantis’s lack of experience and association with so-called  neocon Republicans. Trump easily won the Republican nomination and chose Kari Lake, candidate for  Governor of Arizona, 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. Trump campaigned on his various achievements as the previous President of the United States, citing a great economy, global stability, and law and order. He 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 Donald Trump and Kari Lake being elected to the Presidency and Vice-Presidency by November 6, 2024, the day after the election.

Trump ultimately received the Electoral College majority, receiving 298 Electoral votes to Biden's 240. Trump held the critical swing states of Florida, Ohio, Iowa, and North Carolina, as he did his previous two elections. Trump flipped Nevada,  Arizona, and  Georgia,  Wisconsin, and  Pennsylvania. Trump was the first Republican to win Nevada since 2004. Trump was also the first Republican to win the nationwide popular vote since 2004 and his first election to do so.

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
Though Biden has a string of significant legislative achievements, he still remained a relatively unpopular president due to the economic downturn that