Voters will elect the president of the U.S. in the upcoming election on Tuesday, Nov. 5. Use this guide to learn about candidates’ backgrounds and policy views.
Candidates for President
Kamala Harris, Democratic candidate for president
Background: Vice President Kamala Harris is an Oakland, Calif., native who attended Howard University and obtained her law degree from the University of California’s Hastings College of Law.
She cast more tie-breaking votes while presiding over the Senate than any other vice president in history and her vote helped pass the 2021 stimulus package, which included the American Rescue Plan Act and the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.
As a presidential candidate, Harris supports national abortion protections and LGBTQ+ rights.She opposes Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and supports providing Israel with military aid, but has repeatedly called for a ceasefire to end Israel’s war in Gaza.
She proposes an earned path to citizenship for immigrants while still increasing funding for border security.
“We are very clear, and I think most Americans are clear, that we have a broken immigration system and we need to fix it,” Harris told ABC News in March.
Before serving as vice president of the U.S., Harris was California’s attorney general for six years and went on to represent the state in the U.S. Senate for four years before launching her first bid for the nation’s highest office in 2020.
When Harris was California’s attorney general, she recovered billions for California consumers through major settlements against companies like Quest Diagnostics and JPMorgan Chase. She improved criminal justice reform by starting the Division of Recidivism Reduction and Re-Entry and launching the Back on Track LA program, which gave nonviolent offenders educational and job training opportunities. The then-attorney general banned the “gay panic” defense in California courts and opposed the state’s 2008 same-sex marriage ban.
As a U.S. senator, Harris supported stricter gun control laws, federal legalization of cannabis and reforms of health care and taxes. She advocated for the DREAM Act, which would provide temporary conditional residency for undocumented immigrants who entered the U.S. as children.
Policy Views:
- Supports national abortion protections
- Advocate of LGBTQ+ rights
- Supports gun ownership and stricter gun laws
- Supports earned pathway to citizenship for immigrants
- Wants to tighten border security
- Supports Ukraine in the Russian invasion of Ukraine
Website: kamalaharris.com
Social Media: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook
Donald Trump, Republican candidate for president
Background: Former president Donald Trump is from Queens, N.Y., and obtained an economics degree from the University of Pennsylvania.
During his presidency, he funneled military funding toward building a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border and enacted a family separation policy that removed more than 5,500 immigrant children from their families’ care and put them under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ supervision.
Trump takes credit for undoing federal abortion rights in the U.S. due to his appointment of three conservative U.S. Supreme Court justices who voted to repeal Roe v. Wade in 2022: Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett.
“For 52 years, this issue has torn our country apart. I did something that nobody thought was possible,” he said at the 2024 Presidential Debate on Sept. 10, 2024, referring to the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade.
The ex-president repealed over 100 environmental policies and regulations. In 2017, he signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which reduced taxes and cut the Affordable Care Act’s individual health insurance coverage mandate. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Trump advocated for unproven treatments by ignoring or contradicting health officials’ recommendations, using political pressure to interfere with testing efforts.
After losing the 2020 election, Trump spread lies with baseless claims of voter fraud leading up to thousands of his supporters attacking the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The House of Representatives voted twice to impeach Trump: once in 2019 for both obstruction of Congress and abuse of power and in 2021 for incitement of insurrection after the Capitol insurrection.
A Manhattan jury found Trump guilty of 34 New York state criminal charges for falsifying business records by using hush-money payments to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels as part of an illegal plan to help him win the 2016 election. He also has three other felony indictments awaiting trial in Georgia, Florida and Washington, D.C., related to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election and his mishandling of classified documents. Civil court proceedings found Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation in 2023, defamation again in 2024 and financial fraud in 2024.
No laws prevent Trump from running for president again. He is the first former president in U.S. history to have felony crime convictions. If re-elected, he has suggested he would use the military to go after his political enemies. He has vowed to be a dictator “on day one” and to round up and deport millions of undocumented immigrants in a mass deportation scheme.
Policy Views:
- Says states should decide what abortion access looks like
- Plans a “mass deportation” of undocumented immigrants
- Vows to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act
- Supports a no-tax-on-tips policy
- Wants to enhance the military
- Says he could use the military to punish political opponents
- Wants to cut federal funding for schools over teaching about gender and race
Website: donaldjtrump.com
Social Media: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook
Chase Oliver, Libertarian candidate for president
Background: Chase Oliver, 39, is from Nashville, Tenn., and currently resides in Atlanta, Ga. He got his start in politics when he opposed the war in Iraq under former president George W. Bush. The Libertarian joined the party in 2010 after the Atlanta Pride Festival.
