Politics in the States has always been a bit of a circus, hasn't it? But 2024? That was something else entirely. You’ve probably seen the headlines by now, but if you're trying to piece together the actual list of presidential candidates 2024 usa, it’s kind of a wild ride. It wasn't just a two-horse race, though the media definitely made it feel that way most of the time.
Honestly, the lineup shifted so much between the early primaries and the actual November finish line that it's easy to get confused. We started with an incumbent president and ended with a totally different Democratic nominee, a Republican making a historic comeback, and a handful of third-party names that actually managed to pull some weight in the final count.
The big names at the top of the ticket
When people ask who the presidential candidates 2024 usa were, the conversation usually starts and ends with Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. But how we got there was anything but standard.
Donald Trump, representing the Republican Party, secured his nomination after a pretty dominant run through the primaries, eventually picking JD Vance as his running mate. He was basically the presumptive nominee from the jump, despite a crowded field of GOP challengers like Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis who eventually bowed out.
On the other side, the Democrats had a bit of a summer plot twist. Joe Biden was the guy—until he wasn't. After that June debate that everyone’s still talking about, Biden stepped aside and endorsed his Vice President. Kamala Harris took the reins, teamed up with Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, and fast-tracked her way to the nomination without a traditional primary.
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It was a sprint to the finish. Trump ended up winning with 312 electoral votes, while Harris pulled in 226.
The third-party contenders you might’ve missed
Beyond the red and blue giants, there were a few others who actually got their names on ballots across the country. They didn't win any states, obviously, but they definitely influenced the "vibe" of the election and grabbed a decent chunk of the popular vote.
Jill Stein ran again under the Green Party banner. She’s a familiar face in these races, focusing heavily on climate change and, in 2024, a lot of the foreign policy issues that were splitting the Democratic base. She ended up with about 0.6% of the popular vote.
Then you had Chase Oliver, the Libertarian candidate. He’s younger, pretty vocal about individual liberties, and he managed to get roughly 0.4% of the vote.
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And we can't forget the Robert F. Kennedy Jr. saga. He started as a Democrat, went Independent, and was a massive talking point for months because of his polling numbers. Eventually, he suspended his campaign and threw his support behind Trump, but his name stayed on the ballot in a bunch of states anyway, still pulling in about 0.5% of the total national vote.
A quick look at the "Other" category:
- Cornel West: Ran as an Independent, pulling about 81,000 votes nationally.
- Claudia De La Cruz: Represented the Party for Socialism and Liberation.
- Peter Sonski: The American Solidarity Party candidate.
- Randall Terry: Ran with the Constitution Party.
Why the map looked the way it did
The 2024 election was basically decided in seven swing states. You know the ones: Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia, Arizona, Nevada, and North Carolina.
What’s interesting is that Trump didn't just win; he swept all seven of those battlegrounds. It was the first time a Republican won Nevada since 2004. He also did something most experts didn't see coming—he won the national popular vote by about 1.5 percentage points.
The demographics shifted, too. Trump made huge gains with Hispanic voters, almost reaching parity with Harris (48% to her 51%). In 2020, Biden had a massive 25-point lead with that group. He also bumped his numbers with Black and Asian voters compared to his previous runs.
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Harris, meanwhile, kept a strong lead in urban areas and among college-educated women, but it wasn't enough to offset the massive turnout Trump saw in rural counties.
What really happened in the primaries?
Before the general election, there was a whole list of people who wanted to be the presidential candidates 2024 usa. The Republican primary was actually quite crowded for a while.
Nikki Haley was the last one standing against Trump, finally dropping out in March. Before her, we saw Ron DeSantis, Vivek Ramaswamy, and Chris Christie all try to find a lane. On the Democratic side, Dean Phillips was the only significant name to challenge Biden early on, but he never really gained traction.
Your next steps for staying informed
If you're looking to dive deeper into how these candidates actually performed in your specific area, here’s what you should do:
- Check your state’s Secretary of State website for the official, certified breakdown of every candidate who was on your local ballot.
- Look up the Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings if you're curious about who funded these campaigns—it's all public record.
- Review the Pew Research Center’s post-election analysis to see the specific demographic shifts that decided the outcome.
The 2024 race changed a lot of the "rules" we thought we knew about American politics. Whether it was the late-stage candidate swap or the shift in traditionally blue voter blocs, the list of candidates was just one part of a much bigger, much weirder story.