With the LeSabre staff leaving for summer break in a matter of weeks, our coverage will be on hold until September. By that time, the 2024 election will be in full swing in the final lead-up to the fateful Tuesday in November. For this reason, our election coverage begins in May, with an ‘Early preview of the 2024 presidential election.’ 

Donald Trump had no problem dispatching challenger Nikki Haley in the Republican primaries. Now both Trump and Joe Biden have turned their attention to each other and the looming rematch of the 2020 election. 

Both candidates’ respective campaign ads show what their campaigns are focused on. The Biden campaign has recently released ads showing Biden as a charismatic candidate, even while admitting he is not young. Other ads focus on women’s reproductive rights, support of the workforce, and his accomplishments through one term in office. Biden isn’t afraid to attack his predecessor in these ads, noting the former president’s personality and policy. 

In the same regard, the Trump campaign has published ads attacking the age and policy of Joe Biden. While Trump ads are much more challenging to find in one spot, their campaign will center around increased immigration restrictions, economics, and pro-life policy. 

A new challenge facing the Biden campaign centers around the Israel-Hamas war. Pro-Palestine protests have recently become common around college campuses across the country. Biden has felt pressure from both sides of the aisle, which has put him into a bind with some demanding peace, while others are concerned about the protests causing civil unrest, especially in regard to education on college campuses.

Meanwhile, Trump and his team are navigating through the 91 felony counts he faces in multiple courts. The long-term effects of this are still up in the air, but at the very least it has taken time and resources away from campaigning. The Supreme Court ruled unanimously in March that states could not remove Trump from the ballot on the grounds of insurrection in the 14th Amendment; his status on the ballot is no longer in question, but it would certainly be unprecedented to have someone running for office from behind bars.

As seen in the interactive image above, Trump currently leads the polling averages in each of the eight states with the closest margins in 2020. Within this subset, Biden is within three percent in four of the five states he won in 2020. Trump leads in Nevada by nearly five percent, a state that was blue in both 2016 and 2020.

Polling numbers at this stage of the election are to be taken with a grain of salt, as many factors can change in the next six months, but the numbers show Trump has the advantage as it stands.