Oliver had an unsuccessful bid for Congress in 2020 to represent Georgia’s 5th district to complete the term of civil rights activist John Lewis after his death. He also unsuccessfully challenged incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock and Hershel Walker for a Georgia U.S. Senate seat in 2022.
“At the end of the day, if you’re not hurting anybody, your life should be your life. Your body should be your body, your business should be your business, and your property should be your property–not mine and not the federal government’s. So if I were on that debate stage, I would be showing that we can have a very different path that leads us away from partisanship and polarization and towards a future that’s filled with possibility and prosperity,” Oliver said to Rolling Stone on Sept. 10.
The Libertarian candidate wants to abolish the U.S. Department of Education and return its funding to the states and taxpayers in order to stop governmental involvement in education. He also says the government should discontinue its involvement in the student-loans process to lower costs.
Oliver proposes cutting government spending to curb inflation while removing what he calls government interference from Americans’ pocketbooks. He wants to simplify the citizenship process for immigrants so they can live and work in American communities.
The candidate says he supports a peaceful method of international relations by ending drone strikes and military interventions. Oliver wants to withdraw U.S. support from foreign conflict, including ending aid for Israel and Ukraine.
Policy Views:
- Wants to simplify the pathway to citizenship for immigrants
- Pledges to withdraw the U.S. from all foreign conflicts, including discontinuing aid to Israel and Ukraine
- Says possession and use of marijuana, as well as other drugs, should be decriminalized
- Wants to end the death penalty
Website: votechaseoliver.com
Social Media: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook
Jill Stein, Green Party candidate for president
Background: Green Party candidate for president Jill Stein is a Harvard-educated doctor from Highland Park, Ill. She unsuccessfully ran for president in 2012 and 2016.
In 2002, Stein’s activism helped pass the Clean Election Law to reform campaign finances in Massachusetts by banning taxpayer dollars from funding political campaigns. The state legislature later repealed the referendum on an unrecorded voice vote.
She unsuccessfully ran as the Green-Rainbow candidate for Massachusetts governor in 2002 and lost to Republican Mitt Romney. She ran for governor again in 2010 and lost to incumbent Gov. Deval Patrick, a Democrat.
Stein lost an election to be the state representative for the 9th Middlesex District of Massachusetts in 2004 but she served in Lexington, Mass., from 2005 to 2008 in Precinct 2 for the Lexington Town Meeting, her seat on the local legislative body marking the only elected office she has ever held.
“Americans are struggling in virtually every dimension of our lives, on health care, on the crisis of housing with half of Americans struggling to make their monthly rent or mortgage, and the incredible student debt and medical debt and a climate crisis that’s going bonkers now,” Stein said in an interview with The Hill on Oct. 17.
Stein says her presidential campaign is based on people, the planet and peace. One of her policies includes passing an economic bill of rights that provides Americans the right to a living-wage job, livable income, health care, housing, childcare, education, secure retirement, utilities, healthy food and clean water.
As a Green Party candidate, she pushes for an Ecosocialist Green New Deal to offer 100% clean energy, no greenhouse gas emissions and economic security within 10 years of implementation.
Stein wants to stop the U.S. from giving military aid to Israel due to the nation’s genocide of Palestinians in the Israel-Hamas War. She also proposes cutting the U.S. military budget in half and removing the U.S.’s nuclear weapons from foreign countries.
Policy Views:
- Proposes enacting a Green New Deal for clean energy and zero carbon emissions
- Opposes the U.S. providing military aid to Israel
- Wants to cut the U.S. military’s budget in half
- Says it should be easier for immigrants to receive temporary work visas
Website: jillstein2024.com
Social Media: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook
Randall Terry, Constitution Party
Background: Anti-abortion activist Randall Terry is a New York City native and seminary graduate. He is only on the ballot in 10 states, including Mississippi. He is running to defeat Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, defend children and destroy the Democratic party, he says on his website.
His campaign is running graphic advertisements depicting aborted fetuses.
“Federal law requires FCC stations to run the ads of federal candidates uncensored,” Terry said at an event at the Binghamton, N.Y., City Hall on Oct 1. “So, in a very poetic way, this is the last bastion of free speech. This is the last place a candidate can say what they want without being censored.”
