What do the current Republican presidential candidates plan for our future? 

With presidential elections only two big politicians have made plans to run: Donald Trump and Nikki Haley — with the probability of Ron DeSantis joining the race increasing. In a recent Quinnipiac poll, Trump (42%) and DeSantis (36%) would be the most likely two primaries, with Haley falling behind.

Donald Trump, former US president from 2016-2020, announced his campaign for president after not being elected for a consecutive term in 2020. According to Trump’s campaign website, he wants to improve trade, borders, foreign policy, and national defense. He also wants to change the approach on gender affirming care, going as far as to call it “child mutilation.”

Trump wrote on his campaign website that he plans to “Pass a law prohibiting child sexual mutilation in all 50 states. I will declare any hospital or healthcare provider that participates in chemical or physical mutilation of minor youth will no longer meet federal health safety standards for Medicaid and Medicare, and will be terminated from the program immediately.” 

While doing a campaign run in South Carolina, Trump also used racist rhetoric towards Hispanic people, similar to his remarks in 2016.

“We can’t have what they’re sending, they’re sending people that are killers, murderers, they’re sending rapists, and they’re sending, frankly, terrorists,” Trump said when discussing border control in his recent campaign.

Ron DeSantis, governor of Florida, is widely suspected to run in 2024 for president. Among his Republican counterparts, he appears to be the only one who has a shot at beating Trump. 

Gaining popularity among Florida voters with a 64% approval rate. With these high numbers many are wanting him to run in the next presidential election. While many do not know of him outside of Florida (26%), he would still have a good chance of winning. DeSantis winning presents many challenges though.

Many are scared of what DeSantis would do on a federal level because of his rulings in Florida, including but not limited to the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill, prohibiting the discussion of gender identity and sexual orientation until the third grade, and the banning of Critical Race Theory (CRT) in schools.

“We’re here today because we believe in education not indoctrination. We believe an important component of freedom in the state of Florida is the freedom from having oppressive ideologies opposed upon you without consent, whether it be in the classroom or whether it be in the workplace,” Ron DeSantis said in his speech on banning CRT which was enacted on April 22, 2022.

Nikki Haley, former governor of South Carolina from 2011 to 2017 and former UN ambassador under Trump from 2017 to 2018, has plans to run in 2024 presidential elections.

During her presidency, she said she hopes to make serious changes to our current government, including expanding on the ‘Don’t Say Gay Bill’ by not allowing the discussion of gender or sexuality to come up until at least seventh grade and requiring parents’ permission. 

Haley is also pro-life and while serving as governor of South Carolina, she instituted a 20-week abortion ban with some exceptions. While she has made no mention at this time of plans to carry out any laws concerning this, she has made it known that she is not for an abortion ban on the federal level.