Written By: Holly Pulley, Staff Writer
VOTE!: Here are the 2024 United States presidential candidates.
As many students of the 2024 Poly High graduating class will be eligible to vote this year, it is pivotal to know who they are voting for when they check off a name on their voting ballot. Here are the 2024 presidential candidates and the policies and issues that have driven their campaigns.
Current president Joe Biden is running for re-election. He has centered his current platform on establishing abortion as a federal law, maintaining good allies while keeping America at the center of economic greatness, gun regulation, and infrastructure. By regulating the availability of abortion, to every American female citizen, and ensuring safe surgical practices. A country cannot run without the assurance of other territories being willing to fight for them, which is why the president has worked tirelessly to send aid to Ukraine as well as Israel during their endeavors. According to Biden, during his presidency, 14 million jobs have been filled under his command- “more jobs than any president has created in a four-year term,” he commented in a campaign speech- and an unemployment rate of under 4 percent. Biden also plans, if re-elected, to regulate gun control more than he already has by “banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines” to the general public. In order to do that, though, he will need to gain a democratic majority in Congress, which he hopes he can influence in his possible second term. Joe Biden is the leading democratic candidate with 2,107 delegate votes, beating candidate Jason Palmer’s total of 3 delegate votes.
Former president Donald Trump is also running for re-election with a single term in between his first time and possible second time in office. Trump’s current campaign is definitely similar to his previous one, focusing on regulating immigration specifically from South America and Mexico, taxing foreign trade, funding police and expanding police forces across the US, maintaining the overturning of abortion rights, protecting the Second Amendment, and restricting queer identities on the federal level. Donald Trump plans to “[reward] domestic production and [tax] foreign companies that export American jobs,” according to his website, which in turn will reward American businesses and boost the already booming economy. He also plans to enforce strict laws on illegal immigrants, “[deputizing] the National Guard and local law enforcement with rapidly moving illegal alien[s]” in certain areas of America, mostly focusing on the Mexico-United States border. By gathering more enforcement to patrol the border, he will need willing law enforcement which he will gain by funding police departments and encouraging “cop-cities,” which are specific areas in cities that are dedicated to training and certifying cops to serve their community. Donald Trump has always been vocal about his opinions on the Second Amendment, and he assures the American people that he will protect it at every rally. He believes that it is a God-given right to own a firearm, and that is proven in the Bill of Rights. This talking point has gained him lasting supporters since his first presidential term. His opinion on gay rights has also earned him voters, stating multiple times that he will make it a federal law establishing the only two genders are male and female, and a queer child can only change their pronouns if their parent or guardian allows it. Donald Trump is the leading Republican candidate with 1,241 delegate votes, remaining ahead of Nikki Haley who holds a total of 94 votes.
The independent candidates are Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Jill Stein, and Cornel West. Kennedy is the nephew of former president John F. Kennedy and is most known for his response to the COVID-19 vaccine, and his utter disdain for it. He accused the vaccine of giving children autism which has been proven false by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and his own family has expressed their disappointment in his stance, and advised American citizens to not vote for him. That should not discourage anyone from voting, though, as every American citizen has a right to their own opinion and vote. Jill Stein is a more liberal-leaning Green Party candidate, who ran in 2016 and gained around 1.4 million votes. She is a strong advocate for fair healthcare, abortion, queer rights, the right to employment, and fighting climate change. Many democrats in 2016 blamed her for Hillary Clinton’s loss, saying she “[pulled] votes away” from the Democratic nominee, according to the New York Times. Cornel West is an accomplished professor of philosophy, previously teaching at Harvard and Yale. He gained fame for his unwavering spirit, never being one to shy away from sharing his opinion, and his opinions on former president Barack Obama, who he believed to not represent and fight for people of color enough. West is a far-left-leaning independent, fighting for reproductive rights, the distribution of police funding to other areas in the government, and rights for immigrants. Under his presidency, he would abolish ICE, and also distribute that money to other areas in the government as well as “ban the separation of families at the border,” according to USA Today.
As November approaches, it is important to know that every vote matters, no matter who it is for. Democracy focuses on the voices of the people, and that is a right the US will never use. Don’t forget to VOTE!