WASHINGTON – Calling the 2024 presidential campaign unprecedented may be an understatement.
A series of shocking events rocked the presidential race as Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump raced to the finish line in hopes of winning the nation’s highest office.
Less than four months ago, Harris wasn’t even running.
And Trump, whose attempt to return to the White House after a criminal conviction in New York was already historic, survived two apparent assassination attempts.
The Democratic and Republican presidential candidates are locked in a neck-and-neck battle that can be decided by just a handful of voters in seven swing states.
Here are the ups and downs of the historic 2024 presidential campaign as it unfolds across the United States on Election Day:
Trump-Biden rematch
Trump and President Joe Biden, then the Democratic presidential candidate, attracted several challengers to their parties’ nomination.
Trump certainly had a more competitive pool of primary challengers.
In the face of four separate prosecutions of the former president and the memory of voters of the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol, which included former UN ambassador and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson were seeking the Republican nomination.
Already at the beginning of the primaries, it seemed that he was Biden’s most sedate rival U.S. Representative Dean Phillipswho was little known outside his Minnesota district. However, the incumbent president ultimately lost more votes to Democrats, who chose the “Non-Aligned” option rather than support Biden in his approach to the Israel-Hamas war.
After winning Super Tuesday in March, both Trump and Biden secured the number of delegates necessary to secure their parties’ nominations.
During the 2024 presidential campaign, third parties also tried to make their presence felt, perhaps most notably Robert F. Kennedy Jr. – environmental lawyer and anti-vaccination activist.
Kennedy suspended his independent presidential campaign in August and endorsed Trump.
Meanwhile, an independent candidate for president Cornel West and candidate of the Green Party Jill Stein both are competing for the White House on third-party bids.
And with the ongoing war in Gaza, pro-Palestinian organizers have put pressure on both the Biden administration and Harris, who is vying for the Oval Office, through the Non-Aligned National Movement.
The movement was met by a wide range of organizers who protested Biden’s policy regarding the Israel-Hamas war and called for an arms embargo and ceasefire.
Biden bows, Harris steps in
After both parties’ primaries, Biden and Trump were set for a rematch in the 2020 race, with a pre-election debate scheduled for delayed June.
Biden’s disastrous performance, during which he spoke softly and at times seemed to lose his mind, sparked outrage from Democratic lawmakers who urged him to withdraw his bid for the White House.
Less than a month later, battling a Covid-19 infection at home, Biden withdrew from the race and passed the torch to Harris.
The veep then launched an unprecedented and accelerated presidential campaign. If elected, she would become the first female president, the first president of South Asian descent and the second black president.
The summer months also saw the formal nominations of Trump and Harris’ running mates – Ohio GOP Sen. J.D. Vance and Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz – as both parties gained support from their supporters at their national conventions.
Attempts to assassinate Trump
Trump survived assassination attempt in July during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, where authorities say a would-be assassin killed one rallygoer, wounded two others and shot the former president in the ear.
The attack sparked a slew of federal investigations and bipartisan congressional task force examine.
US Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, whose agency faced a deluge of scrutiny after the attack, resigned just days later.
In September, authorities responded to a second alleged assassination attempt on Trump while he was playing golf at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, raising even more questions about the former president’s safety and security.
Trump’s legal battles are taking center stage in the campaign
In the context of his presidential candidacy, Trump was embroiled in several legal battles and had to juggle court appearances with his campaign schedule.
In May, a New York court found Trump guilty of 34 crimes related to falsifying business records. He is the first former US president to be convicted of a criminal offense.
He was also charged in federal election interference cases and in Georgia election interference cases.
The federal classified documents case against him has been dismissed, at least for now.
His federal election interference case was put on hold for several months earlier this year while his claim to presidential immunity was argued in court.
This argument went to the U.S. Supreme Court, which held that presidents are granted full immunity from criminal charges for all official “basic constitutional” acts, although they are not entitled to immunity for any unofficial actions.
Trump’s victory in the White House could significantly influence the course of his remaining legal battles in the courts and whether they will continue at all.
The last stage of the 2024 presidential campaign
In September, Harris and Trump argued during the presidential debate, exchanging remarks and touting their own policy proposals.
With polls repeatedly showing Trump and Harris in an extremely close race in which neither had a concrete advantage, the two spent most of their campaigns in swing states: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. .
The Trump campaign faced massive backlash after comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s racist and vulgar remarks at a rally at Madison Square Garden in New York in delayed October, including calling Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage.”
In what her campaign called her “closing speech,” Harris last week urged voters to reject Trump’s “chaos and division.” According to campaign estimates, she spoke to more than 75,000 viewers.
She delivered a speech at the Ellipse in Washington, D.C., the site where Trump held a rally on January 6, 2021, before his supporters attacked the Capitol.
As the country comes to the end of a grueling and tortuous presidential campaign, voters will soon decide whether the next leader of the free world is Harris or Trump.
Last updated: 6:30 AM, November 5, 2024
