Republican former President Donald Trump and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley are competing to be their party's presidential nominee for the 2024 general election, while President Joe Biden is effectively the Democratic Party's nominee.
Here are the candidates who are polling at 1% or above in the latest Reuters/Ipsos public opinion survey as well as those who reached the threshold before they dropped out.
Biden, already the oldest U.S. president ever, will have to convince voters he has the stamina for another four years in the White House, amid concerns about his age and his weak approval ratings. Biden allies say he is running because he feels he is the only Democratic candidate who can defeat Trump. In announcing his candidacy, Biden declared it was his job to defend American democracy. He does not face a serious threat from a Democratic challenger.
An anti-vaccine activist, Kennedy is making a long-shot bid to challenge Biden for the Democratic nomination. He is the son of U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1968 during his own presidential bid. Kennedy was previously banned from YouTube and Instagram for spreading misinformation about vaccines and the COVID-19 pandemic. His Instagram account was reinstated after he said he was running.
Trump announced his election campaign last November as he faced some of the loudest criticism yet from within his Republican Party over his support for far-right candidates who were defeated in the 2022 midterm elections. Like Biden, he remains unpopular with great swaths of the electorate. But he has retained a firm grip on his base and strengthened his standing in polls after he was indicted by New York prosecutors in connection with an alleged hush money payment to a porn star. Trump is the front-runner in the Republican race.
A former governor of South Carolina and Trump's ambassador to the United Nations, Haley has emphasized her relative youth compared to Biden and Trump as well as her background as the daughter of two Indian immigrants. She has gained a reputation in the Republican Party as a solid conservative who has the ability to address issues of gender and race in a more credible fashion than many of her peers. She has also pitched herself as a stalwart defender of American interests abroad.
Dropped out
The best-selling author and self-help guru has launched her second, long-shot bid for the White House. She ran as a Democrat in the 2020 presidential primary but dropped out of the race before any votes had been cast. She launched her latest campaign in March, this time to challenge Biden in the Democratic nominating race.
After the glitch-filled launch of his campaign on Twitter, DeSantis has moved to further position himself to the right of Trump on a number of key issues. DeSantis, who ranks second to Trump in most polls, has signed bills imposing new restrictions on abortion and further loosening gun laws in Florida, positions that may help him in the Republican primaries but would likely hurt him among independent and more moderate voters in the general election. His battle with Walt Disney Co over its Florida theme park has unnerved some donors, as has his mixed messaging on continued U.S. support for Ukraine.
The only Black Republican U.S. senator has low name recognition outside his home state of South Carolina, but his optimism and focus on unifying his divided party have helped him draw a contrast with the more aggressive approach by Trump and DeSantis. Scott supporters, however, acknowledge that while his sunny demeanor is a selling point it may not be enough to win.
A former biotechnology investor and executive, Ramaswamy launched a firm in 2022 to pressure companies to abandon environmental, social and corporate governance initiatives. The political outsider has excited a lot of grassroots chatter as a potential alternative to Trump, but he remains a long-shot candidate.
Trump's vice president has broken with his former boss over the 2021 attack by Trump supporters on the U.S. Capitol, while Pence was inside the building. Pence says "history will hold Trump accountable" for his role in the attack. However, Pence, like other Republican White House hopefuls, came to Trump's defense after New York prosecutors charged him in the hush money case, underscoring the fear of alienating Trump's supporters in the primaries. Pence, a staunch conservative, is appealing directly to the evangelical Christian community.
Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who served as an adviser to Trump's successful 2016 campaign but has since become a vocal critic, enters the race as a decided underdog. A former federal prosecutor, Christie has argued he is the only rival with the skills and willingness to attack Trump directly.
Burgum, who is serving his second term as North Dakota's governor, built a successful software business before selling it to Microsoft in 2001. A proponent of low taxes and fewer regulations, he will likely seek to portray himself as a traditional conservative who will focus on the economy and national security.
Note
Only including candidates who are polling at 1% or above in our latest poll with Ipsos.
Reporting by
Ross Colvin, Joseph Ax
Design by
Ally Levine, Travis Hartman
Edited by
Julia Wolfe, Colleen Jenkins