In November 2024, Americans will vote to choose the next president of the United States. The person who wins will have a big impact on people’s lives in the US and around the world, so this election is important for everyone.

America’s political system is mostly controlled by two parties, so all recent presidents have been either a Democrat or a Republican.

The Democrats are the liberal party. They focus on things like civil rights, social programs to help people, and actions to deal with climate change. The current president, Joe Biden, is a Democrat and wants to be re-elected for a second term.

The Republicans are the conservative party. They want lower taxes, a smaller government, and they support things like gun rights and stricter rules on immigration and abortion. Donald Trump, a former president, is the main Republican running for president again.

The parties officially choose their candidates at big meetings called conventions. These will happen in the summer.

15 people were running for president at the start of the 2024 campaign – nine Republicans, four Democrats, and two independents. But most of them have already stopped running.

To pick their candidates, the parties have elections in each state called primaries and caucuses. The rules are different in each state.

One of the most important days is called Super Tuesday. This is when lots of states have their elections on the same day, usually in March.

Biden said he wanted to run again earlier this year, and he has enough support from Democrats to be their candidate, even though some other Democrats tried to challenge him.

In the US, voters don’t directly pick the president. Instead, they vote for people who will choose the president later. This means the winner might not be the person who gets the most votes across the country, like what happened with Hillary Clinton in 2016.

Most states give all their votes to the candidate who gets the most votes in that state. Only two states do things differently.

Some states usually vote for one party or the other, so the real competition happens in a few states that could go either way. These are called battleground states.