the 2024 Republican presidential candidates.
The Republican presidential candidates are currently competing in the GOP primaries and caucuses, which are scheduled to begin in January. They are vying for the party’s nomination to compete against President Joe Biden in the November 2024 elections. Below is the ranking of candidates based on their positions in CNN’s Poll of Polls, which is an average of the four most recent national surveys of potential or likely 2024 Republican primary voters that meet CNN’s standards. Candidates who are not listed in CNN’s Poll of Polls are listed alphabetically after those who are. I hope this revised version is clearer and free of errors
Donald Trump
Donald Trump announced his intention to run for president in November 2022, hoping to become the second president in history to win two non-consecutive terms. However, he still denies the outcome of the 2020 election, which he lost to Joe Biden, and continues to spread unfounded conspiracy theories about election fraud. Trump was impeached twice by the US House of Representatives, one of which was for his role in inciting the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the US Capitol following his defeat. As of August 2023, he is facing 91 criminal charges in four separate cases against him, including charges related to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election result and alleged mishandling of classified documents after leaving office.
If Trump is successful in winning another term, he has stated that he plans to make significant changes to various government departments and programs, including cutting social safety net programs. Additionally, he has threatened to seek revenge against his political opponents and to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Joe Biden and his family.
Trump was born in New York City and holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to his political career, he was a real estate developer and businessman, as well as a reality television star as the host of “The Apprentice.” Trump is married to Melania Trump and has five children.
Ron DeSantis
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who is known for his contentious views, announced his candidacy for the presidency in May 2023. DeSantis aim
to provide new leadership for the country and to reverse the decline of America. He rose to national prominence during the Covid-19 pandemic by implementing measures to prevent lockdowns, mask mandates, and vaccine requirements. Additionally, he made Florida one of the first states to reopen schools.
Before he became governor, DeSantis represented a district in northeast Florida in the US House from 2013 to 2018. He was a founding member of the House Freedom Caucus and a vocal supporter of former President Donald Trump. However, the two have since traded sharp attacks on the campaign trail.
DeSantis grew up in Dunedin, Florida, and attended Yale University, where he was captain of the varsity baseball team. He later attended Harvard Law School and served as a JAG officer in the US Navy. He is married to Casey DeSantis, and they have three children.
Nikki Haley
, the former governor of South Carolina, announced the launch of her presidential campaign in February 2023. She is calling for a new generation of leadership in the Republican Party, with a strong focus on economic responsibility, national security, and strengthening the southern border.
If successful in the primary, Haley would become the first Asian American and the first woman to be nominated by the GOP for president. She started her political career in 2004 when she was elected to the South Carolina House. Six years later, she became the first female governor of South Carolina and the youngest governor in the country in 2011. However, she resigned in 2017, in the middle of her second term, to become the US ambassador to the United Nations under President Donald Trump, who is now one of her rivals for the 2024 GOP nomination. She served in that role until the end of 2018.
Nikki Haley was born Nimrata Nikki Randhawa to Indian immigrants in Bamberg, South Carolina. She attended Clemson University, where she met her husband, Michael Haley. He served in Afghanistan as part of the South Carolina Army National Guard in 2013, making Haley the first governor in US history to have her spouse deployed. He is currently deployed overseas for a year-long mission. The Haleys have two children.
Tim Scott
In May 2023, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott announced his entrance into the presidential race as a principled conservative with a hopeful and optimistic message. He is the only Black Republican in the Senate.
Scott started his political career by being elected into the Charleston County Council back in 1995. After serving a term in the South Carolina House, he won a seat in the US House in 2010. In 2013, then-Governor Nikki Haley, who is now his rival for the GOP presidential nomination, appointed him to fill a vacant Senate seat. His appointment made him the very first Black person to represent South Carolina in the Senate.
Scott was born in North Charleston and grew up in a working-class family headed by his mother, a nurse’s assistant who worked hard to provide for Scott and his older brother. He is a devout Christian and studied political science at Charleston Southern University after attending Presbyterian College on a partial football scholarship. Scott is currently unmarried.
