Before election night, learn more about the 2024 candidates on the Democratic and Republican tickets vying to win the White House.

Vice President Kamala Harris is the Democratic candidate for president. The daughter of immigrants from India and Jamaica, Harris grew up in Oakland and spent much of her political career in California’s Bay Area.

She was first elected district attorney in San Francisco in 2004 before later serving as California’s attorney general. Harris was then elected to the Senate before being picked as President Joe Biden’s running mate in the 2020 election.

She announced her own candidacy for the Democratic nomination for president after Biden withdrew from the ticket and endorsed her on July 21. Harris is the first Black woman and the first Asian American to lead the ticket of a major political party.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is Harris’s running mate. Before being elected to Congress in 2007 to represent the state’s 1st Congressional District, Walz was a high school geography teacher and assistant football coach. He also served in the Army National Guard. Walz has been governor of Minnesota since 2019.

Former President Donald Trump is the Republican nominee for president, aiming to become only the second commander in chief to win two non-consecutive terms.

A native of New York, Trump graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a bachelor’s degree in economics. Before launching his successful presidential bid in 2016, Trump was a real estate developer, businessman and a reality TV star as the host of “The Apprentice.”

Senator JD Vance of Ohio is Trump’s running mate. Born in Middletown, Ohio, Vance wