Imagine it’s November 5th, 2024, you are listening to the news, hearing the projections, and waiting for the election to be called. It starts getting later and later, and then you hear who won. It seems you didn’t pay attention to who was running and now you’re confused. Well, you can avoid not knowing if you read this article.

So, now that you are reading this article you are probably saying, “I already know about Donald Trump and Joe Biden, who else is running?” Well, I will start with the Republicans. The first candidate is Nikki Haley. She was the former ambassador to the United Nations and was Governor of South Carolina from 2011 to 2017. She is also 51. The second candidate is Vivek Ramaswamy. He is 38 and went to Harvard for a bachelor’s and Yale for a juris doctor. Some of his campaign positions are to use drones on the boarders. Also, to end affirmative action. He also wants to ban social media for people under 16. He wants to “Drill, frack & burn coal: abandon the climate cult & unshackle nuclear energy” (Vivek campaign website). He then mentions how he wants to get rid of the great society and have Reagan 2.0. He also wants to “Declare Independence from Communist China.”

The next candidate is Ron DeSantis, the current governor of Florida, who is 45 years old. He wants to build a wall at the southern border and have Congress make a nationwide school choice legislation.  The former vice president, Mike Pence, is running. He is focused on tax relief and nominating more supreme court jurists.

For the Democrats, there is Joe Biden, our current president. Furthermore, there is Marianne Williamson, who has written on self-help and is running for her second time. The 3rd and final candidate is Robert F. Kennedy Junior, the 69-year-old nephew of former president, John F. Kennedy. He is known for being an anti-vaccine activist.

Now, there is a lot of competition between Republicans, but for Democrats there are only three people who are running. It is likely Joe Biden will be the nominee because he already won the popular vote and the electoral college in 2020. Also, he has been in politics for a very long time.

The presidential primaries for the Republicans will take place in July of 2024 when they will choose their nominee. The Democrats will make their choice in August. Some people have been worried about how if Joe Biden is picked, he will be very old when he is finished with his second term. Marianne Williamson was very popular with the younger generations until she talked about her opinions on mandatory vaccination, comparing it to the type of dystopian books written by George Orwell. She also mentioned she would “harness love” to defeat Donald Trump. She also talks about reparations for slavery and the creation of a department of peace.   Her opinions clash with both Republicans and Democrats, making it harder for her to win a nomination from either party.

Through this article, I only included those with chances to win primaries. After the primaries, there are some debates and then everyone votes in November 2024. Following that, the person who won is announced sometime after the polls close on election day. Then, in January, they are inaugurated to become president. Then, we will wait another four years until 2028 for the primaries again and vote again that November.