Who's running for president in 2024? Meet the candidates — and the ones who've dropped out

Kamala Harris

Vice President Kamala Harris accepted the Democratic presidential nomination at the party's convention in Chicago on Aug. 22. Her nomination is historic, as she is the first Black woman to top a major party ticket.

Harris selected Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate.

The vice president's speech capped a whirlwind first four weeks of her presidential campaign, which launched after Mr. Biden announced he would be ending his bid for reelection. Harris quickly announced her own White House run and earned endorsements from Mr. Biden, the Obamas, the Clintons and a slew of other key figures in the Democratic Party.

While Harris has served as vice president for the past three years and before that as a U.S. senator from California, she used her speech to reintroduce herself to the American people, describing how her middle-class upbringing shaped her views and motivations for becoming a prosecutor.

The vice president was a one-time opponent of Mr. Biden's during the 2020 Democratic primary, launching her campaign on Martin Luther King Jr. Day in January 2019 and ending her presidential run in December of that year. She endorsed Mr. Biden several months later.

The president selected Harris as his running mate in August 2020, a historic pick that made her the first Black woman selected as a vice presidential candidate for a major party. She was also the first South Asian nominee on a presidential ticket and just the third woman nominated for vice president.

Harris continued to make history when she was elected vice president, becoming the first woman, first Black American and first South Asian American to serve in the position.

If elected president in November, Harris will break barriers again as the first woman to hold the position.

Donald Trump

Former President Donald Trump accepted the Republican presidential nomination at the party's convention in Milwaukee, which took place in July. His speech came just days after he was shot in the ear in a failed assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13.

Trump selected Ohio Sen. JD Vance as his running mate.

The former president was the first candidate of either party to formally announce a 2024 bid, launching his campaign in a November 2022 speech from Mar-a-Lago, his South Florida resort. And after Super Tuesday, he was the last major Republican candidate left in the race to be the Republican nominee.

While Trump remains popular within the GOP, his legal troubles loom large over his candidacy. In March 2023, he became the first ex-president to be charged with a crime when Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg indicted him on charges related to a "hush money" payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels. 

Trump then became the first former president convicted of a crime, when a New York jury convicted him on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records stemming from the payment in late May.

His legal peril grew when he was indicted by a federal grand jury in June 2023 on charges stemming from special counsel Jack Smith's investigation into his handling of sensitive government documents. In August 2023, Trump was indicted again by another federal grand jury, this time on charges related to his alleged efforts to interfere with the peaceful transfer of power after the 2020 election. And a grand jury seated in Fulton County, Georgia, returned an indictment naming Trump and 18 others in mid-August related to alleged attempts to reverse the outcome of the state's presidential election. 

The federal election case was stalled for months after Trump's claim of presidential immunity wound its way to the Supreme Court, which ruled in early July that former presidents are entitled to immunity from federal prosecution for official acts. Proceedings are set to resume in September.

In the documents case, a federal judge tossed out the charges against him on the grounds that Smith was unlawfully appointed. The special counsel has appealed that decision.

And in the Fulton County case, proceedings were derailed for months when Trump and several of his co-defendants requested District Attorney Fani Willis and her office be removed from the prosecution because of a personal relationship she had with a fellow attorney working on the case, Nathan Wade. Their bid was denied, Wade resigned, and a Georgia appeals court will next decide the issue.

The developments in the three cases mean Trump will not go to trial in any of them before the November election.

Trump has said that an indictments would not deter him from seeking the presidency and has used his mug shot — taken when he surrendered to Fulton County authorities — to raise money for his campaign.

"I wouldn't even think about leaving," the former president said at CPAC last year when asked whether he would stay in the race if charged. 

In civil court in New York, Trump's bills are piling up. The judgment in his civil fraud trial was $454 million for him alone, and he and his co-defendants posted a bond of $175 million in April. He has appealed the judgment.

Trump was found liable on May 9, 2023, in a civil case brought by columnist E. Jean Carroll, who claimed Trump raped her in a department store fitting room in the 1990s and defamed her when she came forward several years ago. He also denied those allegations. The jury did not find that he raped Carroll, but did find that he sexually abused her, and ordered him to pay her roughly $5 million. The bar for finding someone liable in a civil case is lower than the burden of proof required to secure a criminal conviction, and does not count as a criminal record. 

