The heat wave was not the only event increasing temperatures across the country this year. As the election geared up after the result of the primaries, candidates on both sides of the party continued their campaigns and established their political and economic policies, with news of upcoming circumstances affecting the trajectory of the race almost every week.
The summer’s political environment crept towards a boiling point during the June debate with President and former Democratic nominee for re-election Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.
According to CNN, on June 27, the two convened for what would be their first debate of the 2024 election season, after being in hibernation from the debate stage since 2020. However, according to Politico, rather than using the debate as an outlet for sharing the differences between their policies to voters–as typical debates go–the two instead focused less on policy, and rather on points ranging from Biden’s son to Trump’s countless felony charges.
Although these may be circumstances to consider when choosing a candidate to elect, much of the debate lacked emphasis on their goals and visions for the country and instead focused more on making personal attacks to undermine one another.
The political pot finally overflowed after continuous heating just over two weeks later though. According to CNN, on July 13 during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, Trump came just inches away–quite literally–from a complete withdrawal from the race during an assassination attempt. The result was a grazed ear with a photo finish.
After quickly kneeling down to avoid the shooter, Trump stood back up and raised his fist to the crowd. Trump’s response inspired many of his voters and even some critics who saw in his reaction resilience and courage. This stood in stark contrast to Biden for many Americans who see in the president an overall weaker demeanor, an issue that has heavily weighed on voters’ minds. Although the shooting caused minimal damge – just a grazed ear – a member of the crowd died and two were seriously injured.
Up until mid-July of this summer, Democrats continued to endorse Joe Biden–wholeheartedly or not–whose health was continuing to decline and was more than apparent to voters and his advisors. For this reason, the election from the Democratic point of view could have been described as an obligation to their party to keep their support alive despite each representative’s personal feelings. According to The Hill, only about one third of Democrats were satisfied with President Biden as their party’s nominee.
Rather than giving the country a sense of hope and optimism for the future, a gloomy blanket fell over the election revealing the reality that, according to the Pew Research Center, although the two candidates’ policies were largely different, they were both similar in the way that they were two of the oldest candidates running for president,white, male, and both had high disapproval ratings.
Their identities are nothing new to anyone who has opened up an American history textbook, but if anything, the country was used to it – and they finally got refreshment shortly after Trump’s assassination attempt.
On July 21, President Biden dropped out of the 2024 election, handing the Democratic nominee torch to the vice president, Kamala Harris. After months of deliberation, Biden declared that he would not be continuing his campaign, noting that, “I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down”.
The month of August came in hot once again after things just started cooling down with Biden out of the race, because within 24 hours of Harris rising to the top of the ticket, she raked in $81 million dollars in campaign donations, according to the New York Times.
If Americans needed to see the sun peeking through the horizon after what felt like a lifetime of dark nights, they got it. Donors that once paused their donations after Biden’s disastrous debate performance in June were eager to contribute, and roughly 60% of the donors within those first 24 hours were first-time contributors to the campaign.
With Harris becoming the new face of the race, sights have been set on gaining passion and enthusiasm from supporters, which Democrats have been successful in doing, evident by their polling numbers and campaign donations.
According to FiveThirtyEight, Harris is up +3.4 above Trump as of late August. This number comes right off the heels of the DNC, an event that overall, sparked enthusiasm for Democrats and left-leaning voters across the country.
The DNC, held in Chicago, Illinois, was essentially a celebration of Harris before the final stretch of road to November. Most notably, on Thursday, August 22, Harris officially accepted the Democratic nomination for president.
The atmosphere of the DNC was filled with lively, passionate crowds ranging from delegates to honorary guests to state representatives. Speeches from various famous supporters took place throughout the week of the convention such as Oprah Winfrey, Bill Clinton, Pete Buttigieg, the Obamas, Harris, and her running mate Tim Walz. In every corner of the stadium audience members could be seen cheering, crying, and deeply resonating with the speakers.
One attendee who requested to stay anonymous noted, “It’s so different to watch it on screen, versus when you’re actually there amongst the crowd.” She continued saying, “The atmosphere was filled with excitement and a genuine sense of hope for the country.”