Trump, Biden and Haley are the big names in the running but a few independents could also make the race to White House interesting.<\/p>\n
Republican former President Donald Trump and former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley are competing to be their party\u2019s presidential nominee for the 2024 general election, while President Joe Biden is effectively the Democratic Party\u2019s nominee. Several third-party hopefuls are also running.<\/p>\n
Here is a list of the candidates.<\/p>\n
Donald Trump<\/strong><\/p>\n Trump has leveraged his civil cases and indictments in four criminal cases \u2014 unprecedented for a former American president \u2014 to boost his popularity among Republicans and raise funds, helping to make him the Republican frontrunner with 64 per cent, according to Reuters<\/em>\/Ipsos polling.<\/p>\n He scored victories in the early nominating contests of Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada, and is pushing to replace Republican National Committee leadership with his top allies ahead of the party\u2019s July nominating convention.<\/p>\n Trump, 77, has called the indictments a political witch hunt to thwart his pursuit of a second four-year term, an assertion that the Justice Department has denied. Several legal challenges have reached the US Supreme Court regarding his eligibility for the ballot following the January 6 attack<\/a> on the US Capitol and whether he can claim presidential immunity.<\/p>\n If elected again, Trump has vowed revenge against his perceived enemies and has adopted increasingly authoritarian language, including saying he would not be a dictator except \u201con day one.\u201d<\/p>\n He has promised other sweeping changes, including gutting the federal civil service to install loyalists and imposing tougher immigration policies such as mass deportations and ending birthright citizenship.<\/p>\n He has also promised to eliminate Obamacare health insurance, vowed harsher curbs on trade with China and suggested he would not defend Nato allies.<\/p>\n Nikki Haley<\/strong><\/p>\n A former South Carolina governor and Trump\u2019s ambassador to the United Nations, Haley, 52, has emphasised her relative youth compared to Biden, 81, and Trump, as well as her background as the daughter of Indian immigrants.<\/p>\n She had gained a reputation in the Republican Party as a solid conservative who could address issues of gender and race in a more credible fashion than many of her peers.<\/p>\n But Trump has increasingly targeted her, lobbing racist attacks at her ethnicity and amplifying false claims about her eligibility for the White House despite her birth in South Carolina.<\/p>\n Haley, who drew 19pc support among Republicans in the Reuters<\/em>\/Ipsos survey, has sharpened her attacks on Trump following New Hampshire\u2019s Jan.<\/p>\n 23 contest and raised $1 million after Trump threatened her donors.<\/p>\n She has also pitched herself as a stalwart defender of American interests abroad, citing Trump\u2019s praise of dictators, and ramped up her argument that Trump is too chaotic and divisive to be effective.<\/p>\n She has suggested she will stay in the race past the February 24 primary<\/a> in her home state, where opinion polls show she trails Trump, and her campaign has blasted Trump\u2019s proposed RNC changes, saying the political party should be overhauled and its finances audited.<\/p>\n Joe Biden<\/strong><\/p>\n Biden, 81, already the oldest US president ever, will have to convince voters he has the stamina for another four years in office, amid poor approval ratings and a special counsel report suggesting he suffered memory lapses.<\/p>\n Biden has blasted the report, and his allies say he believes he is the only Democratic candidate who can defeat Trump and protect democracy.<\/p>\n The most recent Reuters<\/em>\/Ipsos poll put Biden at 34pc, while Trump garnered 37pc close to the 2.9 percentage-point margin of error.<\/p>\n In announcing his candidacy, Biden declared he needed to defend American liberties and pointed to the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol by Trump supporters. Vice President Kamala Harris is again his running mate.<\/p>\n The economy will also factor in his reelection campaign.<\/p>\n While the US escaped an anticipated recession and is growing faster than economists expected, inflation hit 40-year highs in 2022 and the cost of essentials is weighing on voters.<\/p>\n Biden pushed through massive economic stimulus and infrastructure spending packages to boost US industrial output, but he has received little recognition from voters for the latter.<\/p>\n Biden has led the response of Western governments to Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine, persuading allies to sanction Russia and support Kyiv, and he has been supportive of Israel in its conflict with Hamas fighters in Gaza while pushing for more humanitarian aid.<\/p>\n However, he has faced sharp criticism from some fellow Democrats for not backing a ceasefire in the Palestinian territory, where Gaza health officials say more than 29,600 people have been killed, thousands of buildings have been damaged or destroyed, and residents have insufficient food, water and medical supplies.<\/p>\n Biden\u2019s handling of immigration policy has also been criticized by Republicans and Democrats as migrant crossings at the US-Mexico border hit record highs during his administration.<\/p>\n In the Democratic Party\u2019s presidential nominating contests, Biden has easily won in New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada.<\/p>\n
\n<\/p>\nDemocratic Party<\/h2>\n