2024 U.S. presidential election

On November 5, 2024, Republican Donald Trump defeated Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris to win a second, non-consecutive term, the first president to do so since Grover Cleveland in 1892. Trump won 312 electoral votes to Harris's 226, carrying all seven swing states: Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia, North Carolina, Arizona and Nevada. He also won the popular vote, 49.8 percent to 48.3 percent, about 77.3 million votes to 75.0 million, the first Republican popular vote win since 2004. Republicans took control of the Senate and held the House. Trump's running mate was Senator JD Vance of Ohio; Harris's was Minnesota governor Tim Walz.¹³

The race began as a rematch of 2020. Trump had lost to Joe Biden, refused to accept the result and was later indicted in federal and state cases over his efforts to overturn it, along with a federal case over classified documents. In May 2024 a New York jury convicted him on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, a conviction he appealed. Voters, meanwhile, were angry about prices after inflation peaked at 9.1 percent in 2022, and about high levels of migration at the southern border. Democrats emphasized abortion rights after the Dobbs decision and warned about threats to democracy.

The summer upended the race. After a poor debate performance on June 27 deepened concern about his age, Biden, 81, withdrew on July 21 and endorsed Harris, who quickly secured the nomination. Eight days earlier, Trump had survived an assassination attempt at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Harris drew large crowds and record fundraising, but Trump gained across most groups, including Latino and young men, and won decisively in the swing states. After the election, federal prosecutors dropped the two federal cases against him under the Justice Department's policy against prosecuting a sitting president.²