Donald Trump
Trump was the first candidate to formally announce a 2024 presidential run, launching his campaign in a November speech from Mar-a-Lago, his South Florida resort. Since then, Trump has spent little time on the campaign trail but has ramped up his travel in recent weeks with visits to Iowa and New Hampshire, the first two states on the GOP primary calendar.
Considered to be the early frontrunner for the GOP nomination, Trump delivered the keynote address at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on March 4 after winning its straw poll of attendees.
While Trump remains popularity within the GOP, his legal troubles loom large over his candidacy. In March, he became the first ex-president to be charged with a crime when Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg indicted him on charges related to a “hush money” payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels.
On May 9, Trump was found liable in a civil case brought by columnist E. Jean Carroll, who claimed Trump raped her in a department store fitting room in the 1990s and defamed her when she came forward several years ago. He also denied those allegations. The jury did not find that he raped Carroll, but did find that he sexually abused her, and ordered him to pay her roughly $5 million. The bar for finding someone liable in a civil case is lower than the burden of proof required to secure a criminal conviction, and does not count as a criminal record.
In addition to two Justice Department investigations led by special counsel Jack Smith — one into his handling of documents marked classified discovered at Mar-a-Lago, and the second into efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election — there is an ongoing probe from local prosecutors in Fulton County, Georgia.
Still, Trump told reporters at CPAC that an indictment would not deter him from seeking the presidency.
“I wouldn’t even think about leaving,” the former president said when asked whether he would stay in the race if charged.
Nikki Haley
Haley, the former governor of South Carolina and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under Trump, joined the race for the Republican presidential nomination in mid-February, becoming the first challenger to her former boss.
In her pitch to voters, Haley, 51, has characterized herself as part of a new generation of Republican leadership and proposed mandatory mental competency tests for politicians over the age of 75 — a subtle jab at Trump, who is 76, and Mr. Biden, who is 80.
The daughter of Indian immigrants, Haley was born in Bamberg, South Carolina, and served two terms as governor. She was the top U.S. diplomat at the United Nations during the Trump administration from January 2017 to December 2018.
Vivek Ramaswamy
Ramaswamy, a former biotech executive, is considered a longshot for the Republican nomination but is so far only the third Republican to jump into the race.
At 37 years old and with a net worth of roughly $600 million, Ramaswamy has declared himself an “anti-woke” capitalist and decried corporate investment based on environmental, social and governance principles.
Ramaswamy is a native of Cincinnati, Ohio, and has ties to Sen. J.D. Vance and major GOP donor Peter Thiel.
Larry Elder
Conservative talk radio host Larry Elder was a gubernatorial candidate during California’s 2021 recall effort. The recall effort failed and Gov. Gavin Newsom kept his post, but Elder received the most votes — nearly 3.6 million — out of a large field trying to replace Newsom.
Elder announced his bid for president last week on Fox News.
Asa Hutchinson
Hutchinson, the former governor of Arkansas, became the fourth Republican to announce a 2024 presidential bid when he said he was getting in the race on April 2.
Hutchinson, 72, served two terms as governor from 2015 to 2023. A former congressman, he was also one of the House impeachment managers for President Bill Clinton’s impeachment trial.
He has said he opposes Trump’s third attempt to win the White House, describing a possible Trump 2024 nomination as the “worst scenario.”
Tim Scott
Sen. Tim Scott, of South Carolina, ended speculation about his political future on May 19 after filing a statement of his candidacy with the Federal Election Commission. Scott formally launched his presidential campaign at an event in his hometown of North Charleston on May 22 and will head to Iowa and New Hampshire.
“We live in the land of opportunity. We live in the land where it is absolutely possible for a kid raised in poverty, in a single-parent household, in a small apartment to one day serve in the people’s House and maybe even the White House,” Scott said during his campaign announcement.
An adviser to Scott said his campaign has bought $5.5 million in ads that will air across the two early-voting states through the first Republican presidential debate.
Scott makes his White House bid official after launching an exploratory committee for a 2024 campaign in April, declaring in a video that he would “never back down in defense of the conservative values that make America exceptional. And that’s why I’m announcing my exploratory committee for president of the United States.”
He’s betting on the appeal of his upbeat vision for the country. “I see that America is starving for positive, optimistic leadership,” Scott told CBS News political correspondent Caitlin Huey-Burns after announcing the launch of this exploratory committee. “I want to provide that alternative not to any specific candidate, but for the American people.”
“The difference between me and others, I believe, is that my focus is on the fact that I used to be a kid who didn’t see a future,” Scott continued. “I used to be a kid that was angry about the cards that I was dealt. I was blessed by a mother who never surrendered. I was blessed by a mentor who always loved and supported my ideal self. And it’s because of those two individuals that I now have greater faith in the future for others. And I see my responsibility of sharing the good news of who we can be because we have been. If we can unite this country around the solutions, focusing more on those solutions than anything else, it’s my only path forward, and it’s the one I’ve chosen.”
In his interview with Huey-Burns, he also declined twice to commit to supporting Trump, if the former president wins the GOP nomination.
Scott, the only Black Republican senator, has been visiting early-voting states. He has hired former GOP Sen. Cory Gardner and a longtime GOP operative to lead his super PAC Opportunity Matters, according to Axios.
Ron DeSantis
DeSantis, the governor of Florida, filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission to run for president on May 24, hours before he formally launched his campaign in a live appearance on Twitter Spaces alongside the platform’s CEO, Elon Musk.
The conversation, though, was beset by technical issues that delayed the announcement from DeSantis. The governor’s team said the hiccups demonstrated his popularity, since he “literally busted up the internet.”
After the first Twitter Spaces event was abandoned and a second got underway, DeSantis laid out his agenda: tackling national crime rates, promoting energy independence and addressing immigration.
“To voters who are participating in this primary process, my pledge to you is this: If you nominate me you can set your clock to January 20, 2025 at high noon, because on the west side of the U.S. Capitol I will be taking the oath of office as the 47th president of the United States. No excuses. I will get the job done,” the governor said.
While he was widely expected to pursue a White House bid, with trips to New Hampshire and Iowa fueling that speculation, the FEC filing from DeSantis put to rest any lingering questions about his political ambitions.
The Florida governor is in his second term and is so far considered to be the chief rival to Trump. The former president leveled attacks against DeSantis even before the governor officially entered the 2024 race, and while DeSantis largely declined to push back, that is expected to change now that he is officially a presidential candidate.
During his time in Tallahassee, DeSantis has gained national recognition for his COVID-19 policies and embrace of the culture wars. DeSantis has also leaned into education issues, reshaping Florida’s public education policies and engaging in local school board races during the 2022 election cycle, and recently signed into law a ban on abortion after six weeks of pregnancy.
His efforts as governor have won him popularity with some Republican voters, though an April CBS News poll of likely GOP voters shows he still trails Trump in the primary.
DeSantis skipped CPAC this year and instead addressed donors at a retreat hosted by the conservative Club for Growth.
