The 2024 Presidential Election is one of modern-day history’s most heated and controversial stories. With the country being extremely divided, it has been common to demonize the other side of the aisle. As a result, the political season of the 2024 Presidential Election has been filled with shocking and unprecedented historical events that will shape the result of this election. Many historic events have and may continue to occur all the way until that decisive date of November 5th, 2024: Election Day.
With the announcement of Donald Trump’s bid for reelection in November of 2022, many controversies regarding Trump continued to take place. Trump would be faced with multiple state charges regarding a whole variety of different alleged crimes, which began around the start of 2023.
His court cases included allegations of attempting to overturn the US election in Georgia, treason for inciting January 6, hush money, and mishandling of classified documents. Trump famously had the first presidential mugshot taken. While many opponents of Trump use the court cases and mugshots as reasons to defame and vilify his image as a person, supporters frequently use those reasons as inspiration and call it political persecution.
Most famously Donald Trump would be found guilty of 34 charges in his Hush Money case, which is incredibly controversial as Attorney Alvin Bragg never specifically stated what Trump is being charged precisely on, as the action of paying hush money is not illegal, BBC states that “Instead, this case [is] more technical and [centered] on how Trump’s former lawyer, who paid Ms Daniels, had his reimbursement recorded as legal fees in Trump’s accounts.”
Some have argued that the jury for this court case is selected from the reliably blue Manhattan area and Judge Juan Merchan and his daughter are both known for their liberal and Democratic views, as seen by donations and political affiliation. In the 2020 election, he donated $15.00 to Joe Biden’s campaign, $10 to the Progressive Turnout Project, and $10 to Stop Republicans, a subsidiary of the previous.
Moreover, the daughter of Judge Juan Merchan, Loren Merchan “whose political consulting firm did work for the Biden campaign and now-Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign” (CNN). This all raised questions about the bias of the court. Trump has been charged with 34 felony counts by said court, and according to a letter from CBS News, “[Trump’s] lawyers are requesting the conviction be overturned, citing the Supreme Court immunity ruling.”
This controversy persists to this day, however, that is merely one part of the overall insanity that has occurred during this election season. On June 27, 2024, incumbent President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump took to the debate stage once again in Atlanta, Georgia.
Many agreed that Biden’s performance during the debate was concerning, and that began to make former supporters of Biden begin to feel uneasy about how he would fare against Trump. Simultaneously polls began to plummet for Biden, as many former solid blue states were predicted to flip to Trump, which would be further exacerbated by the assassination attempt that would later happen.
This would lead to the unprecedented withdrawal of incumbent Joe Biden from the 2024 Presidential Election, the first incumbent President to do so since Lyndon B. Johnson in the hectic and tumultuous 1960s. Incumbent Vice President Kamala Harris shortly thereafter assumed the position of presumptive Democratic nominee. On July 21st, Harris would officially announce her campaign for President incredibly late in the season.
Before Biden dropped out of the race, a major historical event would single-handedly place this election season firmly in the history books. On July 13th, 2024, while Trump was hosting a rally located near 506 Evans City Road, Meridian, Butler County, Pennsylvania, at 6:11 PM EST, shots rang out. Trump’s life was narrowly saved by the mere turning of his head, as a bullet hit the upper part of his right ear, missing the back of his head by millimeters. All of this was on live television, as Thomas Matthew Crooks, a young and mysterious man from the area attempted to assassinate the former President. No clear motive has been identified, as Crooks had very little social media presence nor social life, and he had been successfully neutralized by Secret Service counter-snipers.
The assassination attempt on Donald Trump serves as a testament to how divided our country has become, particularly in recent years. Despite many people all over social media agreeing that we must ‘cool down the temperature in this country,’ including President Joe Biden, oppositional rhetoric continues to persist onward.
Following the assassination attempt, both Harris and Trump were officially nominated by the DNC and RNC respectively for President. Donald Trump has chosen a Senator from Ohio, J.D. Vance, as his running mate. Vance is a former Marine (Combat Veteran), a Graduate of Yale, the author of the memoir Hillbilly Elegy, and a man who grew up in a very impoverished and low-income blue-collar home.
Kamala Harris chose the Governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz, as her running mate. Walz is a retired non-commissioned officer of the Minnesota National Guard, career politician, and former schoolteacher.
On August 23, 2024, following massive speculation, the leading independent candidate, former Democratic politician, and nephew of President John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. surprisingly showed up at a Phoenix Trump Rally and announced the suspension of his campaign and his endorsement of the Former President. Donald Trump announced that the champion of environmentalism and a healthier system will have a role in his cabinet if he should win
On September 10, 2024, the first Presidential debate between Harris and Trump occurred, and it was quite the spectacle. The debate was incredibly intense and argumentative, with both candidates insisting on responding to their opponent’s defaming arguments. There was no clear winner of the debate as both sides of the aisle declared their respective candidates as the winner. Most significantly though, swing voters have not definitively chosen an official winner.
