With less than 100 days until Election Day on Nov. 5, the 2024 election cycle has been turned upside down following President Joe Biden‘s announcement last week that he will no longer seek reelection.
The claws are already out for Vice President Kamala Harris, the new presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, as Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump attacked her as “radical” and “evil.”
Presidential contest aside, there are also 435 races for the House of Representatives and 34 Senate contests, not to mention 11 gubernatorial races, thousands of state legislative contests and several ballot initiatives.
There’s a lot to track, but thankfully, theGrio has curated a cheat sheet for you. Here’s a breakdown of what Black voters should know about the 2024 election with only three months left to go.
1. All eyes on Kamala
Since emerging as the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee following Biden’s decision to drop out of the race, Kamala Harris has been shattering records and building a lot of momentum. According to the newly configured Harris for President campaign, the vice president has raised more than $200 million from a majority of first-time donors, secured nearly every major Democratic nomination (including from Barack and Michelle Obama), and garnered more than 170,000 new campaign volunteers.
Harris’ support is evidenced by organic grassroots fundraisers, raising millions of dollars from groups like “Win With Black Women” and virtual calls like “Black Men for Harris” and “White Women: Answer the Call.”
Harris, who has centered her campaign on themes of “freedom” and moving the country forward and not backward, is already seeing positive signs in public polling. While national surveys put her in a dead heat against Trump, she is performing better than Biden, who consistently trailed Trump. Harris is also performing better among voters of color and young voters. A recent ABC News/Ipsos poll found that Harris’ favorability rating has increased, particularly among crucial independent voters.
“From record-breaking fundraising to unprecedented crowds and volunteers pouring into field offices across the battlegrounds, Team Harris is fired up to elect the vice president and defeat the extremist Trump-Vance ticket,” said Michael Tyler, director of communications for Harris for President. “The momentum and energy for Vice President Harris is real – and so are the fundamentals of this race.”
2. Harris’ running mate
Anticipation is also building for who Harris will select as her vice presidential running mate. Reports indicate that top contenders include Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona, and Minnesota Gov. Tom Walz. Other names in the hat include North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
Given that she just launched her presidential campaign, Harris has an unusually short ramp to make a decision. It is expected to be by Aug. 7, when the party plans to nominate the Democratic ticket virtually to ensure ballot access.
Democratic strategist Ameshia Cross noted that there are two main ingredients for picking a running mate: someone who can improve the nominee’s chances in battleground states and someone who understands the role of the vice president and has chemistry with Harris.
“This will be the most consequential vice presidential choice in U.S. history,” Cross told theGrio. “Time and time again, they say the vice president doesn’t matter. I would argue that that narrative has been completely flipped on its head.”
Her top two picks for Harris’ running mate are Shapiro and Beshear.
3. Historic moment for Black women
In addition to Harris, who would make history as the first woman and first Black woman president of the United States, two Black women are poised to make history, as they are top contenders for Senate seats in states that have never had a Black U.S. senator.
Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester is the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Delaware. A close ally to President Biden, Blunt Rochester is expected to easily win the open Senate seat vacated by Sen. Tom Carper. Blunt Rochester, elected to Congress in 2016, served as co-chair of Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign and a member of the vetting committee for Biden’s vice presidential candidate selection, which ultimately selected Harris.
Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks is the Democratic nominee for Senate in Maryland. Alsobrooks will face Republican nominee Larry Hogan, the former governor of Maryland. The U.S. Senate race in Maryland is crucial to whether Democrats hold the majority in 2025 or Republicans take control of the upper chamber of Congress.
“It is not lost on me that there have only been three women in the history of this country that served in the United States Senate,” Blunt Rochester told theGrio, referring to Harris, former Sen. Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois, and current Sen. Laphonza Butler, D-Calif.
Butler, who was appointed by California Gov. Gavin Newsom following the death of Sen. Dianne Feinstein, is not seeking election in November.
However, Blunt Rochester said, “It’s really important that people not take our races for granted.”
The Delaware congresswoman said she is also excited about the potential history that could be made if she, Alsobrooks, and Harris are successful on Election Day.
“We could have the president and two Black senators, but we also have Ketanji Brown Jackson on the Supreme Court,” she reflected. “That, to me, is just a source of pride but also motivation.”
Blunt Rochester added, “I think if you ask any of us, we will tell you our goal is not just to be the first, but to make sure that there are others that follow in our footsteps.”
4. 2024 could see more Black “firsts”
In addition to Kamala Harris, Lisa Blunt Rochester and Angela Alsobrooks, two other Black “firsts” could happen in November.
U.S. Rep. Colin Allred is the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate in Texas. If elected, Allred, a former professional football player turned lawyer and politician, would become the first Black person elected to the Senate in the state.
And in Washington state, former U.S. Attorney Nick Brown is vying to become the first Black person elected as attorney general. The Morehouse College and Harvard Law School graduate was also a contestant on the second season of “Survivor” in 2001. Brown’s legal work includes serving as a judge advocate general and other legal roles for the United States Army. He also served as general counsel to Washington Gov. Jay Inslee.
