2023 US Presidential Candidate Profiles
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With a year and a half until the 2024 presidential election in the United States, the field of candidates is beginning to emerge. Current President Joe Biden has announced his re-election plans and is facing two challengers for the Democratic Party nomination, while the Republican Party primary is expected to be a significant competition as over ten candidates, including former president Donald Trump, contest the nomination. Various issues, including cultural conflicts over abortion and LGBTQ+ rights, economic problems such as inflation, and foreign policy questions such as China-US competition are expected to take centre stage as the election heats up over the next year.
Democrats
Joseph R. Biden
The current President of the United States is running again for a second term. Biden has made significant progress on his legislative agenda while in office, including passing the Inflation Reduction Act and a major infrastructure bill. He has also managed US aid to Ukraine during the war. Questions have been raised on both sides about his age, as he will be 86 at the end of his second term. Despite this, most members of the Democratic Party have publicly endorsed him.
Marianne Williamson
An author of self-help books and former advisor to Oprah Winfrey, Williamson is pushing universal health care, free tuition, free childcare, and other social programs. She has billed herself as an outsider in Washington, battling sexism and the political establishment. She is widely viewed as a long shot candidate. In contrast with her campaign in 2020, when she told Donald Trump she would “harness love” to defeat him, she has chosen a more down-to-earth tone, saying she is fighting for the rights of ordinary Americans.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
A member of the illustrious political Kennedy family, Kennedy Jr., or RFK, has taken a strong stance opposing vaccines, having promoted a connection between vaccines and autism since 2005. He studied environmental law, became a lawyer, and aided in the cleanup of the Hudson River in the 80s and 90s.
“I want to restore in many ways the America of my youth, the America I was brought up in”, he said to TIME, expressing nostalgia for the unpolluted waters, virgin forests, and fewer pharmaceutical companies of the past. His family has strongly criticized his anti-vaccine views. RFK has connected with many famous online personalities known for their contrarian views, such as Elon Musk and Joe Rogan. His campaign is notable for its strong online element with RFK having appeared on various podcasts, Twitter Spaces, and Bitcoin conferences.
Republicans
Donald J. Trump
A former talk show host and businessman, Trump was well-known before he became president in 2016. He lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden and contested the results, inciting a violent riot at the US Capitol in an attempt to stop the confirmation of Biden’s victory and take power. He still contends that he won the 2020 election. Trump is being persecuted by the Justice Department for various reasons. He was convicted of sexual assault in a civil case in May. He was arraigned on Apr. 4 of 34 felony counts relating to his hush money payments to cover up an extramarital affair. He was indicted on June 8 of 37 felony counts relating to mishandling classified documents. In defiance of these legal issues, Trump maintains that the allegations represent a plot against him, and continues to campaign aggressively for the Republican nomination.
Ron DeSantis
The governor of Florida, DeSantis is one of the strongest right-wing voices on “culture war” issues. “Florida is where woke goes to die,” he proclaimed after a landslide gubernatorial victory during the 2022 midterm elections. He held a relaxed attitude towards the COVID-19 pandemic, lifting lockdowns earlier than other states. He is known for restricting LGBTQ+ rights in Florida and campaigning against gender-affirming care for transgender youth. He has also engaged in a protracted conflict with Disney, attempting to curb their resorts’ special economic rights over their district. Disney had criticized DeSantis’ Parental Rights in Education Act, called by its opponents the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. This legislation banned teaching about sexual orientation and gender identity from kindergarten to the third grade, and allowed for potential future restrictions in later grades. DeSantis has also championed legislation limiting the teaching of elements of US racial history in schools, altering various textbooks which he considered to be “woke.”
Nikki Haley
The former governor of South Carolina and US ambassador to the United Nations, Haley has been observed by commentators as having pursued a moderate course, attempting to satisfy the right flank of the party and the Republican establishment. Touting her accomplishments in becoming the first woman and first person of colour to become governor of South Carolina and fighting against xenophobia, racism, and misogyny in South Carolina politics, she has stated hopes to become a unifying figure in the GOP and America more broadly. In her presidential announcement, she stated her purpose in running is to “save our country from the downward spiral of socialism and defeatism.” She supports a federal abortion ban but has acknowledged that it would be difficult to pass without a large Republican majority in Congress, which is in her view highly unlikely to occur.
