Election Day is coming up. By the time you’re reading this article, the date—November 5, 2024—will be less than a week away. Given the importance of this election cycle, here’s everything you need to know about the remaining candidates and their stances on the main issues. The most significant issues this election cycle include the economy, abortion, climate, immigration, foreign policy, education, healthcare, and crime. I will cover the candidates’ plans for each of these in the same order they were introduced.
Democrats
Vice President Kamala Harris was nominated by the Democratic Party on August 2, 2024, following the withdrawal of President Joe Biden from the race. She selected Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota as her running mate.
The economy: Harris’s economic policies include increased tax deductions for small businesses, an increased corporate tax rate (from 21% to 28%), consistent support for public investments in infrastructure (such as bridges and Internet), and a continuation of tariffs on certain Chinese imports. These tariffs include former President Trump’s tariff policy on Chinese goods as a whole, along with the steep tariffs on specific goods, such as Chinese electric vehicles and key minerals, enacted under the Biden-Harris administration. Overall, these policies—especially the ones concerning small businesses and the middle class—are aimed at creating what Harris calls an “opportunity economy.”
Abortion rights: Abortion is arguably the strongest issue of Harris’s election campaign. She is heavily pro-choice, or in favor of the right to an abortion, and has expressed strong opposition to a federal abortion ban. Harris is in favor of reinstating Roe v. Wade, which protects abortion up to around 22 weeks, and has urged Congress to pass a law codifying abortion rights across the entire country. She also supports ensuring access to key abortion medications, such as mifepristone and misoprostol.
Climate: Harris has stressed the urgency of climate change, calling it an existential threat. She is in favor of clean energy and green innovation—specifically, the U.S. government working with the private sector to devise solutions for climate change. But actions speak louder than words. As vice president in the Biden-Harris administration, Harris cast the tie-breaking vote to pass the Inflation Reduction Act, which aimed to cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by half by 2030. The legislation provides subsidies as well as tax credits for clean energy technology and energy-efficient home projects. Harris is particularly supportive of electric vehicles, having advocated for a zero-emissions vehicle standard as a senator, and announced federal grants for small companies producing electric vehicle parts this May. However, there are some inconsistencies in Harris’s climate policies. For example, during her short-lived bid for the presidency in 2020, she was strongly opposed to fracking but has since changed her views.
Immigration: Immigration may be the weakest point in Harris’s campaign. It’s certainly one of the biggest issues her opponent, Donald Trump, has raised regarding the current administration. For example, Harris was dubbed the “border czar” by Republicans for failures at the U.S.-Mexico border. These include the increased severity of drug, arms, and human trafficking, the growing power of cartels, and unauthorized border crossings. If elected, Harris has promised to sign into law the bipartisan border security bill that Congress failed to pass earlier this year. She asserts that the U.S. immigration system is broken and supports reform for an earned path to citizenship for migrants. Additionally, this year, to curb the record level of migrant crossings, the Biden-Harris administration cracked down on asylum using a presidential power that bans most migrants crossing into ports of entry from seeking asylum, allowing for faster deportations. As a result, migrant releases—which often allow migrants to live and work in the U.S. for years due to backlogged immigration courts—decreased by 60%.
Foreign policy: The ongoing war in Ukraine and the dire situation in the Middle East are also weak points in Harris’s bid for the presidency. For instance, Trump has repeatedly referenced the current administration’s 2021 pullout from Afghanistan as a major failure and the reason the Taliban have taken over the country. On foreign policy, Harris has pledged continued support to Ukraine, Taiwan, and Israel, consistent with the policies under Biden. Harris emphasizes the importance of countering hostile states such as Russia, China, and Iran. In particular, she has stated that preventing Iran from becoming a nuclear power is one of her highest priorities. This has become especially pressing after Iran’s missile attack on Israel earlier this month. Harris’s stance on Israel has led to criticism from both sides—some feel she is not fully committed to helping Israel defend itself, while others feel she is not doing enough to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and prevent Israel from committing human rights abuses. Overall, Harris has highlighted the suffering of the Palestinians but has pledged to “always stand up for Israel’s right to defend itself.”
