More than a dozen candidates are running for president in 2024, most of them on the Republican side. Top contenders for the GOP nomination include former president Donald Trump, who has pressed forward through two indictments, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is taking sharper aim at Trump since officially joining the race.
New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu wrote an op-ed explaining that he decided against running for president because he wants to focus on defeating Trump. President Biden has announced he is running again; two other Democratic candidates, both long shots, have also announced their campaigns.
Below are profiles of candidates who have announced.
JOE BIDEN
Birth date: Nov. 20, 1942
Birthplace: Scranton, Pa.
Party: Democrat
Spouse: Jill Biden
Alma mater: University of Delaware (B.A.); Syracuse Law School (J.D.)
Current office: U.S. president
Former offices: U.S. vice president; U.S. senator from Delaware
President Biden Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post
Despite facing low approval ratings and a shaky U.S. economy, President Biden has managed to fend off a major primary challenge in his quest for a second White House term. He’s done that primarily by assuaging his left flank and passing major legislation on climate change, economic relief, prescription drugs, infrastructure and other matters, as well as rallying a global coalition against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Biden will face a pitched general election battle, however: possibly a rematch against former president Donald Trump.
DOUG BURGUM
Birth date: Aug. 1, 1956
Birthplace: Arthur, N.D.
Party: Republican
Spouse: Kathryn Burgum
Alma mater: North Dakota State University (B.S.); Stanford University (M.B.A.)
Current office: North Dakota governor
Former offices: Arthur Ventures co-founder; Kilbourne Group founder; Great Plains Software CEO; member, board of directors, Arthur Companies Inc.
North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum Photo for The Washington Post by Ann Arbor Miller
A wealthy tech entrepreneur, Burgum won a three-way race for governor in 2016 with almost 77 percent of the vote. He thinks he can bring a businessman’s and Midwesterner’s sensibility to the GOP presidential contest as a native of a 300-person town where his family ran a grain elevator business. He argues he has always been “underestimated” and that there is no one in the race who appeals to the 60 percent of Americans he calls the “silent majority.” He signed a near-total abortion ban as governor.
CHRIS CHRISTIE
Birth date: Sept. 6, 1962
Birthplace: Newark
Party: Republican
Spouse: Mary Pat Christie
Alma mater: University of Delaware (B.A.), Seton Hall University School of Law (J.D.)
Former offices: Chair, President’s Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis; New Jersey governor; 2016 presidential candidate; U.S. attorney for the district of New Jersey
Former New Jersey governor Chris Christie Photo for The Washington Post by Carlin Stiehl
The ex-New Jersey governor is running against his former ally Donald Trump by throwing his hat into the presidential ring. A 2016 presidential candidate, Christie dropped out and endorsed Trump but they soon fell out. His 2024 strategy seems centered on the early primary state of New Hampshire, where independents can vote in the intraparty contest. He is already aggressively taking on Trump, blaming him for the GOP’s poor performance in the 2022 midterms, calling him a “puppet of Putin” and saying he would never back him again. Christie is also staking out more moderate ground on abortion rights than the other GOP contenders.
RON DESANTIS
Birth date: Sept. 14, 1978
Birthplace: Jacksonville, Fla.
Party: Republican
Spouse: Casey DeSantis
Alma mater: Yale University (B.A.), Harvard University (J.D.), Naval Justice School
Current offices: Florida governor; lieutenant judge advocate general in Navy Reserve
Former offices: Congressman from Florida; Navy JAG Corps
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis Photo for The Washington Post by Sam Wolfe
The governor of Florida is considered the strongest alternative to Donald Trump among Republican presidential contenders, based on his poll numbers (even though they were declining before he entered the presidential race). He was one of the GOP’s bright electoral spots in 2022, winning his gubernatorial reelection race by nearly 20 percentage points and implementing a staunchly conservative agenda in the months before his presidential launch. But that agenda – including a high-profile fight with Disney that’s led to a lawsuit, and a six-week abortion ban – is drawing criticism from some worried he is lurching too far rightward for a general election. Although DeSantis has a penchant for fighting culture wars popular with the GOP base, a group of Florida House members has endorsed Trump because they say the governor hasn’t cultivated their support and isn’t a natural at retail politics.
NIKKI HALEY
Birth date: Jan. 20, 1972
Birthplace: Bamberg, S.C.
Party: Republican
Alma mater: Clemson University (B.A.)