Tim Scott
Scott, the current junior senator from South Carolina, announced his candidacy in late May. The first and so far only black person to ever serve in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, as well as the only black Republican currently in the Senate, Scott has pitched himself as transcending racial politics and a counterexample to claims that the United States is systemically racist. A descendant of enslaved people and growing up in a low-income, single-parent household in South Carolina, he says that his life story would not have been possible had America truly been a racist country. Echoing many of the other Republican candidates, he has focused his campaign on opposition to progressive cultural causes, stating that “Joe Biden and the radical left are attacking every single rung of the ladder that helped me climb.”
Mike Pence
Pence was the vice-president under Trump and previously the governor of Indiana. He was a devoted follower of Trump until Jan. 6, 2020, when he refused to help Trump block Biden’s election victory. Rioters on Jan. 6 chanted “hang Mike Pence” during the riot, and Trump disavowed him. Pence’s politics mostly stem from his deeply conservative Christian faith, including anti-abortion positions such as a national ban on abortion, which Trump would prefer to leave up to the states. He has described himself as a “Reagan conservative,” trying to distance himself from both Trump and DeSantis. While both Trump and DeSantis have questioned supporting Ukraine, Pence sees the conflict as a continuation of the Cold War, and has said that he views aid as part of America’s “commitment to being the leader of the free world.” He has also raised the possibility of cuts to Social Security and Medicare, which Trump is in opposition to. Most of all, he wants to return to the less combative political landscape of the pre-Trump years. “People want to see us get back to having a threshold of civility in the public debate,” he said.
Chris Christie
Christie, the former Republican governor of New Jersey, previously ran in 2016 as one of the leading candidates opposing Donald Trump, and is now running again as an anti-Trump candidate. Along with fellow candidate and former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson, he has opposed the Republican National Committee’s efforts to create a “loyalty pledge” for candidates, suggesting it is not necessary. He has centred his campaign on helping America choose between “big and small”, stating that many previous US leaders have “led us to be small.” Christie has argued that both current President Biden and former Presidents Trump and Obama have played parts in dividing Americans, and that he will be willing to directly criticize Trump. “Because let me guarantee you something from knowing him for 22 years, he's going to try and go through me,” Christie stated in his announcement remarks. “He's going to try and go through Ron [DeSantis] and Nikki [Haley] and Tim [Scott], and everybody else who stands in his way."
Vivek Ramaswamy
A young entrepreneur-turned-candidate, Ramaswamy has presented himself as a champion of the “anti-woke movement.” Stating that the current political climate is akin to psychological slavery, Ramaswamy has positioned himself as a conservative stalwart, being the strongest critic of the recent indictments of Donald Trump. Ramaswamy has announced he will pardon Trump if elected and has called on other Republican candidates to do the same. Ramaswamy is also running on a populist platform, promising deep reforms to the US political system, including raising the automatic voting age to 25 unless one is serving in the armed forces, working as a first-responder, or has passed a civics test.
Asa Hutchinson
Hutchinson, the former governor of Arkansas, has placed himself on the moderate wing of the Republican Party, declaring that he is not an “outrageous person.” Hutchinson began his career in the 1990s when he led the Arkansas Republican Party from one seat in the state legislature to total party dominance in state politics, with the Arkansas GOP holding a trifecta in the state government since 2015. He has touted his extensive experience in state and federal governance, as well as in law enforcement, as credentials to lead the Republican Party into the 2024 contest. Focusing on foreign policy, he has declared that “if America is to be the best, then we cannot yield to China in terms of global leadership.”
Several other candidates, including conservative media figure Larry Elder, North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, and Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, have also put their names into the race, resulting in a broad field of candidates and what may be a tightly-contested nomination. Popular musician Kanye West will also be running as a third-party candidate, though he has been highly criticized over the past year for antisemitic remarks.