Who is running for president in 2024 and who has dropped out
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum recently ended their presidential campaigns.
WASHINGTON -- The 2024 presidential race is taking shape, with former President Donald Trump mounting a comeback bid for the White House, facing GOP competition from Florida Gov. Ron Desantis, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and others.
Here's an updated list of who is running for president in 2024 and who has left the race.
President Joe Biden, Democrat
President Joe Biden on April 25 formally announced that he is running for reelection in 2024, asking voters to give him more time to "finish this job" he began when he was sworn into office and to set aside their concerns about extending the run of America's oldest president for another four years.
Biden, who would be 86 at the end of a second term, is betting his first-term legislative achievements and more than 50 years of experience in Washington will count for more than concerns over his age.
"[My] intention has been from the beginning to run. But there's too many other things we have to finish in the near term before I start a campaign," he told ABC News anchor David Muir at the White House in February.
Biden told Muir in December 2021 that the possibility of a rematch with Trump wouldn't dissuade him.
"Why would I not run against Donald Trump for the nominee? That'll increase the prospect of running," he said.
Donald Trump, Republican
Trump, 76, formally launched his third bid for the White House on Nov. 15, following the 2022 midterms, which did not meet Republican expectations.
Trump announced his campaign from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida. It didn't come as a surprise, given that Trump had been hinting for months that he would make a run.
"America's comeback starts right now," he said, describing the U.S. as "in decline" and touting his administration as a "golden age."
However, Trump's third run for the White House comes as he faces four indictments -- he denies all wrongdoing and has pleaded not guilty -- and has become increasingly estranged from some other leading figures in the GOP in the wake of Jan. 6, his 2020 election lies and other controversies and scandals.
While polling shows he remains overwhelmingly popular with many voters in the party, others say they want another nominee.
Ron DeSantis, Republican
The Florida governor on May 24 filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission to run for president. He kicked off his campaign in Iowa on May 30.
"Our great American comeback starts by sending [President] Joe Biden back to his basement in Delaware," he declared then, going on to criticize the "failed policies" flowing out of Washington -- on crime, on the southern border, on energy production and on the state of the economy, including the cost of living, the "dereliction of duty" in the withdrawal from Afghanistan and more.
DeSantis, 45, was reelected to a second term by a near 20-point margin in November. He entered the GOP primary field as Trump's biggest rival, according to observers and voter surveys, but since has dropped significantly in polling.
With Trump's recent win at the Iowa caucus and continued dominance in polling, DeSantis' path to the nomination is in serious doubt.
Nikki Haley, Republican
Haley, 51, announced her presidential bid in a video released on Feb. 14, a day ahead of a formal kickoff on Feb. 15 in Charleston.
Haley, who also served as a U.S. ambassador to the U.N. in the Trump administration, was the first high-profile Republican to challenge Trump.
In her announcement video, Haley, the daughter of immigrants, highlighted her heritage as a South Asian woman and touted her hopeful view of what America can offer.
"My mom would always say, 'Your job is not to focus on the differences but the similarities.' My parents reminded me and my siblings every day how blessed we were to live in America," Haley said.
She underscored her credentials as a former leader of the Palmetto State, stressing its resilience, but most of all she said there was a major need for change in the GOP's candidates.
"Republicans have lost the popular vote in seven of the last eight presidential elections. ... It's time for a new generation of leadership," she said.
Haley was elected as the first female governor of South Carolina in 2010, stepping down in 2017, during her second term, to serve as a Trump ambassador until 2018.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Independent
Kennedy, 69, initially announced his bid for the 2024 Democratic presidential nomination at the Boston Park Plaza in Boston on April 19.
He said then that the aim of his campaign, and presidency, would be to "end the corrupt merger of state and corporate power."
Months later, after repeatedly sparring with the Democratic National Committee over the rules governing its primary, Kennedy said in Philadelphia on Oct. 9 that he was leaving the party and would be running as an independent in 2024.
