President

Donald Trump

Republican Donald Trump is running for president after serving as the 45th president of the U.S. His main platforms include closing the border, extending tax cuts for workers and ending inflation, according to his website. 

As president, Trump implemented tax cuts, particularly corporate income tax, and began funding a border wall for the U.S.-Mexico border. He also is the only U.S. president to have been impeached twice and was acquitted in both cases. Trump ran for reelection in 2020 but lost to President Joe Biden.

“President Trump’s vision for America’s economic revival is lower taxes, bigger paychecks, and more jobs for American workers,” according to his campaign website. 

Kamala Harris

Kamala Harris, the 49th vice president of the U.S., is the Democratic nominee for the election — after President Joe Biden withdrew from the race in July. She is the first woman, Black person or Asian American to serve as vice president. 

Some of her main platforms include cutting taxes for middle class families, strengthening medicare, supporting abortion rights and changing the country’s immigration system. Her plans for a new immigration system include stronger border security and creating a pathway to citizenship, according to her website. When Harris visited Greensboro in September, she said during the event she would focus on expanding abortion access and decreasing North Carolinians' cost of living. 

“That is my pledge to you,” Harris said during the event. “I will always put country above party.”

Jill Stein

Green Party candidate Jill Stein previously ran for president in 2012 and 2016. In 2016, Stein typically received between 1% and 5% support in national polls, according to Ballotpedia.

Her main platforms are people, planet and peace. She is campaigning on ending discrimination of groups such as women, people of color, immigrants and people in the LGBTQ+ communities. She also is in support of a Green New Deal, which includes investments in green jobs, industries and technology.

Cornel West

Cornel West is running as an independent candidate, after previously announcing he was looking to seek the Green Party nomination, and before that he announced his candidacy as a People’s Party candidate. West is the Dietrich Bonhoeffer professor of philosophy and Christian practice at Union Theological Seminary. 

His campaign is working to empower poor and working people, according to his website. West will be on the ballot in 23 states. 

Randall Terry

Randall Terry is a member of the Constitution Party but ran in the Democratic Party presidential primaries in 2012. Terry is on the ballot in 13 states, including North Carolina. 

He founded Operation Rescue, an anti-abortion organization, which has been known for blocking entrances to abortion clinics.

Chase Oliver

Libertarian Chase Oliver is running for president. Oliver was born in Nashville, Tennessee, but currently lives in Atlanta, Georgia. Oliver joined the Libertarian Party in 2010. Oliver previously ran for Congress in Georgia’s 5th District in 2020 and for the U.S. Senate in 2022. 

According to his policy platform on his campaign website, he supports easier access to work visas for immigrants, is pro Second Amendment, a staunch anti war advocate and advocates for the abolition of the Department of Education. He is present on the ballots of 47 states — outnumbering any other third party candidate — and will be a write-in candidate for the remaining three.