Great Power Trivia Quiz

Answer:

When the 2024 US election campaign began, most political commentators and the general public expected it to proceed on predictable lines with the incumbent President Joe Biden and likely Republican nominee Donald Trump facing off at the ballot once again after 2020. What followed was anything but predictable.

Despite Trump's significant ground support and the polls predicting he would clinch the Republican nomination comfortably, there were a number of other contenders who threw their hat in the ring. Prior to the campaign, Florida governor Ron DeSantis was expected to be formidable competition to Trump. In the end, he barely made a dent in Trump's voting numbers. Former South Carolina governor and US ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley put up a spirited fight in a bid to become the first female Republican nominee for president, before ultimately pulling out after trailing Trump significantly in the early states. Chris Christie and Vivek Ramaswamy also tried but didn't even garner as much support as DeSantis and Haley. Unsurprisingly, Trump had no trouble gaining the Republican nomination.

The Democratic nomination went the complete opposite direction. With Joe Biden being adamant about running for a second term, none of the Democratic heavyweights contested the nomination. Biden's age and possible health issues were raised in the media but the party aligned to support him. However, the concerns continued to grow. After a disastrous performance against Trump at the first debate in late June 2024 and increasing pressure from party leaders and donors, Biden ended up reluctantly withdrawing from the race in late July 2024. This did not leave much time for the Democrats to go through a regular nomination process and they decided to rally around the sitting vice president, Kamala Harris, as their nominee.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. initially claimed he would contest as an independent. He later reached an agreement with Trump and withdrew his nomination, instead endorsing Trump for the presidency. Jill Stein contested for the Greens and Chase Oliver for the Libertarians.

The election was widely predicted to be a close call between Trump and Harris. In the end, this turned out to be incorrect. Trump comfortably won both the electoral college and the popular vote making him only the second US president to serve two non-consecutive terms, after Grover Cleveland.