The activist founded Operation Rescue, an anti-abortion organization that became prominent for having its members block the entrances of abortion clinics in the 1980s; he led it until 1991.He founded the Society for Truth and Justice and orchestrated the Operation Witness Program in 2003.
Police have arrested Terry 49 times, including once when he violated the University of Notre Dame’s no-trespassing order by protesting President Barack Obama’s visit to the campus.
He unsuccessfully ran for Congress in New York in 1998 and for a Florida Senate seat in 2006—but lost both times in the Republican primaries. Terry ran in the 2012 Democratic Party presidential primaries, unsuccessfully challenging then-incumbent Barack Obama.
Policy Views:
- Opposes abortion
- Wants to ban and criminalize birth control
- Wants to destroy the Democratic Party
Website: terry2024.com
Social Media: Instagram | Twitter
Claudia De la Cruz, Party for Socialism and Liberation
Background: Claudia De la Cruz is from South Bronx, New York City, and has two master’s degrees. She founded and served as the co-executive director of the activist organization The People’s Forum, with which she has participated in many pro-Palestine protests during the Israel-Hamas War.
She supports offering reparations for Black Americans and fully recognizing Native American sovereignty by honoring treaty rights. The candidate pledges to forgive student-loan debt for all Americans and to install a single-payer health-care system.
“We cannot expect people who are way far off whatever working class people experience to be able to solve our needs because they are way far removed from that reality,” Cruz said in an interview with Campus Times on Oct. 7.
Cruz wants to reduce the U.S. military’s budget by 90% and end U.S. aid to Israel. She proposes a wealth tax on billionaires and wants to seize control of the top 100 American corporations from their billionaire owners and give them to the public. She also hopes to expand public transportation.
Policy Views:
- Supports reparations for Black Americans
- Wants to cut U.S. military aid in Israel
- Proposes to reduce U.S. military spending by 90%
- Supports forgiving student loan debt
- Supports recognizing Native American sovereignty
Website: https://votesocialist2024.com/
Social Media: Instagram | Twitter
Peter Sonski, American Solidarity Party candidate for president
Background: U.S. Marine Corps veteran Peter Sonski is from Massachusetts. He’s a former member of both the Democratic and Republican parties, turning to the American Solidarity Party because of its Christian foundation. He is only on the ballot in seven states, including Mississippi, so he cannot win the popular vote.
The American Solidarity Party candidate believes that abortion, capital punishment, the death penalty and euthanasia should be illegal. He does not support same-sex marriage and does not want same-sex couples to have the same adoption rights as heterosexual couples.
“Human life is sacred from conception until natural death. We thus oppose abortion, euthanasia and any direct and intentional attacks on innocent human life. We oppose the death penalty as an unnecessary measure to protect human life,” he says on his website.
Sonski says he advocates for the poor and other people in need and wants to address racial injustice. He affirms the American Solidarity Party’s belief that the government’s role is to provide and protect citizens’ interests, including the right to work, to earn fair wages, to participate in labor unions, to own private property and to create economic initiatives.
The candidate supports the U.S. giving Ukraine funds and military aid and believes Israel has a right to defend itself but that it should withdraw troops from Gaza. Sonki wants to increase border security but says the U.S. should be open to immigrants seeking asylum or better opportunities.
Policy Views:
- Anti-abortion
- Against same-sex marriage and adoption
- Supports U.S. aid to Ukraine
- Opposes capital punishment, the death penalty and euthanasia
- Wants to increase border security but allow immigrants to seek asylum
Website: petersonski.com
Social Media: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., independent candidate for president
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. ran as an independent candidate for president but endorsed Donald Trump for president on Aug. 23 and sought to remove his name from swing state ballots.
“Three great causes drove me to enter this race in the first place, and these are the principal causes that persuaded me to leave the Democratic Party and run as an independent, and now to throw my support to President Trump,” he said at an Aug. 23 news conference.
Kennedy’s name will be on the Mississippi ballot after his team filed paperwork with the Mississippi Secretary of State’s office on Sept. 6.
Mississippians will vote for presidential, congressional, judicial and regional offices on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2023. Any eligible registered voter who registered in person by Oct. 7 or had their voter registration application postmarked by Oct. 7 can cast a ballot in the general election.
Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Contact your local circuit clerk or election commissioners for polling place information. Voters must bring an accepted form of voter ID to the polls. For more information, visit sos.ms.gov/yall-vote.
Read more coverage of this year’s election cycle at our Elections Zone 2024 page.
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