Vivek Ramaswamy
Vivek Ramaswamy, a tech entrepreneur and author, announced his candidacy for the presidency in February 2023. At 38, he is the youngest candidate in the Republican Party’s field. His campaign focuses on combating “woke” ideology, exposing government corruption, and bringing in a younger generation of voters into the party.
Ramaswamy grew up in Cincinnati, the son of Indian immigrants. He attended a Catholic high school in Cincinnati before earning a biology degree from Harvard University and a law degree from Yale University. He is a practicing Hindu and the author of “Woke Inc.” and “Nation of Victims.”
Before entering politics, Ramaswamy found success in the private sector by founding Roivant Sciences, a biotechnology firm, and Strive Asset Management, an investment management firm that specialized in “anti-woke” asset management. The latter refused to consider environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) factors when investing.
Ramaswamy is married to Apoorva, a physician specializing in otolaryngology, and they have two sons.
Chris Christie
Chris Christie, the former Governor of New Jersey, announced his second presidential campaign in June 2023 at a town hall meeting in New Hampshire. He is drawing stark contrasts with former President Donald Trump. During the campaign, Christie has emphasized his willingness to take on Trump directly, repeatedly criticizing the GOP front-runner on his legal troubles and foreign policy, among other key issues.
Christie had previously endorsed Trump after dropping out of the 2016 GOP primary and had served as a close adviser to the former president during his 2020 reelection campaign. However, he became one of Trump’s most vocal Republican critics after the former president’s false statements about the 2020 election and his subsequent attempts to overturn the results.
Christie was elected as the Governor of New Jersey in 2009, defeating Democratic incumbent Jon Corzine. He served two terms and left office in 2018 after weathering the so-called Bridgegate scandal and a 2017 state government shutdown. Christie also served as the US attorney for New Jersey from 2002 to 2008, under President George W. Bush, earning a reputation for being tough on corruption.
Christie graduated from the University of Delaware in 1984 and later earned his law degree from Seton Hall University in 1987. He has been married to his wife, Mary Pat, since 1986, and the couple has four children.
Doug Burgum
Doug Burgum is the current governor of North Dakota and a presidential candidate for the 2023 elections. His campaign is focused on the economy, energy, and national security of the United States. Burgum aims to tackle inflation, promote energy independence, and secure the southern US border.
Burgum’s political career began in 2016 when he won the North Dakota gubernatorial election as an outsider, beating the incumbent attorney general in the GOP primary. He was reelected in 2020 by a significant margin. Before entering politics, Burgum founded a software company that was later acquired by Microsoft, where he worked as an executive. He also established a real estate development firm and co-founded a venture capital firm.
Born and raised in Arthur, North Dakota, Burgum earned his degree from North Dakota State University and an MBA from Stanford University. In 2016, he married Kathryn, and together they have three children from his prior marriage.
Asa Hutchinson
Asa Hutchinson is a former Governor of Arkansas who completed two terms in January 2023. He announced his presidential campaign a few months later in April, with the aim of appealing to the best of America. Hutchinson has a few key policies including reducing federal spending and workforce, strengthening border security, and reforming federal law enforcement. He is a supporter of Ukraine and its war against Russia and is against American isolationism.
Hutchinson is a rare candidate who has strongly criticized Donald Trump, calling on the former president to drop out over his legal troubles. He has held many political positions, including serving as a federal prosecutor under Ronald Reagan, a thrice-elected US Congressman, and the nation’s top drug czar as well as a Homeland Security undersecretary in the George W. Bush administration.
Hutchinson is from Bentonville, Arkansas, and has degrees from Bob Jones University and the University of Arkansas School of Law. and his wife, Susan, have four children.
Former candidates, Drooped out Candidates
Mike Pence
In October 2023, Mike Pence announced the end of his campaign for the White House. During his campaign, he positioned himself as a traditional conservative, focusing on managing the US debt, reducing the size of the federal government, promoting domestic energy production, and supporting US allies abroad. He was known for his outspoken Christian faith and opposition to abortion and gender-transition treatment for minors.
