2024 United States elections

Elections were held in the United States on November 5, 2024. In the presidential election, former Republican President Donald Trump, seeking a non-consecutive second term, defeated the incumbent Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris. Republicans also gained control of the Senate and held narrow control of the House of Representatives, winning a government trifecta for the first time since 2016.

This was the third consecutive presidential election in which the incumbent party lost the presidential election (2016, 2020, and 2024). The last time neither the presidency nor a chamber of Congress changed control was in 2012.

This was also the first time since 1980 that Republicans flipped control of a chamber of Congress in a presidential year, and that Democrats were voted out after a single four-year presidential term.

Republicans capitalized on Joe Biden's age, questions about his cognitive health, and his high unpopularity in the midst of inflation despite an initial reelection campaign that collapsed due to poor debate performance against Trump. Democrats, after an unexpectedly strong performance in the 2022 midterms, faced internal divisions over the Gaza war and Israel.

This election cycle was notable for two attempted assassinations on Donald Trump, the first in Pennsylvania, in which he was shot, and the second in Florida. This was the first time a U.S. president (current or former) had been shot at since 1981, and the first time a U.S. presidential candidate had been shot on the campaign trail since 1972. Major issues across the elections were the economy, abortion, immigration, democracy, and foreign policy.

Background

Indictments

During the 2024 election cycle, Donald Trump faced multiple criminal and civil court cases. By December 2022, one month after announcing his re-election bid, he had four criminal indictments totaling 86 felony counts. Trump and many Republicans made numerous false and misleading statements regarding Trump's criminal trials, including false claims that they are "rigged" or "election interference" orchestrated by Biden and the Democratic Party, of which there is no evidence.

On May 30, 2024, Trump was found guilty by a jury of all 34 felony counts in The People of the State of New York v. Donald J. Trump over falsifying business records for hush money payments to pornographic film star Stormy Daniels, to ensure her silence about a sexual encounter between them to influence the 2016 presidential election. This made Trump the first former U.S. president to be convicted of a crime in American history.

Trump was found liable on May 9, 2023, by an anonymous jury, in E. Jean Carroll v. Donald J. Trump for battery and defamation, and was ordered to pay a total of $88.3-million combined judgement,

In September 2023, Trump was found guilty of financial fraud in New York v. Trump and was ordered to pay a $354.8 million judgement, in which Trump appealed.

14th Amendment ballot removal attempts

Several state courts and officials, including the Colorado Supreme Court, a state Circuit Court in Illinois, and the Secretary of State of Maine, ruled that Trump was ineligible to hold office under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution for his role in the January 6 Capitol attack, and moved to disqualify him from appearing on the ballot. On March 4, 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled in Trump v. Anderson that states cannot determine eligibility for a national election under Section 3, and only Congress has the authority to disqualify candidates, or to pass legislation that allows courts to do so.

Issues

Democracy

Polling before the election indicated profound dissatisfaction with the state of American democracy on both sides of the electorate.

Liberals tended to believe that conservatives were threatening democracy following their attempts to overturn the 2020 election. During the election, significant debate broke out about whether Donald Trump could be considered a fascist. According to one poll conducted on October 25, 2024, 49% of Americans saw Trump as a fascist, described as "a political extremist who seeks to act as a dictator, disregards individual rights and threatens or uses force against their opponents". Meanwhile, only 22% saw Harris as a fascist by this definition.

Some Republicans were concerned that Trump's former impeachment and four criminal indictments were attempts to influence the election and keep him from office; however, there is no evidence that Trump's criminal trials were "election interference" orchestrated by Biden and the Democratic Party, and Trump also continued to repeat false claims that the 2020 election was rigged and stolen from him.

After Trump was shot at an election rally in an assassination attempt, polling soon after the event showed that one third of Americans agreed that the assassination attempt of Trump was "part of a broader plot or conspiracy", and nearly half of those polled answering "very or somewhat likely" to the idea that "The U.S. will no longer be a democracy" within 10 years.

Economy

Voters consistently cited the current status of the U.S. economy as their top issue in the 2024 election. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, a global surge in inflation ensued that raised prices on many goods, though the U.S. inflation rate had declined significantly during 2023 and 2024. The New York Times reported that both candidates "embraced a vision of a powerful federal government, using its muscle to intervene in markets in pursuit of a stronger and more prosperous economy."

The chief divide between the two major parties on the economy going into the election cycle were the incumbent Democrats pointing out that the economy was strong and well on its way to recovering from the effects of worldwide inflation, initially coining the term "Bidenomics", but acknowledging that goods were still too expensive and promising action to increase affordability. Republicans argued that the economy was better while they were in office, and promised to quickly bring down inflation, increase tariffs, and cut taxes and regulations.

Immigration

Border security and immigration were among the top issues concerning potential voters in the election. Polling throughout the election cycle showed that most Americans wanted to reduce immigration. Soon after President Biden assumed office in 2021, entries into the US began to rise, worsening in 2023 and early 2024 as a surge of migrants through the border with Mexico occurred, causing record high levels of illegal entry into the US. By June 2024, illegal crossings reached a three-year low following four consecutive monthly drops, which senior government officials attributed to increased enforcement between the United States and Mexico, the weather, and Biden's executive order which increased asylum restrictions, but were still higher than average numbers recorded by the former Trump administration.

Abortion

This was the first presidential election held after the overturn of Roe v. Wade, and the third overall election cycle after the 2022 midterm elections and the 2023 off-year elections. Republican-controlled states predominantly passed near-total bans on abortion in the aftermath of the Supreme Court's June 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision. By April 2023, abortion was "largely illegal" in several states. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, there were 15 states that had de jure early stage bans on abortion explicitly without exceptions for rape or incest: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. (Ohio voters subsequently codified abortion rights in Ohio's state constitution via November 2023 Ohio Issue 1.) In states with laws granting exceptions, it was reported de facto that "very few exceptions to these new abortion bans have been granted" and that patients who had been raped or otherwise qualified for exceptions were being turned away, citing "ambiguous laws and the threat of criminal penalties make them unwilling to test the rules".

Abortion referendums were on the ballot in 10 states in 2024: Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New York and South Dakota.

Foreign relations

Gaza War

With the war in the Middle East between Israel and its regional neighbors under increased international scrutiny as it continued to escalate, many Americans had protested in support and in opposition to the United States continued friendship and alliance with Israel.

Many cities and universities experienced anti-Israeli protests calling on the US to end its support for the Israeli government and other Israeli institutions, which included calls for Americans to not support the 2024 election efforts of President Biden or Vice President Harris due to their administration's continued support for Israel. Domestic American Pro-Israel groups had meanwhile spent large sums of money to support pro-Israel candidates against candidates critical of the Israeli government. According to a campaign finance analysis by Politico, AIPAC was the "biggest source of Republican money flowing into competitive Democratic primaries this year."