State voter guide for the 2024 presidential primary election
Connecticut’s April 2 primary will be a chance for voters registered as Democrats or Republicans to head to the polls and cast their ballot for their preferred presidential candidate.
As of early March, there were four Democrats and four Republicans to choose from, although some candidates have already announced plans to pull out of the presidential race that is looking more and more like a rematch between President Joe Biden and former president Donald Trump.
Here is what to know about the candidates ahead of the primary.
Key dates March 12
Absentee ballots become available
March 15 Mail-in and online deadline for new and unaffiliated voters to enroll in a party for voting in the primary
March 26-28, 30 Early voting period
April 1 In-person enrollment deadline for new voters and unaffiliated voters enrolling in a party in person at town hall
April 2 Presidential Primary with polls open 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.
U.S. President (Democrat) Joe Biden Incumbent
President,
The 46th President of the United States, Biden is a Democrat who formerly served two terms as vice president and as a U.S. Senator from his home state of Delaware. Elected during the COVID-19 pandemic, Biden signed the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act that included $1,400 stimulus checks for most Americans. His administration subsequently battled inflation and withdrew the last remaining troops from Afghanistan,
which brought about significant criticism. He successfully appointed one Supreme Court Justice, Ketanji Brown Jackson, and forcefully criticized the court’s decision to overturn Roe vs. Wade, which allowed many states to enforce bans on abortion. The Biden administration has sought to expand access to abortion care and contraception to federal workers and women in the military. His efforts to cancel student debt have fallen short of expectations, while still eliminating millions of dollars of debt for Connecticut residents. At 81, Biden is already the oldest president in American history and age has become a major issue in his re-election campaign.
Williamson
Marianne
Author Williamson, 71, is an author and self-help guru from California who became well known as Oprah Winfrey’s spiritual advisor during the 1990s. She ran unsuccessfully for congress in 2014, and in the Democratic presidential primary in 2020. Williamson initially suspended her campaign after a poor showing in the first four nominating contests, before jumping back into the race after earning 3 percent in the Michigan primary.
Dean Phillips
U.S. Representative for Minnesota
A three-term Democratic congressman from Minnesota, Phillips has staked his campaign on the argument that Biden’s age and unpopularity among voters is a major vulnerability for his party’s chances of keeping the White House in 2024. The 54-year-old has struggled to gain much traction in the early nominating states, and his campaign has recently attracted controversy after NBC News
revealed that a consultant working for Phillips was behind a robocall that used artificial intelligence to fake President Biden’s voice and urge New Hampshire voters to stay home in that state’s primary. Phillips suspended his campaign on March 6 after failing to secure any delegates.
Cenk Uygur
Political commentator A left-wing political commentator behind the popular show, “The Young Turks,” Uygur has also sought to bring the issue of age and Biden’s approach on the ongoing Israel-Hamas war into the Democratic primary. A naturalized citizen who was born in Turkey, Uygur, 53, is likely ineligible to serve as president under the U.S. Constitution, though he has promised to challenge that requirement.
U.S. President (Republican) Donald Trump
Former president Trump, 77, served a single term as president before
being defeated by Biden in 2020. The Republican’s campaign administration was marked by numerous controversies, including derogatory comments about women, an attempt to ban travelers from several Islamic countries into the U.S. and his repeated failures to condemn white supremacist movements. Trump also re-negotiated a free-trade agreement between the U.S., Mexico and Canada, imposed new tariffs on goods imported from China and pulled the U.S. out of the Iran nuclear deal. On the domestic front, Trump signed $1.5 trillion in tax cuts and ended the requirement for individuals to carry health insurance that was put in place by the Affordable Care Act. Near the end of his term, Trump tried repeatedly and unsuccessfully to overturn the results of the 2020 election, culminating in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol which resulted in his being impeached by the House of Representatives for a second time. After
leaving office, Trump was charged with dozens of criminal offenses in four separate cases that have yet to go to trial.
Ron DeSantis
Governor of Florida A 45-year-old, twoterm governor of Florida, DeSantis emerged onto the GOP primary stage by promoting his opposition to COVID-19 lockdowns, ‘woke’ ideology and a legal battle against one of his state’s largest employers, Disney. In the end, however, DeSantis’ argument that it was time for his party to move on from Trump failed to attract enough Republican voters, and he dropped out of the race several days after the Iowa caucuses in January.
Nikki Haley
Former South Carolina governor
Haley, 52, served as Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations and was previously elected twice as a Republican governor in South Carolina. Her tenure as governor was marked by a white supremacist mass shooting
carried out at a Charleston church, after which Haley signed a bill removing the Confederate Battle Flag from the grounds of the State Capitol. In the primary, Haley has questioned Trump’s mental fitness and declared that he is “not qualified” to serve as president again after he made denigrating remarks about her husband in the military. She has failed to defeat Trump in any of the early contests, including the primary in her home state of South Carolina. If elected, Haley would be the first woman and first person of South Asian ancestry to serve as president. Following Super Tuesday, Nikki Haley says she suspended her campaign.
Ryan Binkley
Businessman and megachurch pastor
A businessman and megachurch pastor from Dallas, Binkley suspended his campaign and endorsed Trump in late February after collecting fewer than 5,000 votes across all of the first five GOP contests.