An attorney and activist, Kennedy is the scion of one of the country's most famous Democratic families: His father is slain Sen. Robert F. Kennedy Sr. and his uncle is former President John F. Kennedy.
However, the younger Kennedy has brought controversy to the campaign trail given his well-documented efforts to discredit vaccine use. Online, he has fueled conspiracies regarding vaccine mandates throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and publicly voiced polarizing positions at an anti-vaccine mandate rally in Washington, D.C.
The candidate has espoused vaccine hesitancy since the 2000s, has become one of the most prominent voices in the anti-vaccine movement, according to experts, as the founder of Children's Health Defense, a nonprofit organization known mainly for its anti-vaccine efforts.
Marianne Williamson, Democrat
Author Marianne Williamson formally announced that she's running for president in 2024 on March 4, her second bid for the White House following an unsuccessful campaign in 2020.
Williamson is a bestselling self-help book author who first ran for president in 2020 on a pacifist and progressive platform.
She dropped out of that race before any primaries were held, but she outlasted several other serious contenders with impressive electoral resumes, including now-Vice President Kamala Harris, who at the time was a senator from California.
Williamson has advocated for solving foreign conflicts without military intervention and embraced progressive platforms like so-called "Medicare for All" and a $15 minimum wage.
She also became something of a viral sensation among fans and online observers for infusing her campaign with language from her career as an author, warning Trump in 2020 that "I'm going to harness love for political purposes. I will meet you on that field, and sir, love will win."
In her launch speech, Williamson noted the conventional wisdom that she will face a nearly impossible task of unseating Biden in a primary, casting herself as a fighter against the establishment.
"I'm not naive about the forces which have no intention of allowing anyone into this conversation who does not align with their predetermined agenda," she said.
A Texas native who now lives in Beverly Hills, California, Williamson is the author of more than a dozen books and ran an unsuccessful independent congressional campaign in California in 2014.
In 2020, she was best known for wanting to create a Department of Peace and arguing the federal government should pay large financial reparations to Black Americans as atonement for centuries of slavery and discrimination.
Before running for office, the 70-year-old was best known as a onetime spiritual adviser to Oprah Winfrey.
Ryan Binkley, Republican
A Texas-based businessman and pastor, Binkley launched his White House bid in April.
"I'm in this race because so many people are unseen. And right now our party is doing the same lineup as before," Binkley argued in an appearance on "GMA3" in August. "They're running the same playbook. If we only want 46% of the vote -- it's like we're four yards short of a touchdown. We keep running the same play over and over again. I'm saying we've got to throw out that playbook."
Cornel West, Independent
Philosopher and political activist West, 70, announced on June 5 that he was running for president with the left-wing, populist People's Party, later switching to the Green Party -- and then in early October he switched to run as an independent.
While he has acknowledged that his bid is a long shot, he said in a Twitter announcement video that "I have decided to run for truth and justice."
"I enter in the quest for truth. I enter in the quest for justice. And the presidency is just one vehicle to pursue that truth and justice, what I've been trying to do all of my life," he said.
West's major issues include broadening government-provided health care under "Medicare-for-all" and ending foreign military aid.
Who has dropped out of the 2024 race
Asa Hutchinson, Republican
Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson ended his 2024 race for president January 16, a day after a dismal sixth-place showing in the Iowa caucuses underscored how little he had been embraced by Republican voters.
With 99% of the expected results in, Hutchinson secured just 191 votes in the Iowa caucuses and zero pledged delegates as of Tuesday morning, appearing to underperform his .07% polling average in the Hawkeye State and trailing little-known pastor Ryan Binkley, who has no national profile to speak of.
"My message of being a principled Republican with experience and telling the truth about the current front runner did not sell in Iowa," Hutchinson said in a statement, referring to Donald Trump. "I stand by the campaign I ran. I answered every question, sounded the warning to the GOP about the risks in 2024 and presented hope for our country's future."
