The 2024 presidential election is in full swing after a tumultuous campaign that culminated in former President Trump's spectacular return to politics.
Trump will be sworn in as president again in January, more than four years after the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot was widely considered to have ended his political career.
He will be the first president to serve non-consecutive terms since Grover Cleveland in the late 19th century.
Vice President Harris called President Trump on Wednesday to make concessions, and later that day addressed supporters of Demise from Howard University.
“I will concede this election, but I will not concede the fight that fueled this campaign,” she said.
After all the drama of election day, here are the big winners and losers.
winner
president-elect trump
While the clear winner, it's worth emphasizing that Trump has made an incredible comeback.
After two impeachments, one criminal conviction, three other criminal cases, and countless controversies, he will soon be sworn in as president again.
The former reality TV star, who was dismissed as a crass self-promoter when he announced his first presidential bid in 2015, has etched himself into the history books as a once-in-a-generation figure, for better or worse.
Many of his critics are concerned about the damage he will do to the public in a second term.
But it's a stunning victory by anyone's standards.
Vice President Vance
Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) received a lot of criticism early in his term as President Trump's running mate.
The senator's controversial comments in the past, an apparently ill-advised reference to a “childless cat lady,” were seen as a gift to the Harris campaign.
There was even speculation that Trump had made a mistake by listening to Vance's fans, including his eldest son Donald Trump Jr., in electing the Ohio senator.
However, as the campaign continued, the negative publicity surrounding Vance faded.
The 40-year-old is currently the vice president-elect and the obvious successor to Trump, 78, when he finishes his second term.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
The highly controversial Kennedy scion began his 2024 campaign as a Democratic challenger to Biden, went on to fight as an independent for voting access across the country, and ultimately backed Trump. and ended his campaign by attempting to remove his name from the all-important ballot.
Kennedy was sometimes ridiculed, and his idiosyncratic views on vaccination and public health were generally – quite – put under the microscope.
But as it turns out, Mr. Kennedy has significantly increased his profile and is now seen as very likely to serve in some senior role in the incoming Trump administration.
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro (Democrat)
Mr. Shapiro was one of the finalists to be Ms. Harris' running mate, but ultimately lost to Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (Democratic).
The decision was controversial at the time, with defenders of Harris' move highlighting Walz's appeal in the Midwest and Shapiro's comments about pro-Palestinian protests that could divide the Democratic base.
Either way, the outcome of the election will strengthen Mr. Shapiro in terms of his clear future ambitions.
The state is the largest and most important of the three “blue wall” states that President Trump destroyed in both 2016 and 2024.
Mr. Shapiro could be a candidate in 2028. Frankly, it doesn't matter that he's a man in a party that has lost two of the last three elections with female candidates.
Joe Rogan
The populist podcaster appeared in a three-hour interview with President Trump late in the campaign and ultimately endorsed the president-elect.
In contrast, his alleged efforts to bring Mr. Harris to an interview were in vain.
Some Democrats also thought Harris should have taken the chance to appear on Rogan's podcast, given her large audience.
In any case, Rogan's rise to prominence symbolized a shift away from traditional media to more independent voices.
loser
vice president harris
Tuesday's loss is devastating for Harris. She was hoping to win a race that polls showed was incredibly close.
Instead, she lost by a wide margin, becoming the only one of the three Democratic candidates who ran against Trump to lose the popular vote.
It's very hard to see where Harris goes from here. Back in 2020, her major campaigns weren't underwhelming. This year, Democrats swallowed doubts about her in their eagerness to remove Biden and decide on a new nominee without dividing the party.
But at a critical moment, her lack of solid political instincts became a problem.
She avoided the media for a while while finishing her nomination, but then gave a disappointing answer to a softball question on ABC's “The View,” saying there was “nothing” she would have done differently than Biden. It was suggested that there was no such thing.
One of the big unanswered questions is whether Harris has a future in presidential politics. She has a lot of detractors and it's hard to recover from such a huge loss.
But her Oval Office aspirations have been clear for years. She could still argue that the brevity of her campaign and the weight of Biden's mediocre approval ratings were more problematic than the mistakes she made, and that she deserves a second shot.
president biden
Last year couldn't have been worse for Biden.
His disastrous performance in a debate against Trump in late June sparked a weeks-long crisis that ultimately led to him bowing to pressure to withdraw his re-election bid.
It was a deeply painful moment for a president who feels he has been undervalued and, at times, disrespected.
However, the situation did not improve.
Biden's two gaffes in the final weeks of the campaign include one in which he suggested Trump should be locked up and another in which he appeared to call the former president's supporters “trash.” has become a thorny nuisance for the Harris camp.
Harris' loss will clearly be seen as a rebuke to Biden's record.
And Democrats, far from reconsidering his decision to withdraw from the race, are wondering whether they should have pulled out of the race sooner.
jack smith
Beyond Ms. Harris, Ms. Walz and Mr. Biden, the person most dissatisfied with Mr. Trump's victory may be Special Counsel Jack Smith.
Mr. Smith has been spearheading Mr. Trump's prosecution for alleged crimes centered on January 6 and classified documents discovered at Mar-a-Lago.
Once Trump becomes president, he will have the power to order the Department of Justice (DOJ) to drop both cases. This seems almost certain, considering he attacks the probe at almost every opportunity.
Multiple news outlets reported Wednesday that Smith and the Justice Department were preparing to scale back the charges.
This would be a painful outcome for Mr. Smith, who has had frustrating experiences with judges delaying cases in the past.
President Trump has also occasionally hinted at the possibility of revenge against Smith, saying late last month on a conservative radio show that “Jack Smith should be kicked out of the United States.''
ukraine
Trump's victory would almost certainly pose serious problems for Ukraine and its president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
The president-elect also makes no bones about the fact that he does not want U.S. aid to continue on the same scale as it has under the Biden administration. He has claimed he can end the war in one day, but some have interpreted this to mean he will end the war by forcing Zelensky to give up territory.
Add to that President Trump's unusually warm attitude toward Russian President Vladimir Putin, and it seems like a recipe for impending disaster in Kiev.
iowa poll
Ann Selzer has long been held up as the gold standard among Iowa pollsters.
That image was all the rage this year.
Selzer's final poll showed Harris leading Trump by 3 points among Iowa voters. Trump won by about 13 points.
Some of her colleagues initially praised Selzer for not dismissing the poll, which appeared to be an outlier even at the time of its release.
However, it's hard to see how her reputation will quickly recover from such a major failure.
