Five GOP Candidates Who Could Take Part in 2024 White House Race
© AFP 2023 / MANDEL NGAN
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On November 5, 2024, America will vote in its 60th presidential election. The winner of the 2024 race will be sworn into office on January 20, 2025.
Irrespective of whether Donald Trump would announce later on Tuesday his desire to run for the presidency in 2024 or not, other possible presidential candidates will most likely remain unabated by the ex-POTUS’ announcement. Here’s a top-five list of the contenders.
Donald Trump
Last week, the 45th US president said that he was “going to be making a very big announcement on Tuesday, November 15 at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida.”
President Donald Trump looks at his phone during a roundtable with governors on the reopening of America's small businesses, in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, June 18, 2020
© AP Photo / Alex Brandon
This immediately prompted speculation that the ex-POTUS would signal a readiness to take part in the 2024 US presidential race. Rumors, however, are currently rife that Trump advisors have asked him to delay the November 15 appearance, not least due to some key losses by Republicans in the 8 November midterm elections.
One of the advisors, Jason Miller, reportedly said that it’s unlikely Trump would U-turn on his expected presidential announcement because “it’s too humiliating to delay.” On the other hand, the advisor made it clear that “there are too many unknowns at this point."
Trump had repeatedly decried results of the November 2020 vote, describing it as the most corrupt elections in US history.
Ron DeSantis
Many perceive Florida's Governor Ron DeSantis as the most likely contender to challenge Trump as the Republican candidate to run for president in 2024.
FILE - Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis addresses attendees during the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit, Friday, July 22, 2022, in Tampa, Fla.
© AP Photo / Phelan M. Ebenhack
Last Tuesday’s midterm elections saw the 44-year-old win a landslide victory for a second term as the governor of Florida. DeSantis upset his Democratic rival Charlie Crist 59 to 40, the widest margin in a Florida gubernatorial race since Jeb Bush won by almost 13 points in 2002.
“Now thanks to the overwhelming support of the people of Florida, we not only won the election, we have rewritten the political map. Thank you for honoring us for a win for the ages,” the Florida governor said in his address last week.
Trump, for his part, warned DeSantis against running for 2024 presidency, arguing that doing so would harm the Republican Party.
“I don't know if he is running. I think if he runs, he could hurt himself very badly. I really believe he could hurt himself badly," I don't think it would be good for the party”, the ex-POTUS told a UK news outlet last week. DeSantis has repeatedly been tight-lipped about his potential presidential run.
Glenn Youngkin
Like the Florida governor, his Virginia colleague Glenn Youngkin declines to clarify whether he would make a 2024 White House bid despite the fact that his national profile is currently on the rise.
Glenn Youngkin gestures after he was sworn in as Virginia's 74th governor during an inauguration ceremony, Saturday, Jan. 15, 2022
© AP Photo / Julio Cortez
“I am so focused right now on being the best governor in Virginia that I can possibly be. We’ve got a lot to do. There’s real challenges. We’ve made huge progress, real challenges”, the 55year-old said when asked by a reporter from a US broadcaster about his presidential aspirations.
Youngkin rose to fame last year, when he got the better of Democrat Terry McAuliffe, campaigning on issues like parents’ role in education and reduction of taxes. Notably, Youngkin became the governor of the state that Joe Biden had carried by 10 points in the 2020 presidential election.
Ted Cruz
Last month, a US media outlet reported that Texas Senator Ted Cruz hasn't ruled out launching a 2024 presidential campaign, and even if Trump announces, Cruz will also run.
US Senator Ted Cruz, a Republican from Texas, speaks during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on "Review of the FY2023 State Department Budget Request," in Washington, DC, on April 26, 2022
© AFP 2023 / AL DRAGO
According to another US news outlet, the 51-year-old earlier unofficially campaigned in New Hampshire, where he interacted with the crowd and posed for pictures while headlining a rally for Karoline Leavitt, the Republican candidate for New Hampshire's first Congressional district.
During the 2016 primary campaign, Cruz who now has a high national profile, declined to endorse Trump at that year’s Republican National Conventions, something that did not tarnish ties between the two.
Earlier this month, however, the 51-year-old complained about Trump not spending enough to support GOP candidates in the midterm elections.
“I wish Trump was spending some of his money. Trump’s got $100 million and he’s spending almost none of it to support these candidates,” Cruz noted on his podcast at the time.
Mike Pompeo
Unlike DeSantis and Youngkin, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, 58, seems to be more transparent when it comes to a drive to mount a 2024 presidential bid.
Former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks at a press conference of the Republican Study Group to introduce their Maximum Pressure Act against Iran at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on April 21, 2021
© AFP 2023 / NICHOLAS KAMM
Speaking at an event in Chicago in September, Pompeo referred to “a team in Iowa, a team in New Hampshire, and South Carolina.”
“And that’s not random. We are doing the things one would do to get ready. We are trying to figure out if that is the next place for us to serve,” he said, in an apparent nod to the White House.
US media note in this vein that although Pompeo’s tenure under Trump as secretary of state gives the 58-year-old “some gravitas and authority”, doubts remain “whether he has the charisma to go all the way — or whether there is a significant pro-Pompeo camp anywhere in the GOP.”
