The 2024 presidential election will be the first since 1976 to not have a Bush, Biden or Clinton on the presidential ticket.
George H.W. Bush was elected Ronald Reagan’s vice president in 1980 and 1984 and won the presidency in 1988, but he lost reelection in 1992. Bill Clinton won both his presidential elections in 1992 and 1996.
Bush’s son, George W. Bush, won both of his presidential contests in 2000 and 2004. Joe Biden was elected vice president under Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012 and won the presidency himself in 2020. Hillary Clinton lost her presidential bid in 2016.
Trump formally announced his 2024 presidential run shortly after the 2022 midterm elections, meaning that as of Election Day he has been a candidate in this election cycle for 721 days.
There were only 107 days between Harris’ entry into the 2024 presidential race, after Mr. Biden dropped out, and Election Day.
Trump is seeking to become the first president since Grover Cleveland to be elected to non-consecutive terms as president. Cleveland has the distinction of being both the 22nd and 24th president. He won his first term in 1884 but was defeated for reelection in 1888, although he won the popular vote over Benjamin Harrison. Cleveland won the White House again in 1892.
As Americans get closer to Election Day 2024 and will choose between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, anyone who is registered to vote does not need re-register every year, unless there is a change of name, address or political affiliation.
Each state’s voter re-registration or voter registration update deadline can be found on their respective Board of Elections website.
Read a state-by-state breakdown of the rules.
— Patrick Maguire and Emily Hung
Millions of Americans have already voted early in the 2024 election, but millions more will turn out in person on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 5. Some of the earliest polling places open at 5 a.m. or 6 a.m. ET. The first states to close will be at 7 p.m. ET, while California and several other Western states close at 11 p.m. ET. Alaska is last to close, at 1 a.m. ET.
If you are in line before a site closes, you have the right to remain in line and vote. View a list of voter rights from the ACLU here.
Read more here for details on poll opening and closing times in each state.
If Trump carries every state he won in 2020 — for the sake of the hypothetical, he would also win the same electoral votes he did in 2020 from Nebraska and Maine (4 in Nebraska and 1 in Maine, where some electoral votes are allocated by congressional district) — that would put him at 235 electoral votes in 2024.
Flipping Arizona, Nevada and Georgia would put Trump at 268, so he would be two short. That would mean he has to flip one of the Midwestern states — Michigan, Wisconsin or Pennsylvania.
Another route to getting Trump what he would need to regain the White House: If Trump is at the 235 scenario outlined above and manages to win back all of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin that would put him at 279, and he would not need to win Nevada, Arizona, Georgia.
And here’s one more: Starting with the 235 electoral votes for Trump noted above, if Trump wins three states he lost by less than 1 point in 2020 (Wisconsin, Arizona and Georgia) he would have 272 electoral votes and be elected president.
Trump victories in North Carolina, Georgia and Pennsylvania could also prove crucial to becoming president once again. Taking those states, and maintaining all the states and electoral votes he won in 2020, would put him at exactly 270 electoral votes.
—Hunter Woodall and Olivia Rinaldi
The battle for control of the Senate is on, with a third of the chamber on the ballot in the 2024 cycle. Democrats are facing a difficult electoral map as they seek hold onto their narrow 51-49 seat majority. Although the outcome in many of the 34 races is a foregone conclusion, a handful remain competitive, and Republicans are eyeing a number opportunities to flip Democratic seats. From Ohio to Montana, Arizona to Nebraska, these races will decide which party controls the upper chamber next year.
Read more about 11 key Senate contests here.
Millions of Americans have already voted early in the 2024 election, but millions more will turn out in person on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 5. Some of the earliest polling places open at 5 a.m. or 6 a.m. ET. The first states to close will be at 7 p.m. ET, while California and several other Western states close at 11 p.m. ET. Alaska is last to close, at 1 a.m. ET.
If you are in line before a site closes, you have the right to remain in line and vote. View a list of voter rights from the ACLU here.
Read more here for details on poll opening and closing times in each state.
Trump is seeking to become the first president since Grover Cleveland to be elected to non-consecutive terms as president. Cleveland has the distinction of being both the 22nd and 24th president. He won his first term in 1884 but was defeated for reelection in 1888, although he won the popular vote over Benjamin Harrison. Cleveland won the White House again in 1892.
The last time control of the House flipped in a presidential election year was in 1952, when Republicans won the House and Dwight D. Eisenhower was elected to his first term as president.
Republicans currently hold the House majority, a very slim one — there are 220 Republicans in the House and 212 Democrats, with three vacancies. There are elections for all 435 seats, and the Cook Political Report rates only around 20 of them as toss-ups.
The candidate who gets to 270 electoral votes is the one who wins the presidency, and the fate of Harris and Trump is likely to hinge on the outcomes in the seven battleground states: Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, Nevada and North Carolina.
Here are some of the ways Harris may reach 270 that seem most plausible, given past election performance:
Mr. Biden won six of the battleground states in 2020: Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. He won 306 electoral votes overall. Going into Election Day 2024, polls are close to even in these states.
If Harris wins Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, the “blue wall” Midwestern states Mr. Biden took in 2020, and earns 3 of Maine’s 4 electoral votes, but she loses Arizona, Nevada and Georgia, that would not deliver Harris the White House.
In this hypothetical, Trump would also hold onto all the states that he won in 2020 and four of Nebraska’s five electoral votes, as he did four years ago.
That scenario would put Harris at 269 electoral votes — one shy of keeping the White House under Democrats’ control. To get to 270, Harris would have to win a congressional district in Nebraska that includes the city of Omaha. The state awards some of its electoral votes by congressional district, and winning Nebraska’s Omaha-based district that Mr. Biden captured in 2020 but Trump held in 2016, would make Harris president.
— Hunter Woodall and Olivia Rinaldi