The 2024 U.S. Presidential Election is around the corner, and the main parties are making their moves to position themselves for the most success this election season. Even with political divide within the two mainstream political parties, the Republicans and the Democrats find themselves trying to mend their coalitions in their respective parties. 

According to recent polling averages from Real Clear Polling, there are five candidates that are major nominees for this upcoming presidential election which includes Joe Biden (D), Donald Trump (R), Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (I), Cornel West (I), and Jill Stein (G). (Update: Chase Oliver has been selected as the Libertarian Nominee as of May 27th)

The only caveat for some of these candidates is ballot access, RFK Jr, Cornel West, and Jill Stein all continue to face ballot access issues due to being independent candidates or being part of a smaller political party. Therefore, some of these candidates will be on the ballot in a few states or they will run a write-in campaign. 

Many of the topics on the campaign trail that each candidate will be attempting to tackle ranges from, Abortion, Foreign Policy, Healthcare, Education, LGBTQ+ rights, to the Economy.

Whether or not there are going to be debates this election cycle is still up in the air due to both major party candidates showing signs of not wanting to participate. Including Trump claiming that the CPD (Commision on Presidential Debates) treated him unfairly the last time debates were held in 2020. And the Biden campaign being frustrated with the rules of the debate not holding Trump accountable. (Update: The debates are currently set to take place June 27th and September 10th)

While the RFK Jr. Campaign struggles to gain ballot access. It is uncertain whether he meets the requirements to attend the debate including polling at 15% in five national polls and having a mathematical chance at winning enough electoral votes to be elected (Being on the ballot in states worth up to 270 electoral votes). Other third-party candidates currently don’t poll high enough to be considered in the debate. (Update: Kennedy is approaching 270 electoral votes, currently sitting at 229 electoral votes as of May 30th)

Only a few of the main candidates have decided their running mate for Vice President. Biden has chosen Kamala Harris, Kennedy has chosen Nicole Shanahan, West has chosen Melina Abdullah, while Trump and Stein have yet to decide who will be their running mates.

Enough rambling, here are the candidates and their platforms:

President Biden is most likely going to run on a very similar platform that he ran on in the 2020 Presidential Election as a Democrat. One of the main issues that he is tackling is abortion access and trying to restore Roe v. Wade as a pro-choice president. Another main campaign issue Biden is running on is defending democracy due to Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 Presidential Election and Trump claiming he wants to be a “Dictator” during one of his campaign stops.

On March 28, President Biden and Ex-Presidents Obama and Clinton hosted a fundraiser to get more funds for Biden’s campaign raising a total of $25 million dollars, but the fundraiser was protested by Pro-Palestinian advocates which were upset about Biden’s funding of Israel’s genocide in Gaza due to the disproportionate killings of Palestinian civilians compared to the casualties of Hamas. 

Many other stances Biden has included are protecting the LGBTQ+ community, protecting the environment and preventing climate change, continuing “Bidenomics,” more gun regulation, and canceling all student loan debt (previously attempted but shot down by Supreme Court, and only canceled partial student loan debt).

Former President Trump is running for a nonconsecutive term after losing his re-election bid in 2020 as a Republican. As of late, Trump has been struggling to pay off his legal fees and court judgements, which consists of $454 million dollars for a civil business fraud case in New York and he has posted a $175 million dollar bond to stop the seizure of his own assets while he attempts to appeal the court’s decision. Trump has also posted another bond of $91 million dollars due to the continued defamation of E. Jean Carroll after Trump was found guilty of defaming and sexually abusing her in a case decided in May 2023. Trump is also facing more legal woes regarding his 91 felony charges. These court judgements will end up impacting the 2024 election due to campaign financing by the RNC being more directed towards paying off Trump’s legal fees rather than down ballot congressional races. 

Some of his policy includes reducing climate protection rules while promoting the drilling of fossil fuels, having harsh immigration policy including the “zero tolerance” policy, centralizing the power of the Executive Branch to execute power over the other branches, being pro-life and against abortion besides some exceptions, repealing the ACA (Obamacare), being against gun regulation, and prioritizing corporate and individual tax cuts.