Hutchinson said he had congratulated Trump on the latter's victory in Iowa and added, "[My wife] Susan and I are blessed beyond measure, and we are grateful for the opportunity to have fought in the political arena for America."
Hutchinson, who recently completed two terms as Arkansas governor, said he would seek the Republican presidential nomination on April 2, just days after the former president was indicted by a grand jury in New York.
"The reason is, I've traveled the country for six months, I hear people talk about the leadership of our country. I'm convinced that people want leaders that appeal to the best of America, and not simply appeal to our worst instincts," Hutchinson told "This Week" co-anchor Jonathan Karl.
The former governor emerged as a Trump skeptic within the Republican Party and indicated to Karl that he would seek to veer away from culture wars and return to a party centered around the idea of small government -- though he insisted he's not "anti-Trump," despite calling on the former president to drop out of the race.
"When I say 'non-Trump', I want to be able to speak to the Trump voters. I want to be able to speak to all of the party and say, 'This is the leadership that I want to provide, and I think that we need to have border security. I think we need to have a strong America; we need to spend less at the federal level.' These are the values that I represent," Hutchinson said on "This Week."
Vivek Ramaswamy, Republican
Vivek Ramaswamy ended his 2024 presidential campaign January 15 and quickly endorsed rival Donald Trump after a disappointing result in Iowa's Republican caucuses despite spending months in the state trying to woo voters.
The biotech entrepreneur and conservative commentator campaigned in a blunt-talking manner, with a penchant for provocation and spreading conspiracy theories. He saw his national profile rise steeply during his White House bid and, for a time last summer, enjoyed momentum in the polls.
Ultimately, however, Ramaswamy told ABC News on Monday that the decision to suspend his campaign was made by him and his wife, Apoorva, as he did not deliver the surprise result he expected to.
He spoke to supporters for about five and a half minutes at his caucus party on Monday and threw his backing behind Trump, telling the crowd that he called the former president to congratulate him on his projected win.
There "has to be an 'America first' candidate on the White House," Ramaswamy said.
Ramaswamy, a 38-year-old multimillionaire entrepreneur and commentator who founded a major biotech company, announced on Feb. 21 that presidential bid as a Republican.
During the campaign, Ramaswamy needled most of his opponents but praised Trump as "the best president of the 21st century." He argued, though, that Republicans should opt for "fresh legs" while still supporting the America First agenda.
The approach, including his call for "revolution," vaulted Ramaswamy into the mix of candidates vying to overtake Trump - or at least become a viable alternative. His decision to drop out, though, becomes the latest confirmation that the former president, even at 77 years old and under multiple criminal indictments, still dominates Republican politics and remains the overwhelming favorite to win the GOP nomination for the third consecutive time.
Ramaswamy's failure also affirms how difficult it is for any Republican other than Trump to push the bounds of party orthodoxy, as the first-time candidate found little political reward for positions such as his opposition to aid for Israel and Ukraine.
Ramaswamy said he would be open to vice presidential consideration.
Chris Christie, Republican
Former New Jersey Gov. Christie announced a 2024 Republican bid for the presidency on June 6 and announced on Jan. 10 that he was ending his campaign.
Christie drew much attention as the Republican primary's main Donald Trump critic, but failed to gain widespread traction in the polls.
"I would rather lose by telling the truth than lie in order to win," he said during a town hall event where he announced he was suspending his bid, which he called "the right thing for me to do."
"Because I want to promise you this: I am going to make sure that in no way do I enable Donald Trump to ever be president of the United States again -- and that's more important than my own personal ambition," he said. "So we have to decide now, we have to decide in the next 10 months who we want to be as a country."
Christie's exit is a notable twist in the closing days of campaigning before voting begins in the Republican primary starting with Iowa.
Tim Scott, Republican
Republican presidential candidate Tim Scott announced late Sunday, Nov. 12 that he was dropping out of the 2024 race, about two months before the start of voting in Iowa's leadoff caucuses.
