2024 United States presidential election

Presidential elections were held in the United States on November 5, 2024. The Republican ticket of former presidentDonald Trump and Ohio junior senatorJD Vance defeated the Democratic ticket of incumbent vice presidentKamala Harris and Minnesota governorTim Walz.

The incumbent president, Joe Biden of the Democratic Party, initially ran for re-election, easily sweeping aside a challenge from Democratic representativeDean Phillips of Minnesota in the Democratic primaries to become the party's presumptive nominee. However, what was broadly considered a poor debate performance in June 2024 intensified concerns about his age and health, and led to calls within his party for him to leave the race. After initially declining to do so, Biden ultimately withdrew from the race on July 21, 2024, becoming the first eligible incumbent president to run but subsequently withdraw since Lyndon B. Johnson in 1968. Biden immediately endorsed Harris, who officially became the party's presidential nominee on August 5 and the first presidential nominee who did not participate in the primaries since Vice President Hubert Humphrey in 1968. Harris selected Walz as her running mate.

Trump, who lost the 2020 presidential election to Biden, ran for reelection to a nonconsecutive second term. Trump became the presumptive Republican Party's presidential nominee on March 12, 2024, easily defeating challengers such as former South CarolinagovernorNikki Haley and Florida governor Ron DeSantis in the Republican primaries. He was shot in the ear in an assassination attempt on July 13, 2024. Trump was nominated as the Republican Party's presidential candidate during the 2024 Republican National Convention alongside his running mate, J.D. Vance. The Trump campaign ticket supported mass deportation of illegal immigrants; an isolationist "America First" and "peace through strength" foreign policy agenda with support of Israel in the Gaza war and skepticism of Ukraine in its war with Russia; policies hostile to transgender Americans; and tariffs. The campaign also made false and misleading statements, including claims of electoral fraud in 2020. Historians and some former Trump administrators saw his political movement as authoritarian.

Trump won the election over Harris, with 312 Electoral College votes to Harris's 226. Trump won all of the top seven swing states, including Nevada for the Republicans' first time since 2004. Trump won the national popular vote with a plurality of 49.8%, making him the first Republican to win the popular vote since George W. Bush in 2004 (unlike his 2016 victory and 2020 defeat). Trump's victory made him the second U.S. president to be elected to a nonconsecutive second term, after Grover Cleveland in 1892. Surveys of 2024 election voters, nationally and in key states, found that many viewed economic conditions negatively and were motivated by the issue when they voted. Other issues that motivated voters included immigration, the state of democracy, and abortion.