Education: Harris believes that the U.S. government should play an active role in relieving student loan debt. She appears willing to continue the Biden administration’s debt forgiveness plans and has pledged to “do much more to build on” these programs. Aside from how people will pay for school, she is also committed to protecting what is actually taught in the classroom. Harris has voiced support for teaching about systemic racism, sexuality, and gender, and has condemned conservatives for banning books related to these topics. As a result, she has enjoyed broad support from LGBTQ+ groups. Overall, the Biden-Harris administration has reinstated federal protections for LGBTQ+ people, and as a senator, Harris also supported the Equality Act, which would ban discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
Healthcare: Prior to her current election bid, Harris was a supporter of Medicare For All, and voiced approval of abolishing private insurance. Since then, her position has shifted, something that her campaign has attributed to the greater experience she has gained since then. Harris’ current plan for healthcare is to keep the structure of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and the US’ mostly employer-based healthcare system intact, with slight adjustments. These include tax credits to make the ACA more affordable, working with states to cancel medical debt for more Americans, and a cap on out-of-pocket spending for insulin and prescription drugs.
Crime: Harris is in favor of decriminalizing the use of marijuana and implementing common-sense gun control policies. In 2019, she introduced a bill in the Senate to federally decriminalize marijuana and has also urged states to pardon marijuana convictions. On the federal level, the Biden-Harris administration has pardoned a number of these convictions. Harris’s position on this issue was quite different when she served as a district attorney and later as California’s attorney general in 2010. At that time, she opposed legalizing the recreational use of marijuana and convicted nearly 2,000 people for crimes related to the drug. In recent years, however, her views on this issue have shifted.
One issue where her stance has not changed is gun control. Harris has long supported red-flag laws, from her time as California’s attorney general to her current role in the Biden administration, where she has urged all states to adopt red-flag laws and announced the creation of a national resource center to assist states in implementing the policy. She is also strongly in favor of universal background checks and other forms of gun control, such as requiring “good cause” to carry a concealed weapon and restricting firearms in schools and universities. In addition to gun control, Harris aims to hold gun manufacturers accountable. The Biden-Harris administration has urged Congress to repeal a federal law that shields gun manufacturers from liability.
Republicans
Having announced his candidacy in 2022, former President Donald Trump was nominated by the Republican Party on July 15, 2024. He chose Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio as his running mate.
The economy: With the economy being the most important issue for voters, Trump’s campaign has placed heavy emphasis on the Biden-Harris administration’s failure to curb inflation. He has highlighted the rising costs of food, housing, and more, with the Republican Party platform promising to “end inflation and make America affordable again.” To achieve this goal, Trump plans to deport or prevent undocumented immigrants from obtaining mortgages, launch a home-building program on federal land, extend the tax cuts he implemented in his previous term, decrease the corporate tax, and abolish the tax on Social Security payments. Both he and Harris have also voiced support for making tipped income tax-free. However, Trump’s tax cuts have been frequently criticized for primarily benefiting businesses and the wealthy, potentially exacerbating economic inequality.
On a global level, Trump has pledged to enact new tariffs on foreign goods, ranging from 10% to 60% for goods imported from China. Although he claims that the tariffs would promote homegrown manufacturers, a number of economists have warned that these tariffs would further increase prices for consumers. Specifically, just a few days ago, 23 Nobel Prize-winning economists signed a letter calling Harris’s economic plan “vastly superior” to former President Trump’s. Trump has defended his plan, pointing out in the presidential debate that the Biden administration did not remove his previous tariffs on China.
Abortion rights: Although his position on abortion rights has not been entirely consistent, Trump’s overall stance is that the issue of abortion should be left to the states to decide. In the presidential debate, for instance, Trump stated that he would not sign a federal abortion ban into law. According to the official Republican Party platform, he would oppose late-term abortions, support mothers, and fund birth control pills. This is a weak point for his campaign—considering his appointment of three conservative justices to the Supreme Court who facilitated the overturning of Roe v. Wade, and the actions of his vice-presidential candidate J.D. Vance, who earlier this year called for a federal response to abortion, along with his performance in the presidential debate with Harris, where he falsely claimed that doctors were performing “post-birth abortions.”
Climate: Trump’s policies for the environment appear to be the polar opposite of Harris’s. He has pledged to roll back environmental regulations on U.S. industries, particularly the car industry. Trump has voiced opposition to switching to electric vehicles and forms of renewable energy such as wind farms. According to his party platform, Trump plans to ramp up domestic production of oil and natural gas, ensuring U.S. “energy dominance.” In the vice-presidential debate, Vance defended this position, reasoning that this type of production would be comparatively better for the environment if it happened in the U.S. rather than other countries. This is because U.S. plants tend to pollute less and produce less waste when operating on U.S. soil.
