The 2024 presidential election includes candidates who hope to become president within the span of just a few months, and it’s crucial to know the background of presidential candidates before you vote, such as their positions on social issues. There are other interesting facts about them you may find out along the way, like where they went to school or other career paths they have taken.

Kamala Harris– Democratic candidate

• Harris had said on her Instagram that her Indian maternal grandfather was a human rights activist.
• According to The New York Times, Harris lived in Montreal during her high school years.
• Harris earned a bachelor’s degree from Howard University in 1986, where she studied political science and economics, as said by the college’s student newspaper “The Dig.”
• According to UC Law San Francisco, ins 1989, she was a student at the University of California Hastings College of the Law where she graduated with a law degee.
• According to the State of California Department of Justice, In 2010, Harris became the first female and Black American to be elected attorney general in California.

Donald Trump- Republican candidate

•  Trump was a student at the New York Military Academy, as well as the Wharton School of Finance and Commerce at the University of Pennsylvania, according to the Miller Center.
• Trump was once the richest president in U.S. history according to Voices of America, with a net worth of $75 billion. AP News says that he is now in a debt of more than half a billion dollars.
• According to CNN, originally, Trump was a Democrat.
• His campaign’s slogan “Make America Great Again” was originally used by Ronald Reagan, as said by the Smithsonian Institution.
• BBC reports that Trump first sought a career in business, pursuing real estate. He helped manage his father’s residential housing projects.

Cornel West- Independent candidate

• West attended graduate school in philosophy at Princeton University, according to Union Theological Seminary.
• According to Britannica, West’s father was a civilian U.S. Air Force administrator. His mother was an elementary school teacher and principal.
• According to his website, West has written 20 books, including “Race Matters” and “Keeping Faith.”
• Britannica states that West’s beliefs are partially inspired by the Black Panther Party, whose Sacramento offices were near the church he went to.
• He was the Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy at Harvard University and is the Professor Emeritus at Princeton University, according to Union Theological Seminary.

Jill Stein- Independent candidate

•  Accoording to Brittanica, Stein studied medicine at health clinics in Boston for around 25 years and became an environmetal advocate in the 1990s.
• The Center for Public Integrity says that Stein gained 0.36 percent of the presidential vote in 2012. She got the most votes in Maine and Oregon, where she got 1.1 percent. Lower votes are common for people in independent
  political parties.
• Stein graduated from Harvard University with a bache lor’s degree in psychology, sociology, and anthropology, according to VoteSmart.
• Stein has been a member of the Massachusetts Medical Society since 1998, as said by VoteSmart.
• According to the University of Notre Dame, Stein was part of a folk rock band called “Circuits to the Sun” in the 1990s.

Chase Oliver-Libertarian candidate

• According to Ballotpedia, Oliver’s involvement in politics first started when he became an activist against the war in Iraq.
• In 2020, according to Ballotpedia, Oliver ran for Congress in Georgia’s 5th district, and In 2022, he ran for a position in the U.S. Senate.
• According to VoteSmart, Oliver attended Georgia State University in college.
• VoteSmart also says that Oliver was once the former fundraising director for Outright USA, a division of  LGBTIQ+ advocacy group Outright International.
• Oliver has previously worked as a sales account executive and as a human resources representative, as said by Forbes.

Whether you’ve been looking for information on people you want to vote for in the future or you’re just doing research for fun, there’s a lot more fascinating information about presidential candidates than there may seem. If you do your research, you’ll be more confident about who you want to vote for.