Now that the primaries are over, all focus turns toward the general election in November. While both candidates have their enthusiastic supporters, many people have expensed disillusionment with the candidates. A popular sentiment is that while both candidates are not ideal one is far worse than the other. However even with the prominence “lesser evil voting” both of the candidates seem to have trouble courting their base.
Many voters are concerned about the age of the canades. Both Trump and Biden are known for their gaffes which have been used as political ammunition against them since Trump first ran for president. Joe Biden(81) and Donold Trump(78) are the oldest and second oldest presidents in all of United States history. This raises the question whether they are in touch with younger voters or mentally fit to run the country.
The war in Gaza has been a particularly important issue for the Biden campaign. Joe Biden wants to keep good relations with Israel who are an important ally in the middle east, an area the United states has struggled to exert control. However many on the left oppose continued military aid to Israel and want to see Joe Biden push for a permanent ceasefire. These voters made their voices heard through voting uncommitted in the democratic primaries. In some states these votes reached nearly 30%. Biden has attempted to win these voters back by shifting his rhetoric; however the US blocking ceasefire resolutions in the UN and continuing to send military aid leaves most of these voters unsatisfied.
Another important issue for this campaign is abortion. Democrats have been using abortion as a wedge issue to drum up support on both the state and federal level. Trump is attempting to counter this by saying he believes this to be a states rights issue and that the overturning of Roe, which he claims credit for, has achieved that goal. This has alienated some of the more pro life Trump supporters. The Biden campaign has used Trump claiming credit for the overturning of Roe in their advertisements utilizing the unpopularity of many post Roe state level bans.
An issue specific to the Trump campaign is his trials. As part of the trials Trump has a gag order and must spend most of his week at these trials which has limited his ability to campaign. Trump has made it very clear that he thinks the trials to be politically motivated and while many of his supporters agree some are waiting for the outcome of the trial to decide how they will vote. Trump is doing everything to delay the result of the trials until after the election.
Voters also want to hear how the candidates will manage the economy and most importantly handle inflation. Yearly inflation is around 3.5% and many people are feeling the pinch. Donld Trump wants to drill for more oil to counteract the inflationary pressure of gas prices. He also wants to slash taxes and regulations. Joe Biden points to the fall in unemployment over the course of his presidency as evidence that his policies are working. He also wants to push the country toward the adoption of more electric cars which could lessen our dependence on gas and counteract gas prices inflationary pressure. Both Biden and Trump have raised tariffs on China during their presidencies and Trump has promised to raise them even more. Trump has also promised to raise tariffs on all foreign imports in an effort to bring manufacturing jobs back to the US.
Even with the dissatisfaction with the current candidates there is little chance of any of the third party candies being relevant. The biggest third party candidate is Robert F. Kennedy Jr. who is running as an independent. But he hasn’t pulled high enough to win a single state. However some people are choosing to vote third party more to send a message than because they think that candidate can win. They think it sets a dangerous precedent if one of these candidates can win just because the other is worse, and it motivates the parties to focus more on making sure they are up against someone bad than running someone good.