With the 2024 US elections just under 60 days left until the 2024 US elections, many positions are up for grabs in local, state, and national politics. Every seat in the House of Representatives, multiple seats in the Senate, and the high offices of President and Vice President will be up for election, among numerous local elections for things such as School Board, Mayor, City Council, Governor, and more will be determined on November 5th. And this election season, just like the one prior, has been unusual, historical, and heavily eventful. To be straightforward, it has been far from boring.

For just a general overview, we’ll introduce the candidates for President and Vice President, and what party they are running with. For starters, we have incumbent Vice President Kamala Harris running to succeed President Biden alongside her running mate, Minnesota governor Tim Walz. On the Republican side, former President Donald Trump is running for a second term alongside one-term Senator JD Vance of Ohio.

For the various third parties, there are Dr. Jill Stein and her running mate Rudolph “Butch” Ware for the Green Party, Chase Olive,r and Mike ter Maat for the Libertarian Party, Dr. Cornel West and Melina Abdullah, running as independent candidates following Dr. West’s exit from the Green Party in October of last year. Also running are the activist duo of Claudia de la Cruz and Karina Garcia for the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), along with numerous others. Environmental lawyer Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and his running mate Nicole Shanahan are noticeably absent from this long list because he decided to suspend his campaign, endorsing former President Trump’s ticket with Sen. Vance of Ohio. Despite this, his name will appear on several ballots across the country due to the last-minute nature of his campaign’s suspension.

However, the historical implications of this presidential election are massive. On the one hand, we could see the first female be elected President, or we could also see a former President be re-elected non-consecutively – something you don’t exactly see every election cycle.

But let’s move on to our local elections, as we have three positions on the Roxbury School Board open for election, a House of Representatives seat (NJ-07) up for election, and a Senate seat up for election following Sen. Menendez’s resignation from the US Senate following his conviction earlier this summer.

In our local House election, incumbent Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R) is facing competition from Sue Altman (D, WFP), who is criticizing the incumbent Kean for rejecting to debate her on television – a critical attack point that has proven to work well for Altman’s campaign so far this election cycle. In our US Senate race, we have Rep. Andy Kim for the Democrats, and Curtis Bashaw for the Republicans – with numerous third-party and independent candidates also running.

And lastly, for the only municipal election for Roxbury in 2024 is three seats on the Roxbury School Board. Two tickets of three candidates each are running for the positions. One ticket, dubbed ‘Education First’ consists of incumbent Kathy Purcell, alongside Caitlyn Barba and David Faulkner. The opposing ticket, dubbed ‘Education, Respect, Growth’ consists of Andrew Schlam, Kim Hopkins, and Mirna Hernandez.

All these local and state positions will be up for election, alongside President and Vice President, on Tuesday, November 5. If you aren’t registered to vote, you can learn more & register online at vote.gov – all New Jersey citizens 17 and older are eligible to register, with the ability to vote in elections at age 18 and older in compliance with federal election legislation.