2024 United States Presidential Election (Bennybop)

The 2024 United States presidential election was the 60th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 6, 2024. Incumbent Democratic President Joe Biden and his running mate, incumbent Vice President Kamala Harris, were re-elected to a second term. They defeated the Republican ticket of Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida and former Governor Nikki Haley of South Carolina and the Freedom Party ticket of former President Donald Trump and Senator Josh Hawley. After inaugurated, Joe Biden became the oldest President to ever hold the office, at 82 years old at the time of his second inauguration and 86 at the end of his second term. 
It also marked the first time since 1912 that a third party candidate amassed more electoral votes than a major party candidate.
Though coming in second in electoral count, Trump only amassed nearly 28 million votes, the lowest of any third party candidate to gain over 40 electoral votes since George Wallace 1968.
As the incumbent president, Biden secured the Democratic nomination without serious opposition. The Republicans experienced a competitive primary. DeSantis was consistently competitive in the polls and won the support of many party leaders, but he faced challenges from a number of more conservative contenders. DeSantis secured his party's nomination in May, very narrowly defeating former President Donald Trump, 
After losing the narrowly losing the 2024 Republican primary, by a margin of merely 8 delegates, the closest primary in U.S. history, former President Donald Trump launched a third party bid for a second term as President, this time with the newly formedm, ultra-conservative Freedom Party. At the start of the highly controversial run, Trump selected Missouri senator Josh Hawley as his running mate, with Hawley officially changing his political affiliation for Republican to Freedomist. This campaign was intensely criticized by GOP lawmakers such as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Texas senator Ted Cruz, who bashed it as “reckless”, worried the campaign would de-rail DeSantis’s GOP-backed campaign. 
The campaigns focused heavily on domestic issues, and debate centered largely around sound responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic. Other issues included long-term federal budget issues, the future of social insurance programs, and the Build Back Better plan, Biden's marquee legislative program. Foreign policy was also discussed, including the end of the Afghanistan War in 2021, military spending, the Iranian nuclear program, and appropriate counteractions to terrorism. The campaign was marked by a sharp rise in fundraising, including from nominally independent Super PACs.
Biden defeated DeSantis and Trump, winning a majority of both the Electoral College and the popular vote in the biggest landslide victory since Ronald Reagan’s 1980 election. Biden won 459 electoral votes and 50.9% of the popular vote compared to DeSantis's 37 electoral votes and 28.9% and Trump’s 42 electoral votes and 20.2%. Biden was the first incumbent since Dwight D. Eisenhower to win both his presidential bids with a majority of the nationwide popular vote (50% or more), and the first Democrat to do so since Franklin Delano Roosevelt. 
Biden crucially won all 18 "blue wall" states and defeated DeSantis and Trump in other swing states the Republicans had won in 2000 and 2004, most notably Colorado, Florida, Ohio, and Virginia. Ultimately, of the nine swing states identified by The Washington Post in the 2024 election, Biden won all nine. Due to Trump’s candidacy, Biden also won 5 states considered to be solidly conservative, including Missouri, Arkansas, Indiana, Tennessee, and South Carolina. This was the first election since 2012 in which a major party nominee lost his home state since Mitt Romney lost his home state of Massachusetts. It was the most recent presidential election in which an incumbent president was re-elected to a second term. This is also the most recent presidential election when the Democratic candidate won the states of North Carolina, Ohio, and Florida, along with Maine's 2nd congressional district.
All six major candidates for president and vice president went on to hold significant public office or influence after this election. Biden served his second term as president and was succeeded by Ed Markey in 2029. Harris also served her second term as vice president and was succeeded by Markey's running mate, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. After serving the remainder of his second term as Florida governor until 2027, DeSantis initially retired from politics and moved back to Tampa Bay, Florida, but was later elected to the head of the Republican National Committee. Former governor Nikki Haley was elected to the senate in South Carolina in 2028, eventually launching her own bid for President in 2032, losing to Democratic nominee, Vice President Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Hawley served four more terms as a part of the Freedom Party, before retiring in in 2048, at the age of 69. Former President Donald Trump would remain a top figure-head of the conservative movement in the months leading up to his death on July 2, 2025.
Category:Bennybop