5. Black voters could decide the election – again.
Data from the 2020 presidential election shows that Black voters were essential to the historic victory of the Biden-Harris ticket. In battleground states, where Biden and Harris won by tens of thousands of votes, Black voters in major urban cities like Philadelphia, Atlanta, and Detroit made the difference.
In the 2024 election, Harris will need to replicate similar patterns of Black turnout to win toss-up states like Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. With Harris at the top of the ticket, her campaign is hoping to see more enthusiasm among Black voters. A CNN poll conducted days after Biden dropped out and endorsed Harris found that she is already wiping out Trump’s gains among Black voters.
Trump, his running mate, JD Vance and other Republicans have also been attacking Harris in ways critics say is racist and sexist. That could turn off Black voters and drive more of them to the polls for Harris.
6. Project 2025 on the ballot
In recent weeks, Democrats have seized on Project 2025 as a political vulnerability for Trump and Republicans.
The 900-page document published by the Heritage Foundation includes a policy playbook for the next Republican administration. It includes proposals to eliminate the Department of Education and its popular programs, such as student loan debt forgiveness, terminate tens of thousands of federal civil servants, and remove all racial or gender equity protections.
“[Harris] is going to be exactly what the country needs to show who Donald Trump is, what Project 2025 is all about,” U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., told theGrio. “It’s the kind of document that led to Jim Crow. I wish people would just take some time and look at the history and see how we got the Jim Crow, and you will see it right in that document.”
In every speech as the presumptive Democratic nominee, Harris sought to tie the controversy of Project 2025 to Trump despite his campaign’s efforts to distance him from it.
“Donald Trump wants to take our country backward. He and his extreme Project 2025 agenda,” Harris said at her first campaign rally in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. “We know we got to take this seriously. And can you believe they put that thing in writing?”
Harris noted that Project 2025, which is authored by Trump allies and former White House aides, proposes cuts to Social Security and Medicare, tax cuts for billionaires and corporations, and an end to the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.
Sen. Laphonza Butler told theGrio that Harris is “well qualified” to “make it clear that Project 2025 is not the direction that the American people want, nor do they want a president who is convicted of 34 felonies, found liable for rape, [and] owes hundreds of billions of dollars in fraud charges.”
7. Trump refuses to accept 2024 election results
After refusing to accept his loss in the 2020 presidential election and falsely claiming there was voter fraud – which led to the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 – Trump refuses to commit to accepting the results of the 2024 election if he loses in November.
During his presidential debate against Biden on June 17, the twice-impeached, four-times indicted former president repeatedly refused to say he would accept the results of this year’s election. His lack of commitment suggests that if he loses, he will yet again claim it was the result of voter fraud or wrongdoing. He told CNN’s debate moderators he would accept the outcome only if it was a “fair and legal and good election.”
Trump’s comments about the upcoming presidential election raise concerns of more violence post-Election Day and set up likely legal battles, similar to 2020 when his campaign filed and lost more than 60 lawsuits challenging the results in states he lost to Biden. Trump’s false claims have given way to Republicans championing “election integrity” laws despite no evidence of widespread voter fraud.
In Michigan and Nevada, the Republican National Committee, an arm of the Trump campaign, has already filed lawsuits aiming to cancel voter registrations over claims of the states having “suspiciously high” numbers of active voters. The RNC lawsuits also target the state’s mail-in voting, arguing that counting mail-in ballots after Election Day is more likely to benefit Democrats than Republicans.
8. Ballot measures on abortion
The 2024 election will also see voters weigh in on important ballot measures that could advance abortion access in their states.
Following the controversial Supreme Court ruling that ended nearly 50 years of federal abortion protections through the landmark Roe v. Wade decision, reproductive rights have become a hot-button issue in the country.
Nearly two dozen states have enacted strict abortion bans following the SCOTUS ruling, including states with large Black populations like Texas, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana.
However, in states where abortion access was on the ballot, like Ohio, Kentucky, Michigan, California, Virginia, and others, reproductive health advocates saw major victories. Democrats and abortion rights advocates are hoping to see that trend continue as Florida, Maryland, South Dakota, Colorado and Nevada voters will get the opportunity to vote on a ballot measure that would enshrine abortion rights into the state constitution.
There are other pending ballot measures in Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Arizona and Arkansas.
Mini Timmaraju, president of Reproductive Freedom for All, told theGrio that while ballot measures to enshrine abortion rights are critical in November, she also noted that they are expensive campaigns. Timmaraju said Republicans tend to “muddy the waters” with misinformation about ballot measures, like in Ohio, where there was an “effort to change the rules … to make it harder to win.”
“What we really need is a pro-reproductive freedom majority in the House and the Senate and the White House,” said Timmaraju, “so that we can pass federal legislation to basically go back to pre-Dobbs and expand access to this country.”
She added, “It’s not tenable for us to keep fighting this fight this way.”
