Meet the 2024 presidential election candidates: These Democrats and Republicans are running
The 2024 election cycle has kicked off. Though Election Day is over a year away, the race is well under way.
President Joe Biden announced he will seek another term, and with former President Donald Trump's hat also in the ring, the possibility of a 2020 rematch is distinct. Though the Democratic establishment is expected to fall firmly behind Biden, the Republican side is more of a toss-up.
Trump-endorsed candidates suffered in the midterm elections, and with his legal troubles mounting the GOP may be inclined to choose another nominee. Expectations have swirled that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is the man for the job, but with polls confirming Trump's enduring grip on the party's base the former president is still the man to beat.
Here are the latest developments on the path to the 2024 election:
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And here are the candidates who have announced their intention to run for president in the 2024 election:
Joe Biden
Political party: Democrat
Age: 80
Family: Biden has spent the bulk of his career talking candidly about grief. He lost his first wife Neilia Hunter and their one-year-old daughter Naomi in a 1972 car accident shortly after winning his first Senate race. His two young sons, Beau and Hunter, were injured in the crash but survived. In 2015, Biden lost Beau to brain cancer and has made it a major political goal to champion cancer research.
He remarried in 1977, tying the knot with now First Lady Jill Biden. The two share one daughter, Ashley, and a large clan of grandchildren.
Biden's son Hunter has become the subject of scandal in recent years. The GOP-led House has seized on Hunter's business dealings, hosting hearings to investigate his finances and the potential influence he has on his father.
Previous political experience: Joe Biden is a veteran of the Senate. First elected in 1972, he served as a senator from Delaware for 36 years before being elected as vice president on the Obama ticket in 2008.
After serving two terms as vice president, Biden took a brief hiatus from official government work before returning to run, and win, in 2020.
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Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Party: Democratic
Age: 69
Family: Kennedy bears a powerful last name in Democratic politics. He is the son of Robert F. Kennedy, the former attorney general who was assassinated during a 1968 presidential run, and the nephew of former president John F. Kennedy.
Kennedy has been married three times and has six children. He wed current wife Cheryl Hines in 2014. Hines is a television star best known for her role on "Curb Your Enthusiasm."
Previous political experience:Kennedy is an environmental lawyer who is most famous in the political realm for trumpeting a debunked theory that vaccines can be linked to autism.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Kennedy vocally opposed vaccine mandates, calling them an infringement on individual liberty and at times using the Holocaust as a historical comparison. In 2017, former president Trump invited Kennedy to head up a presidential commission on vaccine safety.
More on Kennedy's 2024 presidential candidacy
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Marianne Williamson
Political party: Democratic
Age: 70
Family: Williamson was married once in the late 1970s to a Houston businessman whom she has not named. She has one daughter, India Emmanuelle, whose father has not been publicly identified.
Previous political experience: Williamson is a self-help author, and spiritual leader who has dabbled in politics, mounting an unsuccessful campaign for the presidency in 2020. Then she was largely drowned out by a crowded Democratic field and written off as a fringe candidate.
She is thus far one of only two Democrats to formally announce a challenge to sitting President Joe Biden, whom the party is likely to coalesce around.
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Ron DeSantis
Political party: Republican
Age: 44
Family: The governor wed former television host Casey DeSantis in 2009 and the couple share two daughters Madison and Mamie and one son Mason.
Previous political experience: DeSantis currently serves as the 46th governor of Florida. His national profile grew during the pandemic when he spoke out publicly against mask mandates and pushed to keep many Florida businesses and schools open. Since then, he has captured national attention with controversial legislative measures on education and immigration.
While in law school, DeSantis joined the U.S. Navy as a JAG officer, later deploying to Iraq for active duty. Prior to his run for governor, he served in the House of Representatives as a congressman for Florida's 6th district for three terms from 2013 to 2018.
He is widely viewed as Trump’s biggest threat in the Republican primary. Similar in politics but different in demeanor, DeSantis represents a younger, some say more predictable, alternative to the former president.
More on Desantis' 2024 Presidential Candidacy
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Larry Elder
Political party: Republican
Age: 70
Family:Elder has no children and has been married once. The couple divorced after two years and Elder was engaged again to Alexandra Datig from 2013 to 2015. Amid his candidacy for California governor Datig went public with an allegation that Elder had once brandished a gun at her while high on marijuana.
Previous political experience: Elder is a lawyer and conservative talk show host who mounted a campaign against California governor Gavin Newsom in 2021's recall election. Though he lost, Elder received the highest number of votes of any candidate besides Newsom.
