Americans will vote over the next five months to choose a Republican candidate for the November 2024 presidential election, selecting between party top dog Donald Trump and an array of distant underdogs.
The former US president leads the chasing pack by at least 50 percentage points and is unlikely to be toppled, save a major shakeup — like criminal conviction that rocks public opinion or removal from multiple state ballots.
In the event of a fumble, here are the candidates hoping to pick up the ball and run:
Nikki Haley
Former UN ambassador Nikki Haley’s primary campaign has been marked by forward momentum, but she still trails dozens of percentage points (11.0 to 62.7) behind Trump, according to the latest polling average from RealClearPolitics.
The 51-year-old has taken a more moderate stance on hot button issues like abortion, wooing centrist voters while shying from an enthusiastic embrace of the culture wars — unlike some of her competitors.
Haley, the only woman in the race, has spoken proudly of her time in the Trump administration as UN ambassador, but has also criticized her former boss’s post-election crusade to relitigate debunked claims of voter fraud that he falsely alleges cost him the 2020 election.
In recent months, the former South Carolina governor has notched a sharp uptick in polling, particularly in early voting states where primary candidates are sometimes able to break out from the pack.
Haley, who is the child of Indian immigrants, has also attracted growing endorsements and funding from US entrepreneurs and business leaders in particular.
She now polls neck and neck for second place in the Republican primaries with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
Were Haley able to make it to the general election, however, polling indicates she would beat Democratic incumbent Joe Biden more easily than any other Republican, including Trump.
Ron DeSantis
DeSantis was once seen as a rising star of the right, but the Florida governor’s campaign has failed to gain traction and he now polls just a hair below Haley (at 10.9 to 11.0 percent) according to polling averages.
Doubling down on Trump’s populist “America First” agenda, the hardline Republican built his campaign on combatting “woke” indoctrination in public institutions and taking a hard line on immigration.
The 45-year-old former US Navy officer was narrowly elected to lead the Sunshine State in 2018 after securing an endorsement from Trump, whose ideas he shares — if not the propensity for scandal.
DeSantis aimed his campaign at wooing the ex-leader’s base, a population whose loyalty to the former president has remained firmly entrenched.
At times appearing stiff on the campaign trail and debate stage, including while engaging in small talk with voters and when forcing a smile, DeSantis has cemented his status as the season’s most awkward campaigner.
Vivek Ramaswamy
Fast-talking newcomer Vivek Ramaswamy emerged from the first Republican debate as the most talked about candidate, hoping his provocative rhetoric would propel him all the way to the White House — an unlikely feat given his polling at 4.3 percent according to the RealClearPolitics average.
The 38-year-old entrepreneur hasn’t made any friends among his more experienced rivals, declaring at the event in Milwaukee that he was “the only person on stage who is not bought and paid for.”
Ramaswamy calls environmental activism a “religious cult,” has claimed the “truth about 9/11” is still unknown and often denies having said things that he is on the record as having said.
A political novice, he likes to think of himself as Trump 2.0.
Chris Christie
Former New Jersey governor Chris Christie has been Trump’s loudest critic by far — but he is languishing at around 3.3 percent in primary polling averages.
Despite calls from some quarters to get out of the race (neither he nor Ramaswamy has made the cut for the next Republican debate on January 10), Christie has refused to bow out.
“There is no leader of the anti-Trump wing of the party in this race other than me,” the 61-year-old told The Washington Post in late December.
In a 60-second ad out Thursday, Christie called his endorsement of Trump in the 2016 election “a mistake,” adding that the ex-leader would “sell the soul of this country.”
A veteran politician, Christie was governor of New Jersey from 2010 to 2018, gaining prominence as a moderate voice before running a failed first bid for president in 2016.
