2024 Election

Context for the 2024 Election  

During the 2024 Election, it was no secret that the presidential race between the Harris and Trump administrations sparked a variety of controversy and excitement. It is crucial to understand that politics are the driving force of every country’s economy, law system, and citizens, meaning the United States is no exception. With 244 million Americans of voting age, there was a huge turnout of citizens casting their ballot this November, following 2020 when two-thirds of the voting population participated. But was every voter fully educated on each candidate’s policies and history in government?  

Donald Trump was regarded as the Republican nominee for this year’s election and former 45th president of the United States. However, he also has a rich history in entertainment and real estate. According to BBC News, as a son of real estate tycoon Fred Trump, Donald Trump would follow in his father’s footsteps and later join his company. Originally focused on middle-class rental housing in Brooklyn and Queens, Trump would quickly take control of the company and expand it into Manhattan. As a result, he created high-profile projects such as the Trump Tower, the Trump Plaza, and a variety of luxury businesses such as casinos and hotels. This generated not only money for Trump but also nationwide fame that would propel him to take part in the entertainment industry. His most well-known show was The Apprentice where contestants would compete in a variety of tasks to prove themselves to be competent in business in hopes of winning a job at Trump’s organization. This gave Trump further recognition as he would make small appearances in a variety of films and commercials. Using these past successes, he would announce his candidacy against Hillary Clinton, and later win.

According to the White House Archives, during this time the Trump Administration focused on improving the economy in which all employment rates for minorities increased and reached an all-time high. This allowed many families to thrive and reduce poverty rates. At the same time, Trump invested his time in creating and funding the Space Force which became a branch of the U.S. Armed Services in 2019. This new force was put into place to ensure and protect the United States’ interest in space exploration. While these achievements of Trump have advanced our country, he also faced a lot of criticism om some of his other policies. For instance, “The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act,” originally meant to reduce taxes for people and businesses to create less economic deficits, did not go as planned. This is because these tax cuts ultimately skewed in favor of wealthy corporations, meaning people of lower economic status could not reap any benefits. Additionally, many Americans did not agree with Trump’s immigration policy. Going into his 2016 presidency it was clear that one of Trump’s many goals was to decrease illegal immigrants from coming into the United States and starting a new life. However, he ended up reducing legal immigration by nearly half a million people who had all their documentation and background checks but were unable to enter the country. This caused a drastic decline in the United States’ current and future labor force. As a result, Trump would go on to lose the 2020 election to Joe Biden. Regardless, Trump decided to run again this year with Vice President J.D. Vance with the goals of reducing inflation, taxes, and immigration even further.

Kamala Harris is the Democratic candidate for this year’s presidential race and has the potential to become the 47th President of the United States and the first woman to hold such a highly regarded position. She is most known for being Joe Biden’s current Vice President, but she has been in politics for longer than some may think. According to the BBC, she began her career as a deputy district attorney in California but would later be promoted to the District Attorney of San Franciso. In these two positions, she focused heavily on criminal reform and sought to ensure justice. During this time, she was continuously building up a strong reputation for herself in public service and became very respected. This launched her into becoming Attorney General of California. Here she would continue her work with not only criminal justice but overall law enforcement such as marriage equality and protection for consumers. Harris would later be elected as Senator of California where she was tasked with proposing legislation and bills as well as confirming judicial court justices and executive branch positions. Due to her long history in government and law, Joe Biden would go on to choose Harris as his running mate, making her the first woman to become vice president of the United States. 

 Their shared views and policies led them to various successes during their time in office including increased housing for Americans. According to the White House Archives, the Biden-Harris administration has constructed the most housing units after 50 years, allowing more people to live in a safe community and home. Additionally, they were credited with post-covid recovery of the United States. This involved getting over 16 million jobs created and administration of vaccines. As a result, this ensured the country’s return to normalcy and stability. However, at the same time, Biden and Harris faced a variety of judgments from the public. For instance, consumer debt and inflation have skyrocketed ever since Biden and Harris came into office. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, “American households were spending down their savings at an average rate of $70 billion per month since September 2021 — which has accelerated to $85 billion a month since last fall. By March of this year, they had fully depleted all the excess savings they had accumulated during the pandemic, and by June their savings had dropped $372 billion below expected levels.” This expresses the drastic downfall the economy has been facing the past four years that only continues to get worse over time.  

Another popular criticism was the influx of illegal immigrants that entered the United States under Biden and Harris’s time in office. According to a Fox News report, “about 7.2 million illegal border crossings have occurred since Biden became president. This is a higher number than the population of 36 different states.” As a result of these statistics, the democratic party faces a variety of criticism. Regardless, Kamala Harris has campaigned with running mate, Tim Waltz, in hopes of becoming the first female president to strengthen democracy and freedom.   As Kamala Harris and Donald Trump sought to win the votes of millions of Americans it is crucial to understand and be aware of the political world. Regardless of being able to vote or not, these issues and policies have impacts on every person and future generations. Therefore, stay informed and educated not only throughout the election season but beyond it.  

Sources:  The Biden-Harris Record | The White House 

               Donald J. Trump – The White House 

              Donald Trump's life story: From real estate to politics - BBC News 

Where do Harris and Trump stand on the key election issues? | US elections 2024 | The Guardian 

Who is Kamala Harris? The many identities of the first woman VP