3 political winners for 2024

The end of the year is a natural time to look back on the previous 12 months, and 2024 was one for the political record books. Having been left for dead politically and survived multiple actual assassination attempts, President-elect Trump completed an unthinkable comeback. He stands on the precipice of re-assuming the presidency in a manner few could have envisioned four years ago. 

While the president-elect is 2024’s obvious winner, he is not the only one. Here are three others.

JD Vance

The "Hillbilly Elegy" author started the year as a freshman senator from Ohio and ends it as the clear frontrunner for the 2028 presidential nomination. 

Former President Trump's family joins him onstage as balloons fall after his speech at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, July 18, 2024. (Reuters/Brian Snyder)

Of course, a lot can happen in four years, and serving as second-in-command to Trump can be unpredictable (just ask Mike Pence), but there’s no doubt that the Buckeye State senator’s stock has soared. 

DE FACTO PRESIDENT TRUMP'S HANDLING OF SHUTDOWN THREAT WAS A MASTERCLASS

Along the way, Vance demonstrated his political nimbleness and acumen. He overcame his past criticism of Trump to win the coveted veepstakes against a field of formidable opponents. He put to rest lingering questions about his one and only run for Senate in which he ran behind the rest of the ticket in ruby red Ohio.

Vance’s steady, warm and likable presence in the vice-presidential debate, which came on the heels of Trump’s choppy performance against Vice President Kamala Harris, helped give undecided voters the permission structure to pull the lever for the GOP ticket.

President-elect Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance attend the 125th Army-Navy football game at Northwest Stadium on Dec. 14, 2024, in Landover, Maryland. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

At only 40 years old and fluent in the language of the modern GOP, Vance is in the catbird seat for the foreseeable future. 

STUNNING NEW DATA SHOWS VOTERS WERE RIGHT TO QUESTION BIDEN-HARRIS JOB NUMBERS

Dave McCormick

In 2022, McCormick came up a whisker short in the Republican primary for Pennsylvania’s U.S. Senate race. Of more than 1.3 million votes cast in the primary, McCormick was a mere 951 votes behind Dr. Mehmet Oz, who went on to lose to John Fetterman in the general.

Fast-forward two years, McCormick is now the senator-elect from the Keystone State. He didn’t just win a Senate seat and pad the Republican majority. By ousting Democratic Sen. Bob Casey, he ended a political dynasty that stretched back to the 1960s to the outgoing senator’s father, who served as governor and state auditor.

TRUMP'S APPROVAL RATINGS HAVE NEVER BEEN HIGHER

In his campaign, McCormick led the charge against the Democratic opposition to fracking, a process involved in Pennsylvania’s thriving natural gas industry, that became headaches for Democrats everywhere. By Election Day, both Casey and Harris had been forced to renounce their previous opposition to fracking, which just a few years prior had been a rallying cry from Democrats everywhere as part of their extreme and misguided green agenda.

With the oil and gas industry supporting nearly half a million Pennsylvania jobs, Casey’s election year conversion was undermined by his 17-year voting record, but McCormick deserves credit for taking the fight to the incumbent. 

Similar to 2016 and 2020, Pennsylvania was the lynchpin battleground state at the presidential level. With its 19 electoral votes, the commonwealth is poised to remain at the center of the action in the years ahead.

Republican Senate candidate Dave McCormick speaks during a campaign event at restaurant in Pennsylvania. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

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Common Sense & Political Gravity 

During the Biden presidency, voters were routinely told not to believe their lying eyes. Prices weren’t that high, and inflation was transitory. The border was secure and President Biden’s stamina could compete with "anyone, on any day of the week." Managing to deliver a State of the Union address without falling on his face was held up as an example of Biden’s ability to serve in the most powerful job in the world for another four years.

Then came the jaw-dropping June debate in Atlanta when the façade ended. On the bright lights of the debate stage and away from his handlers, the country saw a diminished commander in chief seemingly unable to deliver a coherent sentence. 

The president tried his best to hold on, but by the next month, even his fellow Democrats had seen enough. Biden was gone from the race, but questions remained about those who orchestrated the cover-up, not just among his staff but the White House press corps responsible for holding the president accountable.

President Biden faced intense calls for him to step aside following a disastrous debate performance. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)

Fittingly, 2024 ends with Annie Linskey and her colleagues at the Wall Street Journal who sounded the alarm on Biden’s condition with their June story headlined "Behind Closed Doors, Biden Shows Signs of Slipping," publishing a jaw-dropping follow-up expose, titled, "How the White House Functioned With a Diminished Biden in Charge." Unlike the June story, which was attacked by Democratic partisans like "Morning Joe" as "false and biased" and by the White House as an "utter editorial fail," the latest installment was greeted with resignation that Biden still has another month at the helm.

Just as the year 2024 will be studied by political science classes for years to come, these three winners are poised to remain major players well into the future.

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Colin Reed is a Republican strategist, former campaign manager for Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown and co-founder of South and Hill Strategies.