A second defamation case against Trump by Carroll resulted in an even bigger $83.3 million verdict against him.

Marianne Williamson

Marianne Williamson rejoined the presidential campaign a day after the Michigan primary, after having left the race in early February. "Donald Trump's power is on the incline, and President Biden's is on the decline," she said in an Instagram video announcing she was "unsuspending" her campaign.

Williamson was the first Democrat to officially declare her candidacy, jumping into the race despite indications that the president would seek another term.

Her decision to run positioned Williamson as the first primary challenger to Mr. Biden.

Williamson, 71, is an author and spiritual adviser who sought the Democratic nomination in 2020 but failed to gain traction among the crowded field of candidates. After dropping out of the race, she threw her support behind Andrew Yang in the Iowa caucuses. 

Cornel West

Cornel West, a professor and progressive activist, initially said he would be running for the Green Party nomination, but announced on Oct. 5, 2023, that he would run as an independent instead.

In a video posted on Twitter in June 2023, West said he would be running as a third-party candidate because "neither political party wants to tell the truth about Wall Street, about Ukraine, about the Pentagon, about Big Tech." 

The video used a clip from his interview last year with Bill Maher in which he described the choice between the Democratic and Republican parties as a choice between "neo-fascists like Brother Trump or milquetoast liberals like Brother Biden." 

West, who supported Sen. Bernie Sanders' 2020 presidential campaign, is a professor of philosophy and Christian practice at Union Theological Seminary. He previously taught at Harvard and Princeton. 

President Biden

Mr. Biden shocked the political world when he announced on July 21 that he would no longer seek reelection, setting an end-date for his decades-long career in public service. The president will serve out the remainder of his term and vowed to spend his final six months in office working to lower costs for families, protect voting rights and fighting against cancer, among other priorities.

"I believe my record as president, my leadership in the world, my vision for America's future, all merited a second term," the president said. "But nothing, nothing, can come in the way of saving our democracy. That includes personal ambition."

Mr. Biden's withdrawal came just over a year after he made his reelection bid official on April 25, 2023, in a video declaring, "Let's finish this job."

"When I ran for president four years ago, I said we are in a battle for the soul of America — and we still are," the president said in the three-minute-long video. "The question we are facing is whether in the years ahead we have more freedom or less freedom, more rights or fewer. I know what I want the answer to be. This is not a time to be complacent. That's why I'm running for reelection."

Mr. Biden's career in elected office began in 1972, when he ran for the U.S. Senate as a 29-year-old. Mr. Biden was selected by former President Barack Obama to serve as his running mate in 2008, and he held the vice presidency for eight years. 

The president declined a bid for the White House in 2016, but made his third run in 2020, defeating Trump as the nation reeled from the COVID-19 pandemic. He selected Harris as his running mate, and she made history with their victory in November 2020 as the first woman, the first Black American and first South Asian American elected vice president.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an anti-vaccine activist and scion of one of the country's most famous political families, announced on Aug. 23 that he would be suspending his presidential campaign and endorsing Trump.

"In my heart, I no longer believe that I have a realistic path to electoral victory," he told supporters during a speech in Arizona. "I cannot in good conscience ask my staff and volunteers to keep working their long hours or ask my donors to keep giving when I cannot honestly tell them that I have a real path to the White House."

Kennedy said he is working to have his name removed from ballots in battleground states, but would remain listed in others that are firmly red or blue. He encouraged his supporters in those non-battleground states to vote for him as it would neither help nor harm Trump or Harris.

Kennedy announced a run for president as a Democrat, but revealed to supporters on Oct. 9, 2023, that he would be continuing his campaign as an independent. He had filed a statement of candidacy for president with the Federal Election Commission on April 5.

Kennedy, 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.

But more than 15 years ago, he became fixated on a belief that vaccines are not safe and 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. His anti-vaccine efforts intensified after the COVID-19 pandemic and development of the COVID-19 vaccine, and during the pandemic, his anti-vaccine charity saw revenues double" to $6.8 million, according to filings made with charity regulators.

Kennedy released a book in 2021 titled "The Real Anthony Fauci," in which he accused the U.S.'s top infectious disease doctor of assisting in "a historic coup d'etat against Western democracy" and promoted unproven COVID-19 treatments such as ivermectin, which is meant to treat parasites, and the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine.

