Who is running for president in 2024? Meet the candidates

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A voter arrives at a polling place on March 3, 2020 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)

The first wave of presidential primaries is underway in the United States, with just months to go before America votes again for the next president.

Two former presidents are hoping to win a second term, both Joe Biden and Donald Trump – which has many anticipating a Biden-vs.-Trump rematch after the last tumultuous presidential election. The once-crowded Republican field has dwindled down to just two.

Here’s the current active campaigns in a bid for the 2024 presidency:

Who is running for president in 2024?

Donald Trump, 76 (R)

The former Republican president was the first candidate to kick off his campaign, back in November 2022 after a disappointing midterm showing for Republicans.

This is his third campaign for the White House, after winning the term in 2016 against Hillary Clinton and losing in 2020 to Biden – despite continuing to bolster claims that he actually won, which has brought several legal troubles to his plate.

But he has made his various legal fights part of his campaign, and easily won Iowa’s leadoff presidential caucuses on Jan. 15 and remains hugely popular in the Republican Party.

In March, Trump became the first former U.S. president to be criminally charged, facing 34 felony counts of falsifying business records as part of a hush-money scheme. Since then, he has been charged with 57 more felonies in three other criminal cases, accused of mishandling and unlawfully retaining classified documents and trying to illegally overturn the results of the 2020 election.

Nikki Haley, 51 (R)

Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor and ambassador to the United Nations under former President Donald Trump, was the first to officially challenge Trump for the GOP nomination – and is the only one remaining in the race to still do so.

After a long-shot campaign for governor, in 2010 Haley became South Carolina’s first female and minority governor — and the nation’s youngest at 38. If elected president, Haley would be the nation’s first female president and the first U.S. president of Indian descent.

Her claim on the campaign trail has been the main alternative to a Trump-Biden rematch. Haley was third in the Iowa caucuses, finishing just behind Ron DeSantis who has since dropped out.

President Joe Biden, 80 (D)

Biden, who would be 86 at the end of a second term, is betting his first-term legislative achievements and more than 50 years of experience in Washington will count for more than concerns over his age.

He faces a smooth path to winning his party’s nomination, with no serious Democratic challengers. But he’s still set for a hard-fought struggle to retain the presidency in a bitterly divided nation.

Marianne Williamson, 70 (D)

Self-help author Marianne Williamson is taking another chance at landing the country’s top job.

She previously ran a 2020 campaign that featured more quirky calls for spiritual healing than actual voter support, according to The Associated Press.

Rep. Dean Phillips, 54 (D)

The congressman from Minnesota entered the race himself last fall after calling for a Democratic primary challenge to President Joe Biden. No one else bit, so he decided it’d be him.

Phillips is capitalizing on the absence of Biden’s name from the New Hampshire primary ballot, hoping to chip away at confidence in Biden’s electability.

Phillips’ campaign has faced a bumpy ride, though he has picked up the endorsement of entrepreneur Andrew Yang, who garnered national attention running a longshot Democratic bid in 2020.

He is one of the wealthiest members of Congress and heir to his stepfather’s Phillips Distilling Company empire, which holds major vodka and schnapps brands. He once served as that company’s president but also ran the gelato maker Talenti. His grandmother was the late Pauline Phillips, better known as the advice columnist "Dear Abby."

Cornel West, 70, (Independent)

Cornel West, a scholar and progressive activist, joined the group as the first third-party candidate, saying he wants to empower people who have been "pushed to the margins."

West is a well known Black scholar and author and a former professor at Harvard and Princeton universities. He criticized former President Barack Obama as a "war criminal," and supported Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, a democratic socialist, in his presidential bids in 2016 and 2020.

On his campaign website, West says he wants to end wars, disband NATO, forgive all student debt, expand Social Security and invest in clean energy.

He initially announced in June that he would be running as a member of The People’s Party before soon switching to the Green Party, and announced last fall that he was running as an independent.

Robert. F. Kennedy Jr., 69 (Independent)

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a nephew of President John F. Kennedy and the son of his slain brother Robert F. Kennedy, was once a bestselling author and environmental lawyer who worked on issues such as clean water.

More than a decade ago, RFK emerged as one of the leading voices in the anti-vaccine movement, and his work has been described by public health experts and even members of his own family as misleading and dangerous, according to The Associated Press.

Originally running as a Democrat, he switched parties in October 2023 to run as an independent, adding potential for a wrinkle in the likely Biden-Trump rematch. Both Biden and Trump allies have at times questioned whether Kennedy would be a spoiler against their candidate.

Jill Stein, 73 (Green Party)

The environmental activist, whose 2016 third-party presidential bid was blamed by Democrats for helping Trump win the White House, is making another run for the nation's highest office.

She ran against Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016 as a Green Party candidate and received about 1% of the vote. Some Democrats said her candidacy siphoned votes away from Clinton, particularly in swing states like Wisconsin.

This story was reported from Detroit. The Associated Press contributed.

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