The 2024 U.S. Presidential Race: A Cheat Sheet
Sign up for The Decision, a newsletter featuring our 2024 election coverage.
No one alive has seen a race like the 2024 presidential election. For months, if not years, many people have expected a reprise of the 2020 election, a matchup between the sitting president and a former president.
But that didn’t prevent a crowded primary. On the GOP side, more than a dozen candidates announced campaigns against Trump, even though the former president’s lead appeared prohibitive long before he dominated early caucuses and primaries. After Iowa, Nikki Haley supplanted Ron DeSantis as the leading challenger to Trump; at this point, however, she stands little chance at the nomination.
[David A. Graham: The first debate is Ramaswamy and the rest]
On the other side, Democratic hesitations about a second Joe Biden term have mostly dissolved into resignation that he’ll be the nominee. Representative Dean Phillips has made a last-ditch effort to offer a younger alternative, but he has gained little traction.
Behind all of this, the possibility of a serious third-party bid, led by either No Labels or some other group, continues to loom. Altogether, the race has felt like a bit of a circus on the surface, but it is steaming steadily toward a long-expected conclusion. This guide to the candidates—who’s in, who’s out, and who’s somewhere in between—chronicles that winnowing. It will be updated as the campaign develops, so check in regularly.
REPUBLICANS
Donald Trump
Who is he?
You know him and you love him. Or hate him. Probably not much in between.
Is he running?
Yes. Trump announced his bid to return to the White House at Mar-a-Lago in November 2022.
Why does he want to run?
Revenge, boredom, rivalry, fear of prosecution, long-standing psychological hang-ups.
[Read: Trump begins the ‘retribution’ tour]
Who wants him to run?
A big tranche of the GOP was always fully behind Trump, and as his rivals have failed to gain much traction, he's consolidated many of the rest and built an all-but-prohibitive lead.
Can he win the nomination?
Yes, and he very likely will.
What else do we know?
More than we could possibly want to.
Ron DeSantis
Who is he?
The second-term governor of Florida, DeSantis was previously a U.S. representative.
Is he running?
No. He dropped out on January 21, two days before the New Hampshire primary.
Why did he want to run?
DeSantis tried to synthesize Trump-style culture warring and the conservative politics of the early-2010s Republican Party, suggesting he’d be like Trump, only more so and more effectively.
Who wanted him to run?
In the end, not many people. Though he was once thought to be the favorite, he never figured out how to peel off Trump voters who liked the original fine, and donors tired of his expensive, directionless campaign.
Maybe a more competent campaign would have fared better—it’s already been labeled the worst ever by some and —but DeSantis also revealed himself to be a clumsy and unappealing candidate,