He launched his campaign for the GOP nomination in June 2023, implicitly criticizing his primary rival and former boss, Donald Trump, who he believed should never be president again because of his actions in the aftermath of the 2020 election. Pence and Trump had a falling out after Pence refused Trump’s request to overturn the election result on January 6, 2021, in his role as vice president overseeing Congress’s certification of Joe Biden’s victory.
Before serving as vice president, Pence had a six-term tenure as a US congressman and was elected Indiana’s 50th governor in 2012. He is a former talk radio host and a graduate of Hanover College and the Indiana University School of Law. He and his wife, Karen, have three children.
Larry Elder,
Larry Elder, a conservative talk radio host, announced the end of his bid for the GOP presidential nomination in October 2023. Elder had entered the race in April 2023 and his campaign focused on securing the border, combating claims of systemic racism in the US, promoting school choice, limiting federal spending, and addressing fatherlessness.
Elder was the top Republican contender against California Governor Gavin Newsom in the unsuccessful 2021 recall effort. He has spent many years in the media industry, hosting TV shows and radio programs such as “The Larry Elder Show,” which he has hosted since 1993. Elder also practiced law and owned a legal recruitment firm, Laurence A. Elder & Associates, for 15 years. He was born in Los Angeles, and his father served in the US Marine Corps while his mother worked as a clerical worker for the US Department of War during World War II. Elder graduated from Brown University with a degree in political science and from the University of Michigan School of Law. He is unmarried.
Perry Johnson
a Michigan businessman who built his fortune through his company that certified whether businesses met certain industrial standards, ended his bid for the GOP presidential nomination in October 2023. Johnson had pitched himself as a less controversial version of Donald Trump, drawing parallels between his business career and the former president’s. He launched his White House bid in March 2023, shortly after appearing on stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference.
Johnson authored the book “Two Cents to Save America,” which proposed slashing US discretionary spending by 2% per year. He was a relative newcomer to politics, having run for Michigan governor in 2022 but was kept off the ballot after the state’s elections bureau determined his campaign had submitted thousands of invalid signatures on his nominating petition and did not meet the minimum to qualify. Johnson grew up in Illinois and graduated from the University of Illinois with a degree in mathematics. He is married to Diana Johnson and has three sons.
Will Hurd
Former Texas Representative Will Hurd, a vocal critic of former President Donald Trump, ended his White House campaign in October 2023 and endorsed former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley. Hurd had entered the race in June 2023, citing the need for “commonsense leadership” to address pressing issues such as inflation, China’s global influence, artificial intelligence, and low math, science, and reading scores among children.
However, Hurd failed to gain traction in a crowded GOP field dominated by the former president and did not qualify for either of the first two Republican primary debates. Hurd served three terms in Congress, from 2015 to 2021, representing a swing district in Texas that covered the largest stretch of the US-Mexico border of any congressional seat. He was the only Black Republican in the US House when he announced he would not seek reelection in 2020.
Before entering politics, Hurd worked for almost a decade in the CIA, including as an undercover officer in Afghanistan, and he also worked at a cybersecurity firm. He was born in San Antonio and is a graduate of Texas A&M University. Hurd is married to Lynlie Wallace Hurd.
Miami Mayor Francis Suarez,
who is serving his second term leading Florida’s second-most populous city, ended his bid for the White House in August 2023, shortly after failing to qualify for the first Republican presidential debate. Suarez had entered the presidential race in June 2023, urging Republicans to unify and invoking Ronald Reagan’s call for the party to rebuild its “big tent” coalition.
Suarez, who is the only high-profile Hispanic candidate in the GOP primary, aimed to connect with segments of the country that Republicans have historically lost, such as young and urban voters, Latinos, and suburban women. As mayor, Suarez promoted industries such as artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency and advocated for making Miami the new Silicon Valley. He has also spoken about combating climate change.
Suarez was first elected mayor in 2017, and he served as a Miami city commissioner for eight years before that. He was born and raised in Miami to Cuban immigrant parents, and his father, Xavier, was Miami’s first Cuban American mayor. Suarez graduated from Florida International University and the University of Florida law school. He and his wife, Gloria Fonts Suarez, have two children.