Sign up for Inside Washington’s daily email to get exclusive US coverage and analysis delivered to your inbox
Get our free Inside Washington email
With less than two years to go before American voters decide who will serve as President of the United States from January 2025 to January 2029, former Republican government officials are beginning to compete for a spot in the upcoming presidential nomination fight. of the 2024 Republican Party, while in At least one prominent Democrat (California Governor Gavin Newsom) has reportedly vowed not to challenge President Joe Biden in a Democratic primary.
As the 2024 campaign takes shape, here are the names you need to know:
Joe Biden
Biden is the current President of the United States and has said on multiple occasions that he intends to run for re-election in 2024.
Biden is expected to announce his re-election bid on April 25, though plans are not yet set for launch.
The only US president in recent memory to give up running for a second term was the 37th incumbent of that office, President Lyndon Johnson. Johnson refused to seek a second term amid turmoil over the Vietnam War despite winning a landslide victory over Republican Barry Goldwater in 1964, just a year after the Texas native was sworn in after he President John F. Kennedy was assassinated by an assassin.
Although Biden never suggested he would follow Johnson’s lead, his status as the oldest person to serve as president and his lackluster approval ratings have fueled speculation that he might retire so a younger candidate can take over the mantle. Democratic party. But the Democrats’ better-than-expected results in the 2022 midterms appear to have given Biden’s sails new impetus, and he has said he hopes he has made a final decision on seeking a second term after consultations with his family during the holidays. .
donald trump
Of the more than 12 people the Federal Election Commission lists as declared candidates for 2024, the only one whose name is well known to the public is also the first former Trump administration figure to throw a hat into the ring, former President Donald J. . Triumph.
Trump, the only US president to face two separate impeachment trials, one after fomenting a violent attack on the US Capitol in hopes of remaining in power despite losing the 2020 election to Joe Biden, officially filed documents with the Federal Election Commission to declare himself. candidate in the 2024 election on November 15, minutes before he announced his candidacy at the same location in Palm Beach, Florida, where FBI agents had conducted a search for stolen classified documents just three months earlier.
(AP)
Now based in Florida, the former real estate developer-turned-TV host-turned-politician is hoping to become the first former US CEO to win back the White House since Grover Cleveland accomplished that feat more than a century ago. But he faces a number of obstacles in what was once supposed to be an easy path to the Republican nomination, including several of his former top aides and at least one governor he once endorsed.
marianne williamson
The self-help author and former spiritual adviser to TV mogul Oprah Winfrey, who participated in several Democratic primary debates during the 2020 election, has said she will enter the 2024 race to challenge Biden for the Democratic presidential nomination.
In an interview with Northwestern University’s Medill News Service, Ms. Williamson confirmed her intention to run next year.
“I wouldn’t run for president if I didn’t think I could help tap into the collective sensibilities that I think is our best hope right now,” he said.
During her aborted 2020 presidential bid, she gained some notoriety for making statements widely considered bizarre, such as a promise to make then-New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern the first female head of government she would call president, and a claim that she would win the elections “taking advantage of[ing] love for political purposes” against Trump.
nikki haley
Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley spent two years as Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations, garnering at least some media attention during that time for the way she avoided involvement in the myriad controversies that engulfed his administration. while he remained in the government of the then president. favor.
Although the former governor-turned-diplomat previously vowed not to throw her hat into the ring by 2024 if Trump was still running, she appears to have scrapped that promise outside of the campaign.
On February 15, Ms. Haley announced that she would indeed enter the race.
In a video released by his campaign, he even went so far as to take a veiled jab at Trump by noting that “seven of the last eight presidential elections” have seen the Republican candidate lose the popular vote. He also said it is “time for a new generation of leadership” that will “rediscover fiscal responsibility, secure our border, and strengthen our country, our pride, and our purpose.”
mike pence
Once Trump’s most loyal supporter and unwavering right-hand man, former Vice President Mike Pence’s relationship with the man who led the Republican ticket in 2020 was irrevocably altered by his decision not to illegally hijack congressional certification of votes. of the Electoral College in an attempt to keep himself and Trump in power against the wishes of American voters.
