On Nov. 5, 2024, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump faced off in a suspenseful race determining who will be the next president in the white house.
Harris, the Democratic party nominee, was thrown into the race after current president Joe Biden dropped out on July 21 due to rising concerns regarding his physical and mental fitness to serve another term.
Harris made history as the first woman of color to be nominated as a presidential nominee. From the start, the emotion for Harris’ nomination revived a dead democratic party and gained back the momentum that it’d lost.
Like the democratic party, the republican party rallied together following an assassination attempt to kill Trump on July 13. Trump, the Republican party nominee, beat out other contenders to be selected by the Republican Party as its presidential candidate on July 15, 2024.
Setting the stage for Nov. 5, both candidates engaged in rallies across the country to encourage American voters to vote for them on election day. States with more predictable voting patterns were not the focus of this presidential election. Instead, all eyes were on the swing states– such as Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Arizona, North Carolina and Georgia.
These states are typically known for swinging either direction, making their vote more important to candidates needing to secure these states’ electoral votes when the decision is close. Because of this, swing states defined this year’s presidential election and are essentially what handed the presidency back to Trump.
The election was conducted in-person voting and through mail-in ballots. The east and midwest regions of the United States have a time difference ahead of the west, which means their votes were counted first. As a result, voters found out early into the night that Trump won Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Georgia. Although Nevada and Arizona’s votes are still being counted, Trump currently holds the lead and is expected to win the two states.
By 11:24 p.m. PST, Trump was declared the 2024 presidential winner. Making him the second president to win two nonconsecutive terms since Grover Cleveland in 1893, as well as the oldest presidential elect in American history.