Making Sense of the 2024 US Presidential Elections: Why they Are Important

Lecturer is David Schultz professor with Hamline University and University of Minnesota.

The 2024 US presidential and congressional elections have arrived and appear to feature a rematch of the 2020 contest between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. Yet while the election will look very similar to the previous one, there are significant differences. This talk examines the factors that influence the 2024 election, including Donald Trump's legal problems, Hunter Biden and a possible Joe Biden impeachment, the turmoil in the US Congress, and the role of the swing voters and swing states. David Schultz is Distinguished University Professor in the Departments of Political Science, Environmental Studies, and Legal Studies at Hamline University. He is also a professor of Law at the University of Minnesota and at the University of St. Thomas and an adjunct professor at Binghamton University. A four-time Fulbright scholar who has taught extensively in Europe and Asia, and the winner of the Leslie A. Whittington national award for excellence in public affairs teaching, David is the author of more than 45 books and 200+ articles on various aspects of American politics, election law, and the media and politics. His most recent books are Constitutional Precedent in US Supreme Court Reasoning (2022), Handbook of Election Law (2022), and Presidential Swing States (2022).