Ron DeSantis

DeSantis suspended his presidential campaign on Jan. 21, 2024, two days before the New Hampshire primary, posting a video on X saying he could not ask his campaign staffers to give their time "without a clear path to victory." 

"It's clear to me that a majority of Republican primary voters want to give Donald Trump another chance," DeSantis said.

The Florida governor announced his run for presidency last May, launching his campaign in a live appearance on Twitter Spaces alongside the platform's CEO, Elon Musk.

The conversation was beset by technical issues that delayed DeSantis' announcement. His team said the hiccups demonstrated his popularity, since he "literally busted up the internet."

He laid out an agenda of tackling national crime rates, promoting energy independence and addressing immigration.

"To voters who are participating in this primary process, my pledge to you is this: If you nominate me you can set your clock to January 20, 2025 at high noon, because on the west side of the U.S. Capitol I will be taking the oath of office as the 47th president of the United States. No excuses. I will get the job done," the governor said.

The Florida governor is in his second term and was for a time considered to be the chief rival to Trump. The former president leveled attacks against DeSantis even before the governor officially entered the 2024 race.

During his time in Tallahassee, DeSantis has gained national recognition for his COVID-19 policies and embrace of the culture wars. DeSantis has also leaned into education issues, reshaping Florida's public education policies and engaging in local school board races during the 2022 election cycle, and recently signed into law a ban on abortion after six weeks of pregnancy.

Asa Hutchinson

Hutchinson, the former governor of Arkansas, was the fourth Republican to announce a 2024 presidential bid when he said he was getting in the race on April 2. He ended his campaign on the heels of the Iowa caucuses, where he placed fifth behind Trump, DeSantis, Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy.

"My message of being a principled Republican with experience and telling the truth about the current frontrunner did not sell in Iowa," Hutchinson said in a statement announcing his decision to drop out of the presidential race.

Hutchinson, 73, served two terms as governor from 2015 to 2023. A former congressman, he was also one of the House impeachment managers for President Bill Clinton's impeachment trial.

He has said he opposes Trump's third attempt to win the White House, describing a possible Trump 2024 nomination as the "worst scenario."

Vivek Ramaswamy

Ramaswamy, a former biotech executive, was considered a longshot for the Republican nomination but bolstered his profile with his appearances in the early Republican debates. He suspended his campaign after a fourth-place finish in the Iowa caucuses and threw his support behind Trump.

At 38 years old and with a net worth of roughly $600 million, Ramaswamy declared himself an "anti-woke" capitalist and decried corporate investment based on environmental, social and governance principles.

Ramaswamy is a native of Cincinnati, Ohio, and has ties to Sen. J.D. Vance and major GOP donor Peter Thiel. 

Chris Christie

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie dropped out of the race on Jan. 10, 2024, bringing to a close a bid that focused almost exclusively on him criticizing former President Trump and pressing his Republican opponents to do the same.

His exit came a week before the Iowa caucuses and just over six months after Christie launched his second presidential campaign on June 6, 2023.

Christie has called Trump "a bitter, angry man who wants power back for himself" and framed his decision to run for president on his belief that the country is at a pivotal moment of having to choose between "big and small." 

The former New Jersey governor argued that in recent years the country has been helmed by people who have "led us to being small — small by their example, small by the way they conduct themselves, small by the things they tells us we should care about ... They're making us smaller by dividing us into smaller and smaller groups." 

"All throughout our history, there have been moments where we've had to choose between big and small," he said. "I will tell you, the reason I'm here tonight is because this is one of those moments." 

Christie filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission formalizing his candidacy June 6 and made his announcement in New Hampshire. 

Doug Burgum

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum jumped into the 2024 presidential race on June 7, 2023, the same day former Vice President Mike Pence officially launched his campaign.

"We need a change in the White House. We need a new leader for a changing economy. That's why I'm announcing my run for president today," Burgum wrote in an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal. 

Burgum has served as North Dakota's governor since 2016 and was reelected in 2020. A former software company CEO, he grew Great Plains Software into a $1 billion company that was acquired by Microsoft.

He ended his campaign on Dec. 4 after struggling to get name recognition from voters and failing to qualify for the third and fourth primary debate. Burgum endorsed Trump on the eve of the Iowa caucuses, becoming the first of his former GOP opponents to throw their support behind the former president's White House bid.