Spouse: Michael Haley
Former offices: U.N. ambassador; South Carolina governor; South Carolina state representative
Former ambassador to the United Nations and South Carolina governor Nikki Haley Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post
The former Trump U.N. ambassador is the first prominent woman of color to seek the GOP nod for the presidency. The daughter of Indian immigrants who became governor of South Carolina, a key primary state, Haley has rejected being defined by identity politics – whether having to do with her ethnicity or gender – calling that approach “woke self-loathing.” She denies the existence of a glass ceiling despite running to put a “badass woman” in the White House. She wants to talk in a “loving” way about abortion rights, saying she can build a “consensus” on the explosive issue (but is notably light on specifics). Haley compared finding common ground on abortion to negotiations to remove the Confederate flag from South Carolina State House grounds following a 2015 mass shooting at a historic African American church in Charleston. She also wants politicians over 75 years old to take a mental competency test and suggests President Biden won’t make it through a second term, at the end of which he would be 86.
ASA HUTCHINSON
Birth date: Dec. 3, 1950
Birthplace: Bentonville, Ark.
Party: Republican
Alma mater: Bob Jones University (B.A.); University of Arkansas School of Law (J.D.)
Spouse: Susan Burrell Hutchinson
Former offices: Arkansas governor; Department of Homeland Security undersecretary for border security; chief, Drug Enforcement Administration; congressman from Arkansas; chair, Arkansas Republican Party; U.S. attorney, Western District of Arkansas
Former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson Photo for The Washington Post by Cheney Orr
The former Arkansas governor is selling himself as a “more stable alternative to former president Donald Trump.” In his April announcement, Hutchinson said he was battling for the “future of our country and the soul of our party.” Hutchinson has certainly broken with other GOP presidential candidates in saying that Trump should drop out of the 2024 contest because he’s been indicted and that the Jan. 6, 2021, riot “disqualifies” him. He has a conservative gubernatorial record but unlike some GOP leaders, he defends the FBI and federal law-enforcement officials as a former U.S. attorney and DEA director. As governor, Hutchinson signed a near total abortion ban, though later said he supports exceptions for rape and incest. He split from some GOP governors during the pandemic in encouraging masking and vaccination.
ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR.
Birth date: Jan. 17, 1954
Birthplace: Washington
Party: Democrat
Spouse: Cheryl Hines
Alma mater: London School of Economics (B.A.); Harvard University (B.A.); University of Virginia (J.D.); Pace University (LLM)
Current profession: Lawyer, Morgan & Morgan; partner, Kennedy & Madonna LLP; environmental activist; anti-vaccine activist (founder, Children’s Health Defense)
Former professions: Chief prosecuting attorney, Hudson Riverkeeper; president, Waterkeeper Alliance; assistant district attorney, New York
Lawyer and activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Photo for The Washington Post by AJ Mast
The son of Robert F. Kennedy and nephew of the former president, Kennedy Jr. is mounting a challenge to President Biden in the 2024 Democratic primary. Despite his storied last name, he will face an uphill battle given Biden has consolidated much of the party around his reelection bid. During his April announcement, Kennedy Jr. emphasized “clean government, civil liberties, peace, and economic revitalization” as his reasons for running. He railed against government and the media for “censoring dissonant voices” and said they “should start telling the truth to Americans.” A lawyer and environmental activist, Kennedy Jr. is also a prominent anti-vaccine activist, pushing disproven claims that childhood vaccines are linked to autism and spreading misinformation about coronavirus vaccines. Kennedy Jr. may have a hard time making the national stage; the Democratic National Committee plans to support Biden and hasn’t committed to intraparty debates.
MIKE PENCE
Birth date: June 7, 1959
Birthplace: Columbia, Ind.
Party: Republican
Spouse: Karen Pence
Alma mater: Hanover College (B.A.); Indiana University (J.D.)
Former offices/profession: U.S. vice president; Indiana governor; congressman from Indiana; radio talk-show host
Former vice president Mike Pence Photo for The Washington Post by Rebecca S. Gratz
Donald Trump’s vice president is perhaps in the most tenuous position when it comes to attracting Trump’s voters. He is best known to them for certifying the electoral votes for Joe Biden on Jan. 6, 2021, when a pro-Trump mob, egged on by the president, stormed the Capitol shouting they wanted to “hang” him. Pence has said “history will hold [Trump] accountable” for that riot, adding that Trump was “wrong” in suggesting he could overturn the 2020 election. Even before announcing, Pence traveled to the early primary states to pitch himself, leaning into his conservative bona fides on issues like abortion: He supports a national ban.
VIVEK RAMASWAMY
Birth date: Aug. 9, 1985
Birthplace: Cincinnati
Party: Republican
Spouse: Apoorva Tewari Ramaswamy
Alma mater: Harvard University (B.A.); Yale University (J.D.)
