After becoming the first female vice president-elect. odds are in favor of Kamala Harris successfully running for president in the next election.
The excitement and nerves around the 2020 presidential election is only just starting to fade away, but attention is already beginning to turn to 2024.
With many people expecting Joe Biden to serve a single term as Donald Trump’s successor, there will be a lot of jostling from Democrats for the chance to replace the new president.
Trump himself is yet to formally concede this year’s election and it would be no surprise if he was to seek the Republican nomination to try to win back the White House in four years’ time.
But there is a clear favorite in the betting odds for the 2024 Presidential election with Kamala Harris, who is set to become the vice-president in January, right at the top of the list.
Harris ready to break new ground again
It is already the case that Harris is set to be the first woman to become either president or vice-president, with her achievement even bigger due to being a person of color as well.
America was not ready for a female president when Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in 2016, despite the businessman losing the popular vote by millions of votes.
Harris, as VP to Biden, has the perfect opportunity to use the vice-presidency to introduce her ideas and personality to the American people over the course of the next few years.
Should Biden opt not to fight another election – he will be 82 by the time his second term would be due to start in 2025 – Harris would be the obvious person to nominate as his successor.
Most regulated gambling sites are pricing Harris narrowly ahead of Biden in the odds to win the 2024 presidential election, but Trump is not too far behind the Democrat duo either.
Completing the top four in the 2024 odds is Trump’s VP Mike Pence, who many assume will decide to run for the main job next time out.
One of the things potentially standing in the way of Harris becoming president in 2024 is Biden opting to stay on, though.
Harris would be able to take on Biden in the primaries, but it is very unusual for a sitting president to face a challenge of this nature from someone in their own party.
Presumably, Biden and Harris will discuss their plans for the 2024 election closer to the time but the health and age of the new president indicate a transition of power is the likeliest outcome.
The safe bet therefore seems to be that it will be Harris who runs for the Democrats in 2024.
Who else could run for the presidency in 2024?
It might well be Harris v Trump in 2024 then, but who are the other likely contenders?
Familiar faces could be in the running again. Despite being of a similar age to Trump and Biden, Bernie Sanders may make another play for the White House. Elizabeth Warren is another experienced Democrat who went close in 2020 and might try her luck again in 2024.
Of those who would be newcomers to the race, Nikki Haley is strongly fancied to be one of the top contenders to win the Republican nomination.
Haley, who is 48, was the United States ambassador to the United Nations from 2017 to 2018 and she has also served as the governor of South Carolina. Haley has a diverse ethnic background – she was born to an Indian Punjabi American Sikh family – which might make her a popular choice if it is Harris who the Republicans are taking on at the next presidential election.
From the left, many will be hoping to see Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez throw her hat into the ring. At just 31 years of age, the New York congresswoman has plenty of time on her side and she may well decide that it is too soon to run for the presidency and save it for later in life.
AOC, as she is known by fans, has also suggested she might even walk away from politics.
In a recent interview with the New York Times, Ocasio-Cortez said: “I chose to run for re-election because I felt like I had to prove that this is real. That this movement was real. That I wasn’t a fluke. That people really want guaranteed health care and that people really want the Democratic Party to fight for them.
“But I’m serious when I tell people the odds of me running for higher office and the odds of me just going off trying to start a homestead somewhere — they’re probably the same.”
With so long to go until the election campaign starts, an unlikely name could come to the fore.
Hollywood star and former wrestler Dwayne Johnson backed Biden this time out but has previously hinted he could run for the presidency.
Trump becoming president proves that just about anything can happen at the next election.