Kennedy originally was running in the Democratic primary as the main challenger against President Biden, but he decided against running as a Democrat and launched his Independent campaign on October 9th. His campaign has gained national attention due to his family name and being related to former President Kennedy. His campaign is predicted to be one of the most prominent third-party campaigns since Ross Perot in the 1992 Presidential Election.

Kennedy is widely known for spouting vaccine misinformation, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and has had various members of the Republican Party sympathize with his position on vaccines. Regarding gun violence, he has claimed that antidepressants have caused violent school shootings, yet he doesn’t cite any direct studies to back this claim. He has also said in the past that he is for an assault weapon ban but says he doesn’t believe in gun control. Kennedy is for mass student loan forgiveness and mentioned this during one of his interviews with The Hill. On his campaign website, his economic policy consists mainly of prioritizing small to medium sized businesses while holding large corporations accountable. Many of his other positions include strict border control, transforming the police via reform to prevent hate crimes and police misconduct, only supporting abortion up until the first three months of pregnancy pass, claiming to support the LGBTQ+ community yet he supports banning trans women from sports, and lastly supporting the environment and wanting to prevent climate change. Kennedy has said that his values don’t fall along party lines and his beliefs vary.

 Cornel West is a political activist and philosopher running as an independent candidate for the presidency. West has changed his political affiliation multiple times this election season, originally running as a member of the People’s Party, then the Green Party, then announced his independent candidacy bid and has aligned himself with various state parties to gain ballot access. He has stated that he considers himself a “non-Marxist socialist” and has promoted many populist positions like Senator Sanders who considers himself a “Democratic Socialist.” He has been the most prominent as of late being one of two candidates actively criticizing Biden’s support of Israel’s government, which has had disproportionate civilian to Hamas casualties with now over 40,000 Palestinians being killed. 

Many of his stances include ending all tax loopholes, implementing a wealth tax for billionaires, supporting a $27 minimum wage, greater protections for union workers, promoting the Green New Deal, implementing Medicare for All, codifying abortion rights in the constitution, reparations for Black U.S residents to address inequality in the United States, banning the death penalty, redistribute police funding and redirect it towards unarmed community forces, canceling all student loan debt, supporting gender-affirming care for trans people, and enforce international law that allows asylum seekers to seek a better future. 

West has faced a few controversies regarding tax documents indicating that he has hundreds of thousands of dollars of unpaid taxes and unpaid child support from 2003. He was also caught in a controversy regarding a $3,300 donation from Republican mega donor Harlan Crow but ended up returning the donation after receiving backlash from his supporters.

Stein has been a prominent member of the Green Party, running for president under the party a total of three times including in 2012, 2016, and 2024. Stein originally was assisting Cornel West’s Green Party presidential bid before he decided to run as an independent. Stein and West share several positions on policy, therefore making them both the more progressive candidates running for president this cycle. Stein is an advocate for the Green New Deal, showing her support in an article she wrote in 2011, mentioning how the deal will help create more jobs and help establish a plan for a more renewable United States. 

She has also promoted the idea of RCV being implemented to help promote more progressive candidates and have people’s votes be more valuable. Stein has also similarly criticized Biden over support of Israel’s government similarly to Cornel West. Stein has been criticized in the past regarding comments relating to vaccines and her skepticism of research done with vaccines. She promotes rights to a living wage, housing, food, healthcare, and education. Stein also wants to stop the “endless war machine.” Stein and West will probably end up splitting the progressive vote due to their policies being quite similar.

The 2024 Presidential election has many factors that will go into deciding who the winner will be. Third party support is at its highest peak since the 1992 Presidential election, given the nature of a rematch election between Biden and Trump and their unpopularity. Due to increased third party support, the two main political parties are trying to bring in those third-party voters to help support their campaigns by attempting to promote policy to attract them. 

The primaries have shown that the factions within the Democratic Party and the Republican Party are fractured. During the Democratic primary, voters did “uncommitted” votes against Biden due to his positions regarding the Israel-Hamas war and this movement has seen various levels of success. The Republican Primary showed many worrying signs for Trump considering that 1 in 5 voters cast a vote for opposing candidates during all votes on Super Tuesday showing dissatisfaction across the Republican Party. This election is truly going to be one of a kind and shows much uncertainty within the U.S regarding politics and our future.