2024 United States presidential election

The 2024 United States presidential election was the 60th presidential election in the United States, held on November 5, 2024. The primary two candidates from the United States' corporate duopoly were current United States vice president and former prosecutor and attorney general Kamala Harris, and billionaire real estate heir and former president Donald Trump. Republican nominee Donald Trump defeated Democrat Kamala Harris.

Other presidential candidates ran, both in favor of the imperialist duopoly and opposed to it. These included current president Joe Biden, who was replaced on the democratic party ticket by Harris on 21 July due to his unpopularity, old age, and disastrous performance at the first presidential debate, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who ran as an independent before dropping out and endorsing Donald Trump on 23 August. Anti-duopoly leftist candidates included the Green Party candidate Jill Stein, independent Cornel West, and the Party for Socialism and Liberation and Peace and Freedom Party candidate Claudia De la Cruz. Chase Oliver of the Libertarian Party also ran.

Duopoly candidates

Democratic Party

Current ticket

The Democratic Party ticket consisted of current vice-president, former prosecutor, district attorney, and attorney general of California, as well as a former senator Kamala Harris, and her running mate, current Minnesota governor and former member of the United States House of Representatives and high school teacher Tim Walz.

The ticket held a standard Neoliberal platform, playing up the idea of the 'middle class' as a distinct class and supporting the petit bourgeoisie with rhetoric around 'small businesses' and 'entrepreneurs', while refusing to enact or support popular progressive economic policies including public medical care and free education. The ticket also pushed reactionary positions on immigration and crime and imperialism. While claiming to support a ceasefire in Gaza, Harris constantly reaffirmed her support for the Zionist apartheid state and the United States' imperial project in West Asia and her plan to keep the United States' military the most 'lethal' in the world. In addition to this, despite promises to raise taxes on the wealthy, Harris had a record of supporting the bourgeoise and opposing labor protections. While the ticket claimed to support racial justice, Kamala Harris' record as prosecutor, district attorney, and attorney general included support for truancy laws, marijuana bans, and other practices that disproportionally harmed racial minorities.

Joe Biden campaign

Before 21 July 2024 the Democratic Party ticket was headed by current president Joe Biden. Throughout the race he was plagued by negative approval ratings over his ineffectiveness, his age and mental decline, and other issues including his support for the Gaza Genocide. These issues were amplified by his poor performance at the first presidential debate, hosted by CNN on 27 June. During the debate he misspoke constantly and struggled to deliver the already convoluted and milquetoast Democratic Party platform. He responded to a questions about abortion, the issue where the Democratic Party, with an incoherent rant which repeated reactionary and racist Republican Party rhetoric around rapes allegedly committed by undocumented immigrants. He also stated that his administration "beat Medicare", a statement which the Green Party pointed out was true, even if he didn't mean to say it. His performance led to calls for him to step down from prominent Democratic party members. Biden initially refused to step down due to his own personal ambitions and the urgings of his family, but after several weeks of pressure, most importantly by prominent former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, he stepped aside and endorsed Harris.

Shift towards reactionary rhetoric

During the 2024 presidential election and throughout the previous years the Democratic Party moved farther to the right and abandoned many of its calls for minor progressive reform. The 2024 Democratic platform removed mentions of police brutality and reform and affirmed the party's support for funding the United States' Fascist police force. They also removed opposition to the death penalty, even as horrific executions using nitrogen gas began to be used in 2024. The platform also affirmed the Democratic Party's unwavering and unequivocal support for the Zionist apartheid state and its current genocidal campaign in Gaza, touting current president Biden's opposition to UN efforts to oppose the Zionist Entity and the bipartisan decision to send 14 billion dollars in military aid to the occupation force.

The Democratic ticket has also boasted about the endorsements it has received from reactionary Republican and former Republican figures including former vice-president and reactionary war criminal Dick Cheney, reactionary pro-imperialist former member of the House of Representatives Adam Kinzinger and others.

Other imperialist and capitalist candidates

Opposition candidates

Green Party

Green Party nominee Jill Stein failed to achieve ballot access in New York after the Democratic Party restricted third party access by requiring 45,000 signatures of registered voters in six weeks. Stein began a legal struggle, which the reactionary Supreme Court rejected.

Party for Socialism and Liberation

The Party for Socialism and Liberation ran Claudia De la Cruz for President and Karina Garcia for Vice President. Like the Green Party, they did not make it onto the New York ballot because of the new restrictions.