"Four years ago, I was speaking on behalf of President Trump at the Iowa caucuses in Sioux City, and today, I'm here to do something that none of the other presidential primary candidates have done," Burgum, who joined Trump at a campaign rally, said Jan. 14. "And that's endorse Donald J. Trump for the president of the United States of America." 

Tim Scott

Sen. Tim Scott, of South Carolina, announced in an interview with Fox News on Nov. 12, 2023, that he would be dropping out of the race for the GOP presidential nomination.

"I think the voters, who have been the most remarkable people on the planet, have been really clear. They're telling me not now, Tim," Scott said.

The South Carolina Republican said that he would not be endorsing another candidate and wasn't interested in becoming a running mate, as "being vice president has never been on my to-do list for this campaign."

Scott jumped into the presidential race in mid-May when he filed a statement of his candidacy with the Federal Election Commission. He formally launched his presidential campaign at an event in his hometown of North Charleston on May 22, 2023.

"We live in the land of opportunity. We live in the land where it is absolutely possible for a kid raised in poverty, in a single-parent household, in a small apartment to one day serve in the people's House and maybe even the White House," Scott said in his campaign announcement.

Mike Pence

The former vice president and Indiana governor filed the relevant paperwork with the Federal Election Commission on June 5, 2023, cementing his place in the GOP field. He launched his presidential campaign with a campaign video, and attended a kickoff event in Des Moines, Iowa.

"Different times call for different leadership," Pence said in the video. "Today our party and our country need a leader that'll appeal, as Lincoln said, to the better angels of our nature."

The former vice president said it would be "easy to stay on the sidelines, but that's not how I was raised. That's why today, before God and my family, I'm announcing I'm running for president of the United States."

Pence, who has been visiting early voting states while he mulled entering the race, has suggested he believes it's time for the GOP to move on from Trump.

"I think we're going to have new leadership in this party and in this country," he told CBS News in January 2023.

Pence also has declined to commit to supporting Trump if he is the Republican nominee, instead saying that he believes GOP voters will choose "wisely again" in 2024 and thinks "different times call for different leadership."

While Pence has promoted the policies of the Trump administration, he has also criticized the former president for his actions on Jan. 6, 2021, saying that Trump's words were "reckless" and put him and his family, who were on Capitol Hill that day for the joint session of Congress, in danger.

After languishing in the polls and struggling to fundraise, Pence suspended his campaign on Oct. 28, 2023, during a speech at the Republican Jewish Coalition in Las Vegas. 

"We always knew this would be an uphill battle, but I have no regrets," Pence said. "To the American people, I say this is not my time, but this is your time. I urge you to hold fast to what matters most, faith, family, and the constitution of the United States of America."  

Francis Suarez

Miami Mayor Francis Suarez announced his decision to suspend his campaign in late August 2023, just two months after hopping into the 2024 race in mid-June. The move came after Suarez failed to qualify for the first Republican presidential primary debate, held in Milwaukee on Aug. 23.

"Running for president of the United States has been one of the greatest honors of my life," he said. "This country has given so much to my family and me. The prospect of giving back at the highest levels of public service is a motivator if not a calling. Throughout this process, I have met so many freedom-loving Americans who care deeply about our nation, her people, and its future. It was a privilege to come so close to appearing on stage with the other candidates at last week's first debate."

Suarez, who is Cuban American, was the only Latino GOP candidate in the 2024 field. He was the second Florida politician to enter the race and has been critical of certain aspects of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' policies and personality. He called DeSantis' ongoing feud with Disney a "personal vendetta," and told Fox News that the governor "seems to struggle with relationships, generally." 

Will Hurd

Former Rep. Will Hurd of Texas announced on Oct. 9, 2023, that he would be suspending his campaign and endorsing Haley for the Republican presidential nominee. 

"While I appreciate all the time and energy our supporters have given, it is important to recognize the realities of the political landscape and the need to consolidate our party around one person to defeat both Donald Trump and President Biden," Hurd said in a statement. 

The former congressman said Haley has "shown a willingness to articulate a different vision for the country than Donald Trump," and called her knowledge of foreign policy "unmatched." 

Hurd's decision to leave the race came less than four months after he announced his bid for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination in an interview with "CBS Mornings."

Hurd, 46, worked as an officer in the CIA for nearly a decade and ran to represent Texas's 23rd Congressional District in 2014. He defeated the incumbent Democrat by just 2,500 votes and went on to win reelection twice before declining to seek another term in 2020.

