As the presidential election nears, candidates have been finalized for each party and primaries have already happened. For the Republican party, their chosen candidate is Donald Trump. For the Democrats, incumbent President Joe Biden clinched the nomination on Mar. 1.
The first Republican primary debate was in August 2023, and eight candidates took the stage to talk about their stances on hot issues. Trump was not present during the debate, but former Vice President Mike Pence was. The eight Republican candidates on stage included former Vice President Mike Pence, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, former Governor from South Carolina and UN ambassador Nikki Haley, former Governor of New Jersey Chris Christie, Vivek Ramaswamy, Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson, Senator Tim Scott, and North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum. The debate lasted nearly two hours and was notably filled with candidates interrupting each other throughout. A big topic during the debate was Trump’s criminal charges and presidency.
Not long after the first debate, Pence ended his campaign in October, and Scott followed suit in November. Burgum dropped his bid for the Republican nomination in early December. Christie was the first to drop out of the race in 2024 on Jan. 10. On Jan. 15, Ramaswamy followed by announcing he would be suspending his campaign. The day after, Hutchinson announced his end, with DeSantis following about a week later on Jan. 21. Most recently, Haley dropped out on Mar. 6 after not winning any primary races. With all of the above dropping out of the presidential race, the sole Republican candidate left was Trump. “I thought DeSantis would maybe last longer,” AP NSL teacher Matthew Winter said.
As for the Democrats, Biden officially clinched the nomination on Mar. 7. According to The New York Times, Biden is “campaigning on his bipartisan accomplishment, like a major infrastructure bill, and his support for Democratic priorities, like abortion rights.”
Previously, the Democrats also had Dean Phillips in the race. However, Philips dropped out hours after Haley suspended her campaign. Being the incumbent, Biden has some advantages in his campaign for president this year. He doesn’t have to participate in any primary debates and also has more public recognition when it comes to his campaign ideas and goals for the country. He isn’t a new candidate, so voters feel familiar with him and his running mate Vice President Kamala Harris as well as their policies.
Alongside the Democrats and Republicans, there are also three third-party candidates running this year: Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Cornel West, and Jill Stein. Third-party candidates face several challenges in our political system. “The Electoral College system really makes it so that any vote not for one of the two major parties, you’re running the risk of sort of throwing your vote away on a candidate that isn’t going to win. And if everyone sort of follows that logic, then it really becomes difficult for anyone but the two major parties to have a real shot,” wrote Spectrum 1 News.
