The Projected Candidates for the 2024 Presidential Election

By: Olivia Hauber ‘27 (Media Club)

On Tuesday, November 5, 2024, the title of President of the United States of America will be voted on by the American people. Currently, the two front-runners, the people who are most likely to win the presidency, are the current president Joe Biden and former president Donald Trump. This is not the first time these two have gone head-to-head in a presidential election. The two faced each other back in 2020, then-president Donald Trump and current President Joe Biden were the nominations for their respective political parties.

During the 2020 election, the most prevalent topics for voters were the economy and health care. Using research from the Pew Research Center similar issues are weighing on the minds of voters in the upcoming election. In a report published on June 21, 2023, titled “Inflation, Health Costs, Partisan Cooperation Among the Nation’s Top Problems'' it is stated that there are 16 major issues that will be on voters’ minds in this upcoming election season.

Topics such as inflation and the affordability of healthcare take the top two spots for issues voters will be focusing on during the election. Both the Democrats and Republicans, the two major political parties here in the United States, have brought solutions to these issues. However, these solutions vary from candidate to candidate.

On October 4, 2023, ABC News published an article titled “Here's where the 2024 presidential candidates stand on the economy.” Though it details all current presidential nominees and their individual plans to tackle inflation, we are only looking at the two front runners, former President Trump and current President Joe Biden. It is stated that “Former President Donald Trump has said he would tackle the inflation through ‘energy independence’ -- more specifically by drilling more oil and lowering gas prices…” That same article says, “President Joe Biden's reelection campaign is heavily centered around … his economic agenda. … He has pushed for more goods to be made in America and for increased taxes on wealthy individuals and corporations.”

However, inflation was not the only recurring issue in the upcoming election. One of the other major concerns for American voters is the affordability of healthcare.

This past August CNBC published an article detailing President Joe Biden's plan for healthcare. “The message coming out of the White House on Tuesday [August 29, 2023] was that, thanks to Biden, Americans will no longer have to pay the highest prices in the world for medicines…Tuesday’s Medicare announcement underscores how important health care is to Biden’s reelection campaign, which is already well underway.”

According to the National Archives former President Donald Trump “Eliminated the Obamacare individual mandate—a financial relief to low- and middle-income households that made up nearly 80 percent of the families who paid the penalty for not wanting to purchase health insurance” During his presidency, the former President also “Increased availability of short-term, limited-duration health plans, which can cost up to 60 percent less than traditional plans, giving Americans more flexibility to choose plans that suit their needs”

With many more topics at hand and a one-year countdown to election day, all candidates still remaining are preparing to fight for their names to make it onto those ballots next November. Until then, Americans will be watching the events of this election season unfold with bated breath.