Former president Donald Trump defeated Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 election,
becoming the first president since Grover Cleveland in 1892 to be elected to a nonconsecutive
second term. He also became the first Republican since 2004 to win the popular vote. In an unprecedented event, the presumptive
Democratic nominee, President Joe Biden, dropped out of the race on June 27, 2024, after a
disastrous debate performance. Biden endorsed Harris, who was nominated without contest.
The election turned out to be a referendum on Biden’s presidency as much as it was a contest
between Trump and Harris.
Republican
Donald Trump for president
JD Vance for vice president
“Make America Great Again.”
Donald Trump’s campaign, and his election, were unprecedented in several ways. He has secured the loyal support of his followers, despite—or perhaps because of—the disruptive nature of his rhetoric and his frequent courting of controversy. Yet the lines of attack in his campaign ads follow templates set by many previous Republican campaigns, portraying his opponent as recklessly liberal and weak on military issues, the handling of the economy, and
immigration. The campaign also used a common approach for attacking vice presidents, tying them to the records of the president they have served.
Democrat
Kamala Harris for president
Tim Walz for vice president
“When We Fight, We Win.”
Vice President Kamala Harris was the Attorney General of California, the first woman, African
American, and South Asian woman to reach that office. She was elected U.S. Senator in 2016, and in 2020, with Joe Biden at the top of the ticket, she was elected Vice President. Harris’s ads focused on her life story as the embodiment of the American dream; on her role as a prosecutor, in contrast to Donald Trump’s court convictions and ongoing legal proceedings; and on support for the economic concerns and rights (including abortion) for middle-class voters, contrasting what she portrayed as
the extremist positions of the Trump campaign.