The South Carolina senator made the surprise announcement on "Sunday Night in America" with Trey Gowdy. The news was so abrupt that one campaign worker told The Associated Press that campaign staff found out Scott was dropping out by watching the show. The worker was not authorized to discuss the internal deliberations publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The news comes as Scott continued to struggle in the polls and just days after the third Republican primary debate. The only Black Republican senator, Scott entered the race in May with more cash than any other Republican candidate but couldn't find a lane in a field dominated by former President Donald Trump.
"I love America more today than I did on May 22," Scott said Sunday night. "But when I go back to Iowa, it will not be as a presidential candidate. I am suspending my campaign. I think the voters who are the most remarkable people on the planet have been really clear that they're telling me, 'Not now, Tim.'"
Scott, 58, formally announced his candidacy on May 22 at his alma mater Charleston Southern University.
Scott, South Carolina's first Black senator and the Senate's sole Black Republican, shared an optimistic message of faith in the American dream as he launched his campaign.
"We live in the land where it is possible for a kid raised in poverty by a single mother in a small apartment to one day serve in the People's House and maybe even the White House," Scott said."
Mike Pence, Republican
Former Vice President Mike Pence was met with audible gasps and spats of applause when he made a surprise announcement on Oct. 28 that he was suspending his campaign for president -- becoming the first major candidate to drop out of the race.
"I came here to say it's become clear to me, this is not my time. So after much prayer and deliberation, I have decided to suspend my campaign right now," Pence said on stage at the Republican Jewish Coalition's Annual Leadership Summit in Las Vegas.
"I'm leaving this campaign, but let me promise you I will never leave the fight for conservative values and I will never stop fighting to elect principled, Republican leaders to every office in the land," he continued.
The announcement was unexpected as Pence had recently said he was working to qualify to make the next primary debate stage.
Pence, a onetime Trump loyalist, broke with Trump over Trump pushing him to overturn the 2020 election results. In his kickoff speech, in June, he stressed his differences with Trump on Jan. 6.
"The American people deserve to know that on that day, President Trump also demanded that I choose between him and the Constitution. Now, voters will be faced with the same choice. I chose the Constitution and I always will," Pence, 64, said, later noting how his son, a Marine, has sometimes reminded him they both made the same pledge as public servants.
Without naming Trump specifically, Pence said then that "anyone" who would disregard the Constitution should "never" be president.
Doug Burgum, Republican
North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum ended his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination on Monday, Dec. 4 after a stronger-than-expected showing fueled by a gift card-for-campaign donation gimmick that helped get him on the debate stage.
Burgum jumped into the 2024 presidential race on June 7, pitching himself to voters as a candidate ready to bring small town values to the big stage. The governor of the nation's fourth-least populous state kicked off his campaign in Fargo, near the tiny farm town of Arthur where he grew up.
"We need a leader who's clearly focused on three things: economy, energy and national security," Burgum, 67, said to cheers at an event in Fargo.
He participated in the first two Republican debates, meeting donor requirements of the Republican National Committee by offering $20 "Biden Relief Cards" - a jab at rising inflation rates during President Joe Biden's term - in exchange for $1 donations. The tactic drew skepticism over its legality, though Burgum's campaign said its legal advisers had reviewed and approved the method.
He failed to qualify for the third debate, however, after coming up short on the polling requirements. And it appeared that he would also not qualify for the fourth debate.
Burgum, 66, joined a long list of contenders hoping to dent former President Donald Trump's early lead in the race.
Burgum, a former software CEO, successfully ran against the Republican Party's preferred candidate to win the 2016 gubernatorial primary and easily won reelection in 2020.
Laws that Burgum signed this year include banning abortion with few exceptions up to six weeks' gestation and several restricting trans rights.
LGBTQ advocates demonstrated outside the hall. Cody Schuler, advocacy manager for the American Civil Liberties Union of North Dakota, pointed to Burgum's past reluctance to wade into culture war and gender expression issues.