On September 15, 2024, former President Donald Trump was playing golf at the Trump International Golf Course in West Palm Beach, Florida, a residential neighborhood not too far from his Mar-A-Lago Estate. At approximately 1:30 PM EST, four shots were heard, leading Secret Service agents to swiftly pounce on top of the former President and evacuate him from the property.
An unprecedented event had just unfolded, in eight weeks a second assassination attempt on the former President had happened. A man, later identified as Ryan Wesley Routh, had snuck into the shrubs that surround the fenced property of the golf course. Routh had hung two backpacks with ceramic tiles (a bulletproof material) on the fence, propped a Go-Pro video camera, and possessed a powerful SKS semiautomatic rifle with a scope attached and an extended magazine (Department of Justice). Routh was only caught when a Secret Service agent miraculously spotted the barrel of his rifle sticking through the chain-link fence. Routh intended to aim for a golf hole ahead of Trump, so when the former President progressively got closer to the next hole, he would have a clear, short, and easy shot at murdering the President.
He was merely 300 to 500 yards away from President Trump when the Secret Service agent engaged Routh and opened fire. According to the FBI and Secret Service, Routh dropped his weapon, left his possession, and fled to his black Nissan SUV, which he attempted to escape in. Palm Beach County Sheriff, Ric Bradshaw, said the heroic actions of a witness led to swift identification and detainment of the gunman, Ryan Routh. Routh would be pulled over and arrested in the adjacent Martin County while heading northbound on Interstate 95. Donald Trump once again survived the incident, but this time left unscathed.
On October 1, the first and only Vice Presidential debate happened on CBS News between Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota (D) and Senator J. D. Vance of Ohio (R). The Vice Presidential Debate was a surprisingly cordial and respectful, yet heated debate. J.D. Vance and Tim Walz were finally able to introduce themselves to the citizens of the United States. Many had found the Vice Presidential candidates to be unfavorable or ‘weird’, however, the VP debate served as a booster for both candidates.
The Presidential Election Season was in full steam throughout the month of October. There were seven key swing states according to the polls including Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Michigan, and most importantly, Pennsylvania. On October 21, 2024, Donald Trump became the first President to ever work at a minimum-wage McDonald’s Drive-Thru in Bucks County, PA. This came after claims by Trump that Kamala Harris never actually worked at McDonalds.
Despite the aforementioned swing states being insanely important, they were not the only ones seeing heavy campaigning. Through the season, Donald Trump continued to hold rallies in traditionally blue areas, notably rallying at places like the Bronx, NY, and Wildwood, NJ, in May. On October 27, 2024, Donald Trump held a massive rally at Madison Square Garden in the heart of blue New York City, which reportedly brought up to 200,000 supporters to the rally from all over the Tri-State area and country.
It should not go unmentioned, however, Kamala Harris also succeeded in holding massive rallies in cities like Milwaukee and Las Vegas. Her largest rally was held on October 29, 2024, in Washington D.C. with a beautiful view of the White House symbolically not too far behind her while she spoke. Her rally reportedly brought in roughly 75,000 people.
Finally, on November 5, 2024, the United States Presidential Election. Unlike 2020 and 2016, the polls weren’t as far off, however, the polls still underestimated Trump. Donald Trump won the election with 312 electoral votes to Kamala Harris’ 226. It was predicted to be a very close election, which in many ways, it was, but simultaneously, it saw a massive shift to the right, and of the three elections Trump has been in; this was most certainly his most resounding victory.
Donald Trump won the popular vote for the first time, getting 50% (77 million) of the vote to Kamala’s 48% (74 million). Furthermore, Kamala Harris performed worse than Biden in 2020 in almost, if not all, United States counties. Trump notably gained among minority, young, college, and urban voters. He won all 7 swing states, and many typically solid blue states, such as New Jersey, Minnesota, Virginia, New Mexico, New Hampshire, Maine, et cetera, came within 5, 6, or 7 points of Trump winning.
President-Elect Donald Trump will be inaugurated as the 47th President of the United States on January 20, 2025 at the Capital. Trump is the second President to have been elected to two non-consecutive terms, the last time this happened was over 130 years ago with the 22nd and 24th President, Grover Cleveland. Donald Trump is also the first President to have been injured in an assassination attempt since Reagan and had a second attempt on his life merely a few months later. The reelection of Donald Trump, especially to a non-consecutive term, marks a major political comeback.
The 2024 Presidential Election will be one that will go down in the history books. The sheer division between ideological lines and many other problems damaging the country’s strength will be a major characterization of this period in American history.
Photo courtesy of ABC, New York Times, BBC, CNN, The Trace, Nairobi Law Monthly, AP News, Bloomberg, Brookings Institution, NY1, and the Hollywood Reporter.
