2024 United States presidential election facts for kids

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2024 United States presidential election

← 2020

November 5, 2024

2028 →

538 members of the Electoral College
270 electoral votes needed to win

Opinion polls

Turnout

63.9% (

2.7 pp)


Nominee	Donald Trump	Kamala Harris
Party	Republican	Democrat
Home state	Florida	California
Running mate	JD Vance	Tim Walz
Electoral vote	312	226
States carried	31 + ME-02	19 + DC + NE-02
Popular vote	77,302,580	75,017,613
Percentage	49.8%	48.3%

Presidential election results map. Red denotes states won by Trump/Vance and blue denotes those won by Harris/Walz. Numbers indicate electoral votes cast by each state and the District of Columbia.

President before election

Joe Biden
Democrat

Elected President

Donald Trump
Republican

The presidential election happened in the United States on November 5, 2024. The candidates were Donald Trump and JD Vance from the Republican Party. They ran against Kamala Harris and Tim Walz from the Democratic Party.

Donald Trump had been the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. JD Vance is a U.S. senator for Ohio. Kamala Harris was the Vice President at the time. Tim Walz was the governor of Minnesota.

The current president, Joe Biden, first planned to run for re-election. He easily won the early Democratic primaries. But after a debate in June 2024, people worried about his age and health. Many in his party asked him to step down.

Joe Biden decided to withdraw on July 21. He was the first sitting president to do this since Lyndon B. Johnson in 1968. Biden then supported Kamala Harris. She became the party's candidate on August 5, 2024. This was the first time a candidate did not take part in the primaries since Hubert Humphrey in 1968. Harris chose Tim Walz as her running mate.

Donald Trump, who lost to Biden in 2020, ran for president again. He won the Republican primaries. He defeated former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley. Trump and JD Vance were chosen at the 2024 Republican National Convention.

Trump won the Electoral College with 312 votes. Harris received 226 votes. Trump won all the important "swing states." He also won Nevada, which a Republican had not won since 2004. Trump won the national popular vote with 49.8%. He was the first Republican to win the popular vote since George W. Bush in 2004.

Trump gained more support from working-class voters. This included young men, people without college degrees, and Hispanic voters. This election was special because it was the first time since 1888 that three elections in a row were decided by less than 100 electoral votes. Trump also became the first person since Grover Cleveland in 1892 to be elected for a second term that was not right after his first.

Democratic Party Candidates
Republican Party Candidates
- Republican Nominees
Other Candidates
- Libertarian Party
- Green Party
Images for kids
See also

Democratic Party Candidates

The popular vote results of the 2024 Democratic presidential primaries
Joe Biden Jason Palmer No popular vote held

On April 25, 2023, President Joe Biden announced he would run for re-election. He kept Vice President Kamala Harris as his running mate. Some people in the Democratic Party had asked Biden not to run.

Many people were concerned about Biden's age. He was the oldest president to take office at 78. If re-elected, he would have been 86 at the end of his second term. Polls showed that many Americans, including Democrats, thought Biden should not run again because of his age.

Other candidates also ran in the Democratic primaries. Author Marianne Williamson announced her candidacy in February 2023. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced his run in April 2023. He later decided to run as an independent candidate. Representative Dean Phillips and venture capitalist Jason Palmer also ran.

Marianne Williamson stopped her campaign in February 2024 but started it again later. Dean Phillips stopped his campaign in March 2024 after not winning many primaries. Jason Palmer won the American Samoa caucuses. This made him the first candidate to win a primary against a sitting president since Ted Kennedy in 1980. He stopped his campaign in May 2024.

On March 12, 2024, Joe Biden officially had enough delegates to be the likely Democratic candidate. However, after a difficult debate and a COVID-19 diagnosis, Biden announced on July 21 that he would leave the race. He supported Vice President Kamala Harris for the nomination.

Soon after, Harris announced her own campaign. By July 22, she had enough support from delegates to become the new likely Democratic candidate. Because of rules in Ohio, the party held a special online vote. Harris secured the nomination on August 5.

2024 Democratic Party ticket
Kamala Harris	Tim Walz
for President	for Vice President

49th Vice President of the United States (2021–present)	41st Governor of Minnesota (2019–present)

Republican Party Candidates

Results of the 2024 Republican presidential primaries
Nikki Haley Donald Trump

Donald Trump had lost to Biden in the 2020 election. He was allowed to run again in 2024. If he won, he would be the second president to serve two terms that were not back-to-back. The first was Grover Cleveland in 1892. Trump announced his campaign on November 15, 2022. He was seen as the early favorite for the Republican nomination.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis was considered Trump's main challenger. He had raised a lot of money for his campaign. DeSantis announced his candidacy on May 24, 2023. He said he was running to "lead our great American comeback."

After the Iowa caucuses, Trump won by a large amount. Ron DeSantis and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy then left the race and supported Trump. This left Trump and Nikki Haley as the main candidates. Haley was a former South Carolina governor who had worked in Trump's government.

Trump continued to win all the early voting contests. Haley's campaign struggled to gain support. On March 6, 2024, Haley stopped her campaign after winning only one primary on Super Tuesday. Trump then became the only major candidate left for the Republican nomination.

On March 12, 2024, Trump officially became the likely Republican presidential nominee. On July 15, 2024, at the 2024 Republican National Convention, Trump announced that Senator J. D. Vance would be his running mate.

Republican Nominees

2024 Republican Party ticket
Donald Trump	JD Vance
for President	for Vice President

45th President of the United States (2017–2021)	U.S. Senator from Ohio (2023–present)

Other Candidates

Other candidates from smaller parties and independent candidates also ran for president. These included Cornel West and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.. Kennedy later left the race in August 2024.

Some smaller parties announced their candidates:

The Libertarian Party chose Chase Oliver.
The Green Party chose Jill Stein.

Libertarian Party

Chase Oliver was chosen by the Libertarian Party as its presidential candidate on May 26, 2024. Oliver was also a candidate for the party in the 2022 United States Senate election in Georgia. The Libertarian Party had enough support to be on the ballot in many states.