Will Hurd
Former Texas Rep. Will Hurd, 46, said on June 22 that he was running for president -- and on Oct. 9, he said in a statement on social media that he was leaving the race.
"We live in complicated times and we need common sense," Hurd initially said on "CBS Mornings" in launching his bid, pointing to what he called "generational, defining challenges" such as China's rising global influence and the economic drag from inflation.
"To be frank, I'm pissed that we're not talking about these things. I'm pissed that our elected officials are telling us to hate our neighbors," he said.
"America is better together," he said, "and way more unites us than divides us."
Back in June, Hurd acknowledged he was a "dark horse candidate" but said he wouldn't be "afraid of Donald Trump" in the primary race, unlike other candidates.
Hurd was one of two Black Republicans in the House during most of his 2015-2021 tenure.
In his post in October, Hurd said he was endorsing Haley for president as the best candidate to go up against Trump.
"Unfortunately, it has become clear to me and my team that the time has come to suspend our campaign, he said.
Miami Mayor Francis Suarez
Francis Suarez, the Republican mayor of Miami, on June 14 filed with the Federal Election Commission to signal his candidacy.
Suare, 46, previously highlighted his profile and backstory as the Hispanic son of a former Miami mayor and the Republican executive of a major American city, who was easily reelected in 2021. He touted his policy credentials on the economy and anti-crime measures and criticized the Biden administration for its Middle East and China policies.
In New Hampshire on April 18, Suarez said a relationship with the Hispanic community would be critical for the Republican nominee in 2024. More than 70% of the city of Miami is Hispanic, according to the latest census data.
Suarez's campaign, however, never caught hold with the broader Republican base and he suspended his bid in late August.
"Throughout this process, I have met so many freedom-loving Americans who care deeply about our nation, her people, and its future," he said in a statement at the time.
Steve Laffey, Republican
Steve Laffey, a former mayor of Cranston, Rhode Island, became the second Republican candidate to leave the race.
He first announced his candidacy for president on Feb. 2, saying then that he wanted to confront the country's issues.
In a statement, he said he wanted to confront the country's issues.
"Our country has done the equivalent of using Band-Aids in place of major surgery. Somehow, we have 'gotten by,'" he said. "For the first time in a generation, we must directly confront our problems."
Laffey was a long shot for the Oval Office, given his relative lack of name recognition or statewide or federal experience.
He previously made a run for Senate in 2006 in Rhode Island, against Republican Lincoln Chafee, who was ultimately defeated by Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse.
In October, Laffey told ABC News he was leaving the race in part because he no longer believed in his party's message -- and would be registering as an independent.
"I love being on the trail. I love meeting people," he told ABC News. "I am crestfallen that I wasn't able to cross the chasm."
Perry Johnson, Republican
Republican businessman Perry Johnson suspended his long-shot bid for president on October 20 after failing to gain traction in the race.
A 75-year-old Michigan businessman, Johnson launched his presidential campaign for the 2024 Republican nomination amid the 2023 Conservative Political Action Conference that began on March 1.
This wasn't Johnson's first attempt to run for political office. He was considered a top GOP candidate for Michigan governor in 2022 but was removed from the ballot before the Republican primary due to what state officials found to be fraudulent and invalid petition signatures.
The businessman earned a fortune starting Michigan-based Perry Johnson Registrars Inc., which certifies if businesses are meeting industrial standards.
Larry Elder, Republican
Edler, 70, a conservative talk radio host, announced on April 20 that he was seeking the Republican nomination for president. He dropped out October 26.
"Although I am suspending my campaign for president, my commitment to addressing the crisis of fatherlessness, promoting conservative ideals, and supporting the MAGA movement remains unwavering," Elder said in a statement "I will continue t'o work tirelessly to advocate for the issues that matter most to the American people."
The long-shot candidate first ran for elected office in 2021 in the recall election to replace California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom. Newsom survived the recall effort by a wide margin, but Elder placed first among the replacement candidates.
The Associated Press and ABC News contributed to this report.