Hurd has not shied away from criticizing Trump, including over his handing of classified records and immigration policies, as well as his incendiary tweets. The former congressman authored an op-ed in 2018 that declared Trump is being manipulated by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Larry Elder

Conservative talk radio host Larry Elder suspended his long-shot presidential campaign on Oct. 26, 2023. He tweeted that he had met with Trump "to lend him my endorsement for President."

He added, "I am grateful for the support I received from so many of you across the country."

Elder was a gubernatorial candidate during California's failed 2021 effort to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom. He kept his post, but Elder received the most votes — nearly 3.6 million — out of a large field trying to replace Newsom. 

Elder announced his bid for president the previous April.

Nikki Haley

Nikki Haley ended her presidential bid on March 6, after losing nearly all the states holding Republican nominating contests on Super Tuesday. Exit polls showed Trump leading Haley among broad segments of the GOP electorate, with voters saying immigration and the economy were their most important issues.

Haley, the former governor of South Carolina and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under Trump, joined the race for the Republican presidential nomination in mid-February of last year, becoming the first challenger to her former boss. 

In her pitch to voters, Haley, 51, has characterized herself as part of a new generation of Republican leadership and proposed mandatory mental competency tests for politicians over the age of 75 — a subtle jab at Trump, who is 77, and Mr. Biden, who is 81.

The daughter of Indian immigrants, Haley was born in Bamberg, South Carolina, and served two terms as governor. She was the top U.S. diplomat at the United Nations during the Trump administration from January 2017 to December 2018.

Dean Phillips

Rep. Dean Phillips, a congressman from Minnesota, announced on Oct. 26, 2023, that he would challenge Mr. Biden for the Democratic presidential nomination, as he believes it's time for a new generation to lead his party.

"I think President Biden has done a spectacular job for our country," Phillips told CBS News chief election & campaign correspondent Robert Costa. "But it's not about the past. This is an election about the future."

On the day after Super Tuesday, March 6, Phillips, who struggled to gain traction, announced in an interview with Chad Hartman on WCCO Radio that he was suspending his campaign, after failing to earn a single delegate in any of the nomination contests so far. 

Phillips, 54, was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, and elected to represent the state's 3rd Congressional District in 2018. 

His biological father was killed in a helicopter crash in Vietnam in July 1969. Phillips was heir to his adoptive father's distilling empire and served as president of Phillips' Distilling Company until stepping down in 2012 to run gelato maker Talenti.

In Congress, he is the vice ranking member of the House Small Business Committee and serves on the Foreign Affairs Committee. Phillips is also a member of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus.

Larry Hogan

The former Maryland governor announced on March 5, 2023, that he would not seek the Republican nomination for president after giving it "serious consideration."

Hogan said his decision not to pursue the presidency may make it more difficult for Trump to claim the nomination.

On Jan. 14, 2024, he endorsed Haley's presidential bid.

Mike Pompeo

Pompeo announced April 13, 2023, that he would not be joining the race, saying "this isn't the time."

"This isn't our moment," Pompeo told Fox News' "Special Report with Bret Baier," referring to the decision he had made with his wife.

When asked whether Trump's lead in the polls factored into his decision, Pompeo said, "not at all."

He left the door open to a future run.

Chris Sununu

Sununu, the governor of New Hampshire, announced on June 5, 2023, that he will not seek the GOP presidential nomination in 2024. 

He revealed his decision in an interview with CNN and op-ed in the Washington Post, where he wrote that the "stakes are too high for a crowded field to hand the nomination to a candidate who earns just 35 percent of the vote," a reference to former President Donald Trump's margin in the 2016 New Hampshire primary.

"The path to winning was clear, but I believe I can have more influence on the future of the Republican Party and the 2024 nominating process not as a candidate but as the governor of the first-in-the-nation primary state — a governor who is unafraid to speak candidly about issues, candidates and the direction of our party, untethered from the limitations of a presidential campaign and unleashed from conventional boundaries," Sununu wrote.

The New Hampshire governor predicted that if Trump wins the Republican presidential nomination again, it will ensure a GOP loss in 2024.

In 2021, Sununu decided to forgo a run for the Senate to challenge first-term Democrat Maggie Hassan and opted instead to seek a fourth term as governor, which he won in November.