Your Guide to the 2024 Elections

Nikki Haley, 51, served as South Carolina governor from 2011 to 2017, stepping down in 2017 to take the role of ambassador to the United Nations in the Trump administration. She announced her presidential bid in February 2023, citing her record of economic growth as governor and deep knowledge of world affairs garnered during her time as UN ambassador.

There has never been a presidential candidate like Donald Trump, 77. Trump, who announced he would seek reelection in November 2022, could become the first ex-president to win back the White House since Grover Cleveland. He is already the first major candidate to face the prospect of four criminal trials during an election year. Throughout his campaign, Trump has proposed giving the president more power to hire and fire government employees, replacing civil servants with political followers.

President Joe Biden, 81, announced he would seek another term in April 2023, telling Americans at the time, “Let’s finish the job.” Biden said the country remains in a "battle for the soul of America,” and his first public remarks after announcing his candidacy were delivered to a group of union workers. Before he was elected president, Biden served as vice president in former President Barack Obama’s administration and spent decades in the Senate.

Dean Phillips, 54, represents Minnesota’s 3rd congressional district in the U.S. House. Phillips, a moderate with a reputation of reaching across the aisle, launched his presidential campaign in October, telling supporters, "This is a country of longshots.” He has said addressing the U.S. southern border and immigration will be a key issue in his campaign as he challenges incumbent President Joe Biden.

Marianne Williamson, 71, a self-help author and spiritual leader, launched her White House bid in March 2023 after unsuccessfully running for president in 2020. She told the USA TODAY Network that she is campaigning on changing an "unsustainable status quo" she believes is hurting the middle class and creating hopelessness for the American people.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the 69-year-old heir to the famed political family, launched his presidential campaign in April 2023. But the longtime environmental activist announced in October he would drop his Democratic bid and re-enter the race for the White House as an independent. The junior Kennedy has called the traditional two-party system “rigged” for Americans and is campaigning on a platform targeting institutions such as pharmaceutical and tech companies.

Jill Stein, 73, announced in November 2023 that she will be seeking the Green Party’s nomination in the 2024 presidential election. Stein, a physician and environmental activist, previously ran for president in 2012 and 2016. In a video announcing her campaign this time around, she said she wants to offer voters a choice “outside of the failed two-party system.” Stein’s campaign has not rolled out her complete platform for her presidential bid.

Cornel West, 70, is a longtime philosopher, activist and author. He has served as a professor at Harvard University, Yale University, Union Theological Seminary and other institutions. He launched his bid for the White House in June 2023 under the People's Party, but he has since announced he is running as an independent, saying Americans “want good policies over partisan politics.”