A large but dwindling number of men and women are vying for the U.S. presidency in 2024, all in the shadow of the dominant candidates who appear on track for a rematch of 2020: President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.
President Trump is streets ahead of his Republican rivals in the polls but faces multiple legal challenges and entrenched opposition from much of the political establishment.
President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, arrive at Hancock Field Air National Guard Base in Syracuse, N.Y., on Feb. 4, 2023. Andrew Caballero-reynolds/AFP via Getty Images
President Joe Biden, a Washington insider for half a century, officially launched his reelection bid in April, asking voters for four more years to “finish this job.”
But the octogenarian’s health has triggered concerns. Republicans, meanwhile, hope his ties to his son Hunter’s business dealings will help undermine his reelection bid, along with dissatisfaction over the economy, and other sources of malaise for the American electorate.
Most polling during November showed former President Trump on pace or ahead of the current U.S. leader in hypothetical head-to-head matchups, suggesting a reprise of 2020 could work out differently.
Marianne Williamson leaves a rally at Vic Mathias Shores Park in Austin, Texas, on Feb. 23, 2020. Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Marianne Williamson said on Feb. 27 that she was “unsuspending” her presidential campaign for the Democratic primary. She had previously announced on Feb. 7 that she was suspending her campaign.
A self-help author and “spiritual friend” to TV host Oprah Winfrey, Ms. Williamson is President Biden’s most credible challenger among the Democrats, at least if one goes by the average polling results as of December—but, according to those numbers, she is roughly 60 to 70 points behind the incumbent president. She unsuccessfully sought the party’s presidential slot in 2020.
Ms. Williamson’s broadly left-leaning platform includes a new “Economic Bill of Rights” and reparations for slavery.
U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.) speaks at a rally outside of the New Hampshire Statehouse in Concord on Oct. 27, 2023. Gaelen Morse/Getty Images
Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.) has dropped out of the race for the Democrat presidential nomination, following Super Tuesday.
Mr. Phillips challenged his party’s sitting president in October.
In a speech declaring his candidacy, he stressed his relative youth and his rating as one of Congress’s most bipartisan members. He did pledge to back the eventual Democratic nominee and described President Trump as “an existential threat to the United States, more so than any foreign threat.”
Mr. Phillips has positioned himself as a stronger supporter of Israel than President Biden, saying in November that the continued presence of American hostages is “absurd, shocking and dismaying.”
His inaugural town hall reportedly went off the rails when young audience members challenged him on the deaths of Palestinian children, shining a light on how the issue could fragment the Democrats’ coalition.
In November, he formally announced that he won’t seek reelection to his seat in 2024.
The Republicans
Donald Trump
As of late 2023, President Trump looks best situated to clinch the Republican nomination.
An upset victory in 2016 elevated him to the highest office in the land.
Four years later, the president contested the results of the 2020 election amid concerns over everything from ballot harvesting to media suppression of Hunter Biden’s laptop. He also faces multiple legal battles, including a federal case that centers around the outcome in 2020.
Yet, in spite of, or perhaps because of, those significant and polarizing factors, Republican voters have rallied around President Trump. No Republican has come close to posing a serious threat to the presumed favorite. Democrats and GOP insiders alike have struggled to grapple with President Trump’s national populist politics. Like President Biden, he has gained the support of major donors, including Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis gives a speech at Prive catering hall in New York on Feb. 20, 2023. Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Jan. 21 ended his campaign for the Republican Party’s 2024 presidential nomination, two days ahead of the New Hampshire primary.
Mr. DeSantis surged in late 2022 and early 2023, half a year before he formally launched his candidacy. Republican megadonors such as Citadel’s Ken Griffin threw their weight behind the conservative who seemed best positioned to challenge the former president, based in large part on his record as the governor of the Sunshine State.
Consciously running to President Trump’s right on issues including abortion, transgender issues, and the response to COVID-19 pandemic, he has challenged him on multiple aspects of his presidency, particularly his handling of COVID-19.
“He [Trump] didn’t even fire Dr. Fauci!” Mr. DeSantis said during the fourth Republican debate, referring to the then-head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), Dr. Anthony Fauci.
Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley holds a town hall meeting in Nevada, Iowa, on March 9, 2023. Scott Olson/Getty Images
Ms. Haley ended her 2024 bid on March 6, a day after Super Tuesday. She served as the governor of a crucial early primary state, South Carolina, before a stint as United Nations ambassador under President Trump. Combined with her anticipated home-field advantage in the Palmetto State, her status as an establishment Republican favorite makes her arguably the greatest threat to the president she once served in his attempt to recapture the White House. Yet, as of mid-December 2023, President Trump is still far and away the favorite, meaning Ms. Haley and other contenders are longshots.
As Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has faded in the polls, Ms. Haley has risen to greater prominence. She has garnered donations from Republican mega donors as well as from JPMorgan Chase’s Jamie Dimon, a frequent Democratic donor who in late November urged business leaders to “help” Ms. Haley in order to thwart the former president.
Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy attends an event at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines, Iowa, on Aug. 12, 2023. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Businessman Vivek Ramaswamy dropped out of the race after placing fourth in the Iowa caucus on Jan. 15.
Mr. Ramaswamy knows how to get attention. After announcing his candidacy in early 2023 on Tucker Carlson’s now-canceled Fox program, the entrepreneur and anti-woke investor campaigned vigorously across the early states. An early libertarian-populist pitch, “America First 2.0,” has now mostly been supplanted by a single word: “Truth.”
On the debate stage, Mr. Ramaswamy has dug into his competitors, especially Ms. Haley. Yet, while he has not shied away from insulting some other Republican candidates, Mr. Ramaswamy’s criticism of President Trump has been more restrained.
In the latter half of 2023, Ms. Haley had caught up to the outsider candidate in the polls. Though he has attracted small-dollar donations and the attention of Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, his bid wass heavily self-funded.
Chris Christie
Then-New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (L) and then-Florida Gov. Rick Scott make a campaign stop at a Vero Beach Field Office in Vero Beach, Fla., on Oct. 16, 2014. Joe Raedle/Getty Images
The former governor of New Jersey, once a backer of President Trump, ran as an anti-Trump candidate. He dropped out of the race on January 10, less than a week before the Iowa caucuses.
“It was a mistake in 2016 not to confront Donald Trump early, because I knew that so much of what he said was baloney,” Mr. Christie said in a June 2023 speech unveiling his bid.
Republican presidential candidate Asa Hutchinson speaks to reporters at the Moms for Liberty Joyful Warriors national summit in Philadelphia on July 1, 2023. Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson dropped out of the race on Jan. 16, a day after he finished in second-to-last place in the Iowa caucuses.
Though he ran as a conservative, Mr. Hutchinson has faced criticism for some past stances. At an Iowa candidate forum over the summer, Tucker Carlson questioned his veto of a bill outlawing gender transitions and similar procedures for minors.
Mr. Hutchinson made the cut for the first candidate debate, held in August in Milwaukee. Yet he failed to meet the criteria for three subsequent candidate debates.
Republican presidential candidate Ryan Binkley is introduced at the third annual MMM Tailgate celebration in Iowa City, Iowa, on Oct. 20, 2023. Scott Olson/Getty Images
Republican presidential candidate Ryan Binkley dropped out of the race on Feb. 27.
Mr. Binkley, the co-pastor with his wife of a non-denominational church in Texas, entered the race for the Republican presidential nomination in April. He also leads a mergers and acquisitions firm, Generational Equity.
In his campaign announcement, the outsider candidate said he believes “God has a divine plan for our country.”
Then-Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. attends an event at the Glasshouse in New York on July 25, 2023. Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
For months, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. was running for high office as a Democrat. But in October, the latest Kennedy to seek the presidency revealed he would make his bid as an independent. In the succeeding weeks, the environmentalist and falconer has started fighting to appear on various states’ ballots.
A strong but heterodox liberal, Mr. Kennedy faces headwinds from some other Democrats and the legacy media, in large part because of his comments on vaccine safety. But even as politicians right and left seek to marginalize Mr. Kennedy, some polling has shown that he could prove a formidable threat to Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump by siphoning votes away from either or both men.
Cornel West (C) attends a protest against police brutality in New York's Washington Square Park on Oct. 24, 2015. Kena Betancur/Getty Images
An early backer of Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vt.) 2016 presidential run, the philosopher and black activist has taught across the Ivies and appeared everywhere from the Colbert Report to the film “The Matrix Reloaded.”
Jill Stein speaks at a news conference on Fifth Avenue in New York on Dec. 5, 2016. Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Where the libertarians have their medical stalwart in obstetrician Dr. Ron Paul, the Green Party has Dr. Stein, a Harvard-educated internist who advocates universal health care. The climate hawk was the Greens’ presidential nominee in 2012 and 2016.
On Nov. 9, she announced her bid for the Green Party’s nomination in 2024. Her slogan: “People. Planet. Peace.”