Elder announced his candidacy on Fox News' "Tucker Carlson Tonight," tweeting afterward "America is in decline, but this decline is not inevitable. We can enter a new American Golden Age, but we must choose a leader who can bring us there. That’s why I’m running for President."
More on Elder's 2024 presidential candidacy
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Nikki Haley
Political party: Republican
Age: 51
Family: Haley is one of four children born to Indian-American parents in Bamberg, South Carolina - a town she has described as divided by race.
She and her husband of 26 years Michael live still in South Carolina where they are raising two children Rena and Nalin.
Previous political experience: Haley started her political career in the South Carolina state legislature where she served for 6 years before mounting a successful campaign for the governor's office in 2010. She won reelection in 2014 and has bragged that she has "never lost a race."
In 2016, former President Trump nominated Haley to be U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, a position she held for a year before unexpectedly stepping down in 2018. Haley has played up her role as a female candidate in what is expected to be a largely male primary field. "May the best woman win,” she quipped in an interview with Fox News.
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Asa Hutchinson
Political party: Republican
Age: 72
Family:Hutchinson has been married to wife Susan since 1973, and the two share four children and seven grandchildren.
Previous political experience:Hutchinson has had a long career in Republican politics. He was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives to serve Arkansas' 3rd district in 1997; he served until 2001, when he was appointed DEA administrator and later undersecretary for the Department of Homeland Security for the Bush Administration.
While in the House Hutchinson served as impeachment manager in the trial of former president (and fellow Arkansas native) Bill Clinton. After leaving Washington he was elected 46th Governor of Arkansas. He served for two terms, from 2015 to 2023.
More on Hutchinson's 2024 presidential candidacy
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Vivek Ramaswamy
Political party: Republican
Age: 37
Family: Ramaswamy married Apoorva Tewari, a throat surgeon and assistant professor at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, in 2015. The pair have two sons together.
Previous political experience: Ramaswamy is framing himself as an outsider, an entrepreneur-turned-political-hopeful who will give the establishment a run for its money.
He is a former biotech investor who founded pharmaceutical research company Roivant Sciences in 2014. Ramaswamy left the company in 2020 amid clashes with colleagues over how to respond to the murder of George Floyd and the public outcry that followed. He now heads up Strive Asset Management.
He is the author of three books, including "Woke Inc.: Inside Corporate America's Social Justice Scam," which explores how American politics and capitalism have become increasingly intertwined.
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Tim Scott
Political party: Republican
Age: 57
Family: Scott is unmarried, with no children. He was raised by a single mother in North Charleston and has one brother.
Previous political experience:Scott first entered politics in 1995 during a special election for City Council in Charleston. His profile grew nationally when he suggested posting the 10 Commandments outside the the council building, a proposal that was denied.
Scott served for two years in the state legislature before being elected in 2010 to the House of Representatives for South Carolina's 1st district. He served one term before being appointed to the Senate by then-governor Nikki Haley and becoming the first Black U.S. senator from the state.
Scott is pitching himself as a more hopeful alternative to Trump, drawing on Reagan-era ideals and centering a tone of optimism.
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Donald Trump
Political party: Republican
Age: 76
Family: Trump is the son of real estate magnate Fred Trump. Born and bred in New York, he first made his name developing skyscrapers and casinos.
Trump first married in 1977, wedding Czech-born model Ivana. The two were married for 13 years and share three children: Ivanka, Donald Jr. and Eric. In 1993 Trump married actress and model Marla Maples. The two had one daughter: Tiffany. Following his divorce from Maples, Trump tied the knot for a final time with model Melania, who is mother to his youngest child, Barron.
Trump's family was uncharacteristically involved in his presidency. Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner played prominent roles in the administration, and both Don Jr. and Eric were often cited as close advisors.
Previous political experience: When Trump entered the race in 2016, he branded himself as a political outsider, a businessman separate from the establishment, ready to "drain the swamp."
Prior to 2016 he dabbled in politics, often sounding off on controversial issues like the birther movement meant to cast doubt on Barack Obama's citizenship and the guiltiness of the now-exonerated Central Park Five. However, he was still primarily known for real estate and his forays into reality television, famously starring in "The Apprentice."
In 2016, Trump shocked pollsters by securing victory over Hillary Clinton in the presidential race. He served a full four-year term and was defeated by Biden in his reelection bid.
More on Trump's 2024 presidential candidacy
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Who is running for president in 2024? Get to know the candidates.