Pence has not officially declared his intention to run for president against Trump in 2024, but since leaving office he has kept up a steady stream of appearances in key primary states (hello, New Hampshire!) and campaigned for numerous Republican candidates in the midterm elections earlier this month. He also appeared at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual convention in Las Vegas, a traditional cattle call for potential Republican Party presidential contenders.
(Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)
While the former vice president has taken pains not to criticize Trump as some anti-Trump Republicans have in recent months, he has also made it clear that he would not do things the way the former president did during his four years in office. .
Pence also began building the beginnings of a 2024 campaign operation by bringing in former Ben Sasse spokesman Ali Kjergaard to his nonprofit Advancing American Freedom. Ms. Kjergaard joins other former Pence White House mainstays, including his former chief of staff, Marc Short, and his former press secretary, Devin O’Malley.
mike pompeo
Another former Trump administration official widely reported to be considering a 2024 run is Trump’s former CIA director turned secretary of state, Mike Pompeo.
The former Kansas congressman appeared at the RJC convention and has kept his face in the public consciousness through a steady stream of appearances on Fox News, where he is a paid contributor. Like Pence, he also maintained a schedule of public appearances that included trips to early primary states.
However, Pompeo officially announced on April 14 via Twitter that he will not be running for president in 2024.
“Susan and I have concluded, after much consideration and prayer, that I will not be running to become President of the United States in the 2024 election.” Pompeo tweeted.
ron desantis
Many in the Republican Party think that the current governor of Florida is the perfect successor to Trump.
(Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)
Mr. DeSantis, a former Florida congressman who won his 2018 gubernatorial campaign after receiving a coveted endorsement from the then-president, is seen by Republican pundits as a worthy avatar of the current “anti-wake-up” GOP that is hated by all the right people. , and his star has been on the rise in conservative circles ever since he bragged about ending any and all pandemic-related restrictions and mandates in the Sunshine State.
When DeSantis took the stage at his 2022 election victory party, supporters even chanted “two more years” in a nod to his possible status as a Republican presidential candidate. And Florida lawmakers are reportedly considering changing state law to make it easier for you to seek his party’s nomination as he runs for governor.
Earlier this month, Trump debuted a derogatory nickname, “Ron DeSanctimonious,” for his former ally, a sure sign that the Florida native is considered a serious adversary for the New York transplant.
Vivek Ramaswamy
Ramaswamy, a wealthy biotech businessman and conservative activist, announced his intention to run in the 2024 Republican primary during an appearance on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show of the same name.
The Yale Law School graduate has become something of a celebrity in right-wing circles for his denunciations of stakeholder capitalism, big-tech censorship, and critical race theory.
Last year, he founded Strive Asset Management, an “anti-awakening” investment firm that opposes companies using environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) practices.
Robert F Kennedy Jr.
Kennedy Jr, an attorney, vaccine skeptic, and son of U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy, filed candidacy papers with the Federal Election Commission on April 5, 2023.
The filing places the 69-year-old as the second long-shot Democratic candidate to challenge President Biden, behind Marianne Williamson.
While he intends to run as a Democrat, Kennedy Jr. has ties to former President Trump. In 2017, the then-president-elect appointed him to oversee a presidential panel to review the safety and science of vaccines, despite having repeatedly expressed skepticism about vaccines from him. He continued to push those beliefs during the coronavirus pandemic.
Kennedy Jr.’s father was a candidate in the 1968 presidential election before he was assassinated.
larry major
Elder, a former attorney and current conservative radio host, announced on Thursday, April 20, the tucker carlson tonight who will run for president in 2024.
The right-wing candidate said he felt a “moral, religious and patriotic duty” to join the race for the presidency. He mentioned the police, crime and government overreach as areas of concern.
“We have incentivized women to marry the government,” Elder told Tucker Carlson. “We have encouraged men to abandon their financial and moral responsibility. And if I do nothing else in this career, but I focus people on those two issues… I would provide this service to my country”.
Prior to his announcement, Elder had been the host of the popular conservative radio show The Larry Elder Show at KABC since 1993. Left in April 2022.
Elder has some political experience having run unsuccessfully to replace California Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2021.