President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump will face off in the US presidential election on November 5 in what looks to be a divisive, closely fought contest. Several third-party hopefuls are also in the running.

Here is a list of candidates:

Donald Trump

Trump, in office from 2017-2021, has won enough delegates to secure the Republican nomination, setting up the first presidential rematch in nearly 70 years.

He has leveraged his unprecedented legal challenges to shore up support among his base and made his third bid for the White House in retaliation against perceived political enemies.

He will be in the US on January 6, 2021. The campaign calls supporters jailed for the attack on the Capitol “hostages” and uses increasingly dystopian rhetoric.

Trump, 77, faces 88 felony counts of attempting to disrupt the 2020 election, as well as four felony counts of illegally possessing national security documents and falsifying business records. His first criminal trial began on April 15 in New York.

He has called the criminal charges a Democratic conspiracy designed to prevent him from winning, with some of his legal challenges reaching the U.S. Supreme Court. The US Department of Justice denies any political interference.

If elected to another four-year term, Trump has vowed to exact revenge on his political enemies, saying he will not be a dictator except “from day one.” He also wants the power to replace federal civil service workers with loyalists.

He criticized Western leaders, saying the US would not defend NATO members who failed to spend enough on defense and would encourage Russia to attack them. He also pressured congressional Republicans to freeze military aid to Ukraine.

Trump has made immigration his top domestic campaign issue, announcing that he would deport people on a large scale, build detention camps, use the National Guard, end birthright citizenship, and allow people from some countries to will extend the travel ban. He has called immigrants “animals”.

On abortion, Trump credited the U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade and said in April that abortion should remain a state issue. He has criticized the six-week abortion bans of some Republican-led states and has refused to support a federal ban.

He has promised major changes including ending Obamacare health insurance before saying in an April 11 video that he would not “repeal” it. He has vowed to undo much of the Biden administration’s work to fight climate change.

Trump has yet to announce a vice presidential running mate, but several possibilities have been floated. Mike Pence, who ran with Trump in 2016 and 2020 but was targeted by Trump and his supporters in the Jan. 6 attack, declined to endorse him in the November contest.

Democratic Party

Joe Biden

Biden began his 2020 candidacy as a necessary bid to protect American liberties and protect democracy and has cast his re-election bid in the same light, saying Trump threatens the future of American democracy.

Biden faced no serious challenge for the party’s nomination, which he clinched in March.

The November election will be very tight, with the most recent Reuters/Ipsos poll putting Biden’s voter support at just over 41% of registered voters, 37% ahead of Trump’s 4 percentage points.

Biden, already the oldest US president at 81, must convince voters that he is more fit for the office than Trump, who is only four years younger, while also contending with low approval ratings. .

The economy will also factor into his re-election campaign. While the US has avoided an expected recession and is growing faster than economists expected, inflation and the cost of essential goods are weighing on voters.

Biden has pushed for massive economic stimulus and infrastructure spending packages to boost U.S. industrial production, but so far has received little recognition from voters as his campaign touts new semiconductor manufacturing plants, housing projects and other economic efforts. moves to do

Biden’s handling of immigration policy has also been criticized by Republicans and Democrats alike as migrant crossings at the US-Mexico border have reached record highs.

He led Western governments’ response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, prompting allies to punish Russia and support Kiev.

Biden has offered military support while pushing for more humanitarian aid to Israel in its conflict with Hamas in Gaza, but he has been criticized by some Democrats for not pushing hard for a ceasefire or matching his tough rhetoric with action on Israel. has faced sharp criticism.

He has threatened to condition aid on Israeli steps to protect aid workers and civilians.

Marian Williamson

Best-selling author and self-help guru Marian Williamson, 71, relaunched her long-shot 2024 presidential bid, focusing on “justice and love,” less than a month after dropping out.

In a February statement, she said she was returning to fight Trump’s “dark and authoritarian vision” after first suspending it because she was losing the “horse race.” Williamson previously ran as a Democrat in the 2020 presidential primary but dropped out of that race before anyone could vote.

independent

Robert F. Kennedy Jr

An anti-vaccine activist and environmental advocate, Kennedy, 70, is running as an independent after initially challenging Biden for the Democratic nomination.

While he lags in overall polling, Kennedy may draw votes from Trump and Biden, with a Reuters/Ipsos poll in March showing him supported by 16% of registered voters.

Kennedy US Senator Robert F. Kennedy, who was assassinated during his own presidential bid in 1968, has drawn rebukes from his famous family, which reportedly plans to step up efforts to publicly endorse Biden. is making

Kennedy, who chose wealthy lawyer Nicole Shanahan as his running mate, supports Israel and has questioned the six-week ceasefire supported by Biden.

He said he sees the situation on America’s southern border as a humanitarian crisis and opposes Trump’s border wall. He has vowed to repeal parts of Biden’s climate bill on tax breaks he says help the oil industry.

On health, Kennedy has taken different positions on abortion. He has been criticized for years for making false medical claims on vaccines but says he will still allow Americans to access them.

Colonel West

Political activists, philosophers and academics are running as third-party bids for president that are likely to appeal to progressive, Democratic-leaning voters.

West, 70, initially ran as a Green Party candidate, but in October he said people “want good policies over partisan politics” and announced his bid as an independent. He has promised to end poverty and guarantee housing.

Jill Stein

Jill Stein, a physician who ran under the Green Party in 2016, launched her current campaign by accusing Democrats of “time and again betraying their promises to working people, young people and the environment — while Republicans They do not make such promises before.

Stein, 73, raised millions of dollars for the recount after Trump’s surprise 2016 victory. His accusations led to only one election review in Wisconsin, which showed that Trump had won.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)