Up2date: The U.S. Presidential Elections
Last updated: Thursday November 7th, 2024
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The U.S. Elections
In this blog, you´ll find out all about the how the next president will be elected.
Who Are the Candidates – and With Which Program?
Donald Trump (Republican Party)
Donald Trump was president of the USA, 2017 - 2021. Then he lost against Joe Biden. Now he wants try being president again - with the following program:
- Immigration
He announced that he would order the largest mass deportation of undocumented migrants in US history on day one at the White House. He also wants to complete the build of the Wall on the border to Mexico and increase enforcements.
- Inflation
He promised to "end inflation and make America affordable again" and said that more drilling for oil will lower energy costs. He also wants to deliver interest rates (a president can´t influence it) and the deportation of migrants will lower the pressure on the housing market, according to him.
- Taxes
Trump wants to cut several taxes worth trillions, including an extention from 2017 which mostly helped wealthy people. He wants to finance this with economical growth and tariffs on imports. THis includes high taxes on imports from China.
- Abortion
Trump didn´t make a clear message to this topic. He positions himself against a national prohibition and wants to leave the decision to the US-States.
- Foreign policy
He has an isolationist policy and don´t want to act in other conflicts. This includes the war in the Ukraine which he wants to end and he don´t want to deliver weapons to them.
In Gaza, he positioned pro-Israel, but didn´t say how he would end the war.
He also wants that the NATO-allies should pay for their defence and he would not help them if they wouldn´t pay enough.
- Climate
The climate doesn´t play a big role for Trump and he wants to promote fossil energies and arctic drllings.
Kamala Harris (Democratic Party)
Kamala Harris is the Vice-President from the US since 2021. After Joe Biden gave up his candidacy for re-election, she is the new presidential candidate for the Democratic Party. Her program is the following:
- ImmigrationTogether with Biden, Harris tried to push through a bipartisan compromise to tighten immigration law, which would have included stricter asylum regulations, more border guards and funding to expand the barriers on the border with Mexico. For electoral reasons, the plan ultimately failed due to opposition from the Republicans. If Harris is elected, she said she´ll try to initiate the law again.
- Inflation
Harris said that her day-one priority would be to reduce the costs for food and housing costs for working families. She promises to stop unfair price increases on groceries, help people buying a home for the first time, build more housing, and raise the minimum wage.
- Taxes
Harris wants to increase taxes on large businesses and Americans earning $400,000 (£305,000) a year. However, she has also introduced several measures to reduce the tax burden on families, including expanding child tax credits. She disagrees with Biden on capital gains tax, supporting a smaller increase from 23.6% to 28%, while he proposes raising it to 44.6%.
- Abortion
Abortion is one of the central topics in Harris' election campaign. She wants to make it legal.
- Foreign policy
For Harris, working together with NATO-allies is very important. She proposed to support the Ukraine "as long as it takes" and is in favour of a two-state solution in Palestine/Israel.
- Climate
As Vice President of the United States, she supported the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which includes measures to promote clean energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. While she hasn't released a detailed climate plan for her current campaign, she has emphasized that climate change is one of the greatest existential threats of our time.
How Is the President Elected?
Voters do not directly choose the president, but rather elect electors who then vote for the president in the Electoral College. While the names of candidates like Harris and Trump appear on the ballot, the votes are assigned to the electors of the Democratic or Republican parties. Each state sends a number of electors based on its population, totaling 538 electors. To become an elector, parties select individuals, often recognizing their contributions to the party. California has the most electors with 54, while smaller states like Vermont, Wyoming, or Alaska have only three. A candidate needs at least 270 electoral votes to win. The election follows a winner-takes-all system, where the candidate with the most votes in a state wins all its electoral votes, except in Nebraska and Maine, which split their votes. Electors meet on the Tuesday after the second Wednesday in December (this year, December 17), and their votes are sent to Washington, where Congress counts them in January. The candidate who reaches 270 votes wins.
What Are the Swing States?
In most of the US-States, one party wins traditionally. For example, since years California votes for Democrats, in Texas they vote for Republicans.
In the Swing States, the winner can not be predicted. For this reason, these states are particularly contested. The campaigns of both candidates are focussing on the swing states - because these are decisive for who gets over the threshold of 270 votes in the Electoral College and moves into the White House.
The Swing States are marked in yellow (with the numbers of electors in brackets in the description):
The Result
Trump is elected as the 47. President of the United States.
This blog should give you a short overview of how the U.S. President is elected. I hope you liked it, if so, please press the like button and subscribe.
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Expected
- I will bring out a blog about how the election is seen in other countries like UK or Germany.
- There will probably be also a blog about what happens if Trump/Harris wins.
- Also a blog with all current events is expected.
I will work on that tomorrow and can‘t promise anything.