By Athena Papakosta

A déjà vu. This is, as it seems – so far, the 2024 presidential election in the United States of America. Same faces, same roles, same dilemma. Currently.

On the one hand, there is the current American president, Joe Biden who officially announced his candidacy. And on the other hand, we find the former president of the country, Donald Trump who – thanks to his judicial adventures – maintains the lead for the Republican nomination.

Reheated food, let’s be honest, few people prefer. After all, according to a poll by the American network NBC, only 5% of Americans want the “Biden-Trump” duo in the American Presidential Elections in 2024, while 38% do not want either of them to even be candidates.

Nevertheless, on Tuesday, Joe Biden announced his candidacy for a second term in the White House with a three-minute video. Without showing Donald Trump even once (except for the invasion of his supporters in the Capitol in January 2021), he poses the dilemma of this presidential contest by placing at the center of his election campaign the defense of American democracy against Trumpism, “a battle for the soul of the nation”, as he underlines.

In 2020 his attitude… brought him to the White House, in 2024 he hopes to keep him there.

“The question we have to answer is whether in the coming years we want to have more or less freedom. More rights or less”, emphasizes the current American president and sends the message “let’s finish the job”.

In any case, when an incumbent president runs for re-election, the electoral contest acquires, among other things, the characteristics of a referendum. And while Biden has several achievements to offer on the table, as Democrats characterize them, since his tenure, he is vulnerable. In particular, according to polls, he remains weak. 42% of citizens support his actions but 52% disagree. And he may have enjoyed the pleasant surprise of last November’s midterm election results, but they may, in this case, reassure those within the Democratic party who view with suspicion (and some resentment) the formalization of his candidacy and because of his advanced age.

Key point for Biden and his second term bid it’s the abortion issue. Democrats found out firsthand that the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn women’s constitutional right to make decisions about their own bodies “played” a decisive role in the November midterms.

The tide was tipped in their favor thanks to women’s desire – and more – to retain the first (and last) say in controlling their reproductive health. For that matter, if we look at the snapshot of the moment we will see that two-thirds of Americans insist that abortion should remain legal. A fact which has caused alarm in the “red” camp. Analysts report that the Republican party fell into the trap which he has been trying to set up for so many years, since his candidates – who support the ban on abortion – are now afraid that they will not be elected.

So where will they invest? But of course in inflation but also in the numbers – record numbers of immigrants in the country. These are two issues that can … wake up the Republican base. At the same time, they know that Biden does not provoke Democrats the way Trump does Republicans. However, if Donald Trump is indeed going to be officially the Republican nominee then he may have to adopt a new narrative and move away from the candy of stolen elections and fraud since November did not prove to be a recipe for victory. Instead.

The Democratic camp likes to have Trump up against it. After all, Biden has beaten him in 2020. It remains to be seen how the deck will be shuffled in the end when Florida’s Ron DeSandis officially runs for the Republican nomination. At the moment the two leading candidates for the Democrats and the Republicans seem to be the two old, old, familiar who, by now, are choosing tried and tested recipes for their stay in or return, respectively, to the White House. The only thing that is certain is that there are 558 days left until the 2024 Presidential Election and the election machines in the United States of America have already kicked into gear.