Profession: Biotechnology entrepreneur and investor; co-founder, Strive Asset Management; author, “Capitalist Punishment”; “Woke, Inc.: Inside Corporate America’s Social Justice Scam”; and “Nation of Victims: Identity Politics, the Death of Merit, and the Path Back to Excellence”
Technology entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy Photo for The Washington Post by Cheney Orr
A technology entrepreneur not well known to political audiences, Ramaswamy was dubbed the “CEO of Anti-Woke, Inc.” by the New Yorker. That’s because he wrote “Woke, Inc.: Inside Corporate America’s Social Justice Scam,” a book that attacks environmental, governance and social movements in corporate America as being ineffective and hypocritical – and overall, “woke.” The critique earned him praise from ex-Fox News host Tucker Carlson; he’s said on the stump he would “end affirmative action . . . close down the Education Department, limit the power of the Federal Reserve, send U.S. armed forces to the Mexican border.”
TIM SCOTT
Birth date: Sept. 19, 1965
Birthplace: North Charleston, S.C.
Party: Republican
Marital status: Single
Alma mater: Charleston Southern University (B.S.)
Current office: U.S. senator from South Carolina
Former offices: Congressman from South Carolina; member, Charleston City Council; agent, Tim Scott and Associates (Allstate Insurance Agency); partner, Pathway Real Estate Group
Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C. Photo for The Washington Post by Sean Rayford
The senator from South Carolina is the only Black Republican in the Senate, and he will be the most prominent Black Republican in the 2024 GOP primary. He argues his upbringing as the son of a single mother in a poor household reinforces the narrative that “America is the land of opportunity, not a land of oppression.” He has occasionally criticized former president Donald Trump, but at other times supported his policies. Scott is leaning into his evangelical roots and has said he would sign “the most conservative pro-life legislation Congress can pass.”
FRANCIS SUAREZ
Birthplace: Miami
Party: Republican
Spouse: Gloria Fonts Suarez
Alma mater: Florida International University (B.A.); University of Florida (J.D.)
Current office: Mayor, Miami; attorney, Greenspoon Marder
Former offices: Commissioner, Miami-Dade Board of County Commissioners
Miami Mayor Francis Suarez Photo for The Washington Post by Sarah Silbiger
Suarez is a Cuban American who was twice elected as a Republican to lead Miami. The son of a former Miami mayor, he says he’s running a different kind of campaign, designed to unify and help create a brand of GOP politics that can triumph in general elections. He notes he is the only Hispanic running for president as a major candidate from either party. He has said he didn’t vote for Donald Trump for president in 2020.
DONALD TRUMP
Birth date: June 14, 1946
Birthplace: Queens
Party: Republican
Alma mater: Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania (B.S.)
Spouse: Melania Trump
Former office/professions: U.S. president; Trump Organization president; author, “The Art of the Deal”; host, “The Apprentice”
Former president Donald Trump Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post
Trump is the first sitting or former U.S. president to be indicted, twice. The Justice Department in June 2023 charged Trump with more than three dozen criminal counts for allegedly keeping and hiding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida. And the Manhattan district attorney in March slapped Trump with 34 felony counts of falsifying business record related to allegations he paid hush money to cover up an alleged affair with an adult-film actress. Trump has pleaded not guilty in both cases, and it’s unclear when they’ll go to trial. He was already found liable for defaming journalist E. Jean Carroll over charges he raped her, a verdict he plans to appeal.
These aren’t Trump’s only legal troubles. The former president is entangled in a total of six state and federal probes on topics ranging from the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot to interference in the Georgia 2020 presidential election. Nonetheless, Trump still has a strong hold over the GOP primary electorate and is leading in most early polls of the 2024 Republican race. But polls also show a rematch with Biden in the general election would be close.
MARIANNE WILLIAMSON
Birth date: July 8, 1952
Birthplace: Houston
Party: Democrat
Marital status: Divorced
Alma mater: Studied theater and philosophy for two years at Pomona College
Profession: 2020 presidential candidate; speaker; author, “A Woman’s Worth”; “A Return to Love”; “A Politics of Love”; founder, Project Angel Food, the Peace Alliance, Los Angeles and Manhattan Centers for Living
Self-help author and activist Marianne Williamson Photo for The Washington Post by Amanda Andrade-Rhoades
Self-help author and activist Williamson is back for a second shot at the Democratic presidential nomination after her failed 2020 bid. She says President Biden isn’t acting urgently enough to pull people out of economic distress and announced her plans for “universal health care, tuition-free higher education, paid family leave, free child care and a higher minimum wage.” She wants a 30 percent cut in Defense Department spending and to establish a Peace Department. Williamson may have a hard time making the national stage; the Democratic National Committee plans to support Biden and hasn’t committed to intraparty debates.
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