A man and woman face to face in front of each other.

The inevitable rematch is official 


By Colby Etherton 

President Biden and former president Trump have officially garnered enough delegates from their respective party primaries to be their parties’ presumptive nominees, meaning that what we’ve known for years has been set in stone: their impending rematch.  

Paradoxically, there is a plethora of polling out there that suggests that the majority of the U.S. population did not want this rematch — yet we’re getting it, anyway. It’s a testament to how important money and infrastructure are, and also reveals a lack of any viable alternatives in voters’ minds.  

Trump has had a chokehold on the Republican party since 2016, and those in the party that openly criticize him (Liz Cheney and Chris Christie, for example, and let’s not forget that there are only two Republicans out of ten that voted to impeach Trump after the January 6th insurrection that remain in Congress) don’t tend to fare well. There is also the simple reality that despite a turbulent presidency and four indictments, Trump remains highly popular among Republican voters, though there are cracks in the armor, as Florida’s March 19 primary revealed, as Trump only won about 81 percent of the vote despite running unopposed.  

President Biden had a built-in advantage of being an incumbent candidate with a war chest and campaign infrastructure already in place. But there simply was no viable alternative candidate, as the part apparatus coalesced around him; his only challengers were candidates with lower name recognition such as Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips and author Marianne Williamson.  

President Biden faces steep issues in his campaign for reelection, with voters being concerned about inflation (which has gone down considerably, but nonetheless, companies are inflating their prices because, ultimately, they can), his age and the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza, with notable efforts in several states to vote “Uncommitted†to protest the Biden administration’s reluctance to call for an immediate ceasefire. The U.S. presented a resolution to the United Nations on March 22, 2024, in support of “an immediate and sustained ceasefire,†though the U.S. notably did not “call for†or “demand†a permanent, unconditional ceasefire. The resolution was vetoed by Russia and China. The Biden administration, even if it is shifting its tone in a more diplomatic resolution, at this writing is still not giving a full-throated call for a ceasefire that many want to see. Globally, the U.S. is in the minority on this holdout. 

Biden is likely to frame the election as a referendum on Trump, as he did four years ago. He’s said before, “Don’t compare me to the Almighty, compare me to the alternative,” a line it wouldn’t be surprising to see again this election cycle.  

Trump is likely to continue to lean into disturbing anti-immigration and anti-LGBT rhetoric, as well as continued falsities about the 2020 election. While polling so far has shown Trump with a slight edge against President Biden in battleground states such as Michigan, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Nevada and Georgia, now that Trump and Biden are their respective parties’ official nominees and media coverage will likely ramp up on Trump, there is a possibility that there will be a momentum shift when voters are faced with these two options. 

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