As Presidential election season is creeping upon us, starry-eyed candidates who wish to sit in the Oval Office are announcing their bid. Perhaps another showdown with former President Donald Trump will be Americans’ decision in 2024.

What’s interesting is that this time around, both Biden and Trump will each have taken a turn being President. The opportunity to be a two-consecutive-term president was lost to Trump in 2020, as he only received 232 electoral votes compared to Biden’s 306. Additionally, Trump lost the popular vote, garnering 71,223,975 votes compared to Biden’s 81,283,501. But that didn’t stop Trump from claiming victory on the basis that election results were illegitimate. Inevitably, this led to the Jan. 6 attack, where 2,000 of his supporters stormed into the United States Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.

According to a Quinnipiac poll in December of 2020, 77 percent of Republicans believed that widespread voter fraud occurred in the 2020 election, and 34 percent felt Biden’s victory was illegitimate. As the two potentially face off in another head-to-head race three years later, Republican voters may bring these sentiments to the polls once more.

But Trump isn’t the only confirmed Republican running for President, and Biden isn’t the only confirmed Democrat. Former Republican Governor of South Carolina, Nikki Haley, launched her campaign in February, calling on Americans to put their faith in a “new generation” of political leaders. Technically, she would be running against her former boss for the Republican nomination, as she was President Trump’s U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. 

Funnily enough, another one of Trump’s ex-employees is running against him as well. Trump’s former U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton, who was actually fired in 2019 over differences about foreign policy, will be competing with him for the Republican nomination.

While Bolton refused to testify in Trump’s impeachment hearings, he did write a tell-all memoir about his time in the White House, “The Room Where It Happened”. Trump’s lawyers actually filed a lawsuit in an attempt to delay publishing or prevent Bolton from receiving any profits from book sales. The two have publicly feuded multiple times, with Bolton claiming that Trump “barely knew where Ukraine was” and expressed that Trump was not tough enough on Russia while he was President. It’s unclear whether Bolton is a disgruntled ex-employee jousting for a win against his former boss or a man who actually desires to be President.

Vivek Ramaswamy, a businessman from Ohio is also contesting for the Republican seat. The New Yorker has dubbed him the “CEO of Anti-Woke Inc” due to his best-selling memoir “Woke Inc.: Inside Corporate America’s Social Justice Scam”. Ramaswamy is the founder of the biopharmaceutical company Roivant Sciences and the co-founder of Strive Asset Management. In office, he wishes to eradicate affirmative action, cement political expression as a civil right and impose government-level punishment on private entities for censoring free speech. Apparently, he wakes up at 5:30 a.m. to play tennis.

The only confirmed politician to be running against Biden for the Democratic nomination is Marianne Williamson. A best-selling author of 14 books and spiritual advisor to Oprah, Williamson pulled out of the 2020 race after failing to garner substantial primary support (and endorsed Bernie Sanders). One of her key campaign proposals is to create a U.S. Department of Peace. She has also advocated that significant financial reparations for Black Americans should be paid for by the federal government because of slavery and discrimination.

But a pervasive worry tugs on the minds of many Americans as to how stable the political future of this country will be if there is another Biden vs. Trump showdown. As it stands, the country is already deeply divided along partisan lines. If Trump believes the 2024 election results are also illegitimate, perhaps another attack on the capitol building may ensue. Some believe the 2024 election foreshadows a political civil war that will erupt by next year. Either way, a second Biden-Trump face-off is a shadow that looms over the country.

There are a few other Democrats rumored to be launching a campaign, such as former Georgia House Representative Stacey Abrams, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, mayor of South Bend, Indiana Pete Buttigieg (again), Senator Amy Klobuchar (again), Senator Elizabeth Warren (again), California Governor Gavin Newsom, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Illinois Governor J.B Pritzker and Vice President Kamala Harris. None of their candidacies have been confirmed as of yet. 

Republicans rumored to be running are Wyoming House Representative Liz Cheney, Senator Josh Hawley, Senator Rick Scott, Senator Tim Scott, Senator Ted Cruz (again), Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu, Virginia Governor Glen Youngkin, Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former Vice President Mike Pence.

So Bucknellians, who’s got your vote for President?