Immigration: Consistent with his presidential campaign in 2016, Trump is strongly in favor of securing the border. He plans to complete the border wall and increase enforcement along the southern border. In his current campaign, Trump has repeatedly highlighted the current administration’s failures to stem the flow of migrants, curb cartel violence, and cut off drug, arms, and human trafficking operations. Indeed, the number of crossings reached a historic high of 3.2 million in 2023, although they have decreased this year due to Biden’s asylum crackdown. Regarding cartels and drug trafficking, Border Patrol agents seized 26,700 pounds of fentanyl at the border in 2023—a 480% increase from 2020, when only 4,600 pounds of the drug were confiscated.
In addition to enforcement along the southern border, Trump has pledged to carry out mass deportations of undocumented immigrants inside the country. Specifically, his vice-presidential candidate, J.D. Vance, has stated that they would start with one million people (though there could be major logistical and legal challenges to doing so). Additionally, Trump aims to ensure that children of undocumented residents would not be eligible for U.S. citizenship.
Foreign policy: Trump has emphasized the Biden-Harris administration’s foreign policy failures in his campaign, particularly the pullout from Afghanistan and the ongoing war in Ukraine. He opposes further military aid to Ukraine and favors disentangling the U.S. from foreign conflicts. If elected, he has promised to end the war “within 24 hours” by negotiating with Russia.
The other major foreign policy issue is Israel. Trump has positioned himself as a strong supporter of Israel and has condemned pro-Palestinian protesters on U.S. college campuses. Specifically, the Republican Party platform pledges to “hold accountable those who perpetuate violence against Jewish people.” During his presidential debate with Biden, Trump criticized the Democratic Party for not doing enough to support Israel, calling Biden a “very bad Palestinian.” Overall, Trump has claimed that the current global conflicts would not have happened if he were president.
Education: Trump is in favor of universal school choice, the freedom to pray in school, ending teacher tenure, implementing merit pay, enforcing stricter standards on school discipline, expanding civics education, pursuing Civil Rights cases against schools that discriminate against students, and lowering tuition costs (though he has not articulated a specific policy on how he will accomplish this goal). The Republican Party platform has also stated that it wants to close the Department of Education and let the states decide.
Aside from education in general, Trump’s policies also address what is taught in schools. Specifically, he has pledged to cut federal funding to schools that cover critical race theory and content related to sexuality and gender. His campaign promotes this as a “return to common sense.”
Healthcare: In his previous term, Trump attempted to dismantle the ACA. Now, it appears that his stance has shifted slightly. Trump has promised not to cut Medicare, and despite his continued criticism of the ACA, he has also pledged not to undermine it. Additionally, to make healthcare more affordable, Trump has promised tougher border enforcement and deportations to curb undocumented immigration, which he asserts have increased healthcare costs, among other issues. He also aims to promote competition, expanding access to affordable healthcare and prescription drug options. The Republican Party has voiced support for an increased focus on chronic disease prevention, long-term care, and benefit flexibility.
Crime: Although opposed to gun restrictions, Trump aims to fight violence and crime in the U.S. Specifically, he has promised to combat gang violence and drug cartels, as well as rebuild Democrat-run cities that he claims are overrun by crime. To accomplish this goal, he plans to increase support and resources for police departments, restoring safety in neighborhoods. He pledged to “give our police their power back” and “give them immunity from prosecution.” This policy has received heavy criticism, especially in the wake of several instances of police brutality. Trump’s opponents argue that shielding law enforcement from accountability is dangerous and unjust. To address gun violence, Trump and his vice-presidential candidate have suggested increasing security at schools.
Third Parties
The Libertarian Party is the third-largest political party in the U.S., although it’s important to note that the gap between second and third place is significant. Libertarians are strongly in favor of individual civil liberties, limiting the size and scope of government, non-interventionism, and laissez-faire capitalism. Overall, they believe that the government should have the smallest possible role in the lives of Americans. The party’s candidates this election cycle are Chase Oliver for president and Mike ter Maat for vice president. The party’s platform, which includes the right to bear arms, reducing taxes, rolling back unnecessary regulations, ending the draft, and promoting free-market education, aligns with their fundamental belief that the government should not interfere in any aspect of an individual’s life.
The Green Party is the fourth-largest political party in the U.S., right behind the Libertarians. Their main issues include environmentalism, nonviolence, social justice, participatory democracy—a form of democracy where all citizens contribute individually and directly to political decisions—anti-war, and anti-racism. This election cycle, their presidential candidate is Jill Stein, and the vice-presidential candidate is Butch Ware. Jill Stein has run in several previous elections as well, most notably in 2016, where many Democrats blamed her for drawing votes away from Hillary Clinton, potentially costing Clinton the election. The main issue the Green Party is focusing on this election cycle is the Israel-Palestine conflict, especially the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. If elected, Stein has promised to end U.S. aid to Israel. She is a vocal pro-Palestinian activist and supports a permanent ceasefire in the region, a U.S. arms embargo on Israel, and student movements to pressure universities to divest from weapons investments.
The Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) is a revolutionary socialist party. The party believes that only a revolution can end capitalism and establish a socialist government in the U.S. This government would administer the economy in the interests of the working class, fully replace the current criminal justice system, close all foreign military bases, guarantee separation of church and state, and enact policies similar to affirmative action to address discrimination against historically marginalized groups. The PSL believes that capitalism cannot be reformed and is inherently unsustainable, locking the world into climate change, oppression of the working class, and endless militarism and war due to the capitalist drive for profit and domination. The PSL’s candidates this election cycle are Claudia de la Cruz for president and Karina Garcia for vice president.
Aside from third parties, there are also independent candidates who do not identify with any party. Cornel West and his running mate Melina Abdullah are running independently. West is a well-known African American public intellectual, philosopher, theologian, and author. According to his campaign website, West is running independently to truly represent the people, in contrast to political parties that are “beholden to corporations and special interest groups who feel no solidarity with poor and working-class people of all races, gender identities, and age groups.” His platform emphasizes issues such as justice for children, Black mothers, women, LGBTQ+ people, individuals with disabilities, the working class, the elderly, and immigrants. He supports forgiving student loan debt, closing all foreign military bases, protecting unions, implementing ranked choice voting, demilitarizing the police and the southern border, reparations for Black Americans, ensuring access to gender-affirming care, streamlining legal pathways for immigrants, nationalizing healthcare, codifying abortion rights, restricting guns, ending funding to Israel, halting oil and gas projects, guaranteeing free tuition for higher education, enacting a wealth tax and $27 minimum wage, ensuring accessibility for the disabled, and implementing bias training for healthcare professionals, along with many other progressive policies.
There are certainly hundreds more of these third parties in the U.S., and even more candidates who choose to run independently. However, it’s important to point out that since America’s founding, not a single third party or independent candidate has won the presidency since George Washington. As a result, there has been significant debate over whether these candidates are even worth supporting, and if third parties or independents matter in American politics. Critics of third parties argue that because a third-party win is completely unrealistic, the only effect third parties have is to “spoil elections.” For instance, as mentioned earlier, Jill Stein’s presidential campaign may have taken votes from Hillary Clinton that could have changed the outcome of the 2016 election. Similarly, in 2000, when the race between Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore came down to a razor-thin margin, one likely reason that Gore lost Florida (and thus the election as a whole) by just a few hundred votes was the 97,000+ voters who cast their ballots for Green Party candidate Ralph Nader.
Personally, I believe that the concept of third parties is good, but under the current system, a win is not feasible. To make third parties a realistic option, there needs to be reform in how we vote. The solution I think is best is ranked choice voting, which allows voters to rank candidates based on preference. For example, Arnold could rank Chase Oliver as 1st on his ballot, Harris as 2nd, and Jill Stein as 3rd, and so on. Even if Chase Oliver couldn’t win, Arnold’s ballot would count for Harris, then Stein, and so on, eliminating the “spoiler” effect. This system has already been adopted by Maine and Alaska.
I’ve tried to cover all the most important issues this election and all the remaining candidates, but there’s a lot more to learn beyond the basic guide you’ve just read. I highly suggest reading more about each candidate by visiting their campaign websites or party platforms. Additionally, I believe actions speak louder than words. It’s helpful to look at the policies candidates have actually enacted before or previously supported, rather than just what they say they’ll do this time.
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