The 2024 presidential election is one of the most consequential elections in modern-day history. Voters across the nation have a big responsibility to choose presidential candidates they believe is the best fit to lead the nation for four years. At stake are issues on foreign policy, reproductive freedom, policing, social justice, the cost of living and gun violence. While some believe that Vice President Kamala Harris is the best candidate to preserve democracy, others believe former President Donald Trump can get the job done. Then there are those who would rather support a third-party candidate. To get informed about the 2024 presidential election, take a look at the six candidates who are running for office.
1. Kamala Harris
Vice President Kamala Harris, 59, moved to the top of the Democratic Party ticket after President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the 2024 presidential race just months before the election. The former U.S. Senator, California attorney general and San Francisco district attorney stated that if elected to office, she would codify Roe v. Wade, increase economic security by building up the middle class and make rent and home ownership more affordable for all Americans. She would also make history as the first woman, first Black woman, first Asian American and first South Asian American president.
Her running mate is Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (D), who formerly served in the U.S. Congress and the Army National Guard.
2. Donald Trump
Former President Donald Trump, 78, is the Republican Party’s presidential nominee. He formerly served as the nation’s 45th president from 2017 to 2021 and while in office he was twice impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives for his role in inciting the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol following his electoral defeat to President Biden. Trump is a convicted felon who was found guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in his hush money trial earlier this year. If reelected, Trump plans to crack down on immigration and deport undocumented migrants in record numbers, he will not codify Roe v. Wade and believes that states should continue to regulate reproductive freedom, and he is a supporter of Israel amid the Israel-Hamas conflict.
Trump’s running mate is conservative Ohio Senator JD Vance, who is the author of “Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis,” a best-selling memoir that details his life growing up in Middletown, Ohio.
3. Cornel West
Dr. Cornel West, 71, announced his bid for office in 2023 and is currently running as an independent after a failed attempt to run as a Green Party candidate. West is a political activist and an esteemed academic leader who has worked as a professor at Harvard, Princeton and Yale Universities. If elected, West plans to focus on Black maternal justice, reparation legislation, gun violence reform and ensuring that public schools across the nation have equal access to funding.
West’s running mate is Melina Abdullah, a professor at California State University, Los Angeles and co-founder of the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation chapter in Los Angeles.
4. Jill Stein
Jill Stein, 74, is the Green Party’s presidential nominee for the 2024 presidential election. This is the political activist’s third time running for office on the Green Party ticket. She previously ran in 2012 and 2016. If elected to office, Stein would abolish the death penalty and end mass incarceration, provide affordable housing and healthcare and abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement and grant amnesty to every undocumented person in the U.S.
Stein’s running mate is Butch Ware, an associate professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara and an advocate for fighting systemic injustice.
5. Chase Oliver
Chase Oliver, 39, is the youngest and only openly gay presidential candidate in the 2024 election and is the nominee for the Libertarian Party. Oliver previously ran for Congress in Georgia’s 5th district to complete the term of late civil rights activist John Lewis who passed away on July 17, 2020. He lost the special election to Nikema Williams. In 2022, Oliver ran for Georgia’s U.S. Senate seat, where he lost to incumbent Senator Raphael Warnock. If elected, Oliver plans to end drone strikes and military interventions abroad, overhaul the criminal justice system and impose term limits for all federal officials.
Oliver’s running mate is businessman Mike ter Maat, a former financial economist for the White House Office of Management and Budget and former police officer who served on the force in Broward County, Florida from 2010 to 2021.
6. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., 70, suspended his run as an independent in the 2024 presidential election. Kennedy is the son of the late U.S. Attorney General and Senator Robert F. Kennedy and the nephew of the late U.S. President John F. Kennedy. He entered the race in April 2023 as a Democratic candidate, however several months later he decided to run as an independent when he believed it would be a challenge to defeat President Biden. Then in August 2024, Kennedy suspended his bid for office and announced his support for Trump. While Kennedy’s name will remain on the ballot in most states, he announced efforts to have his name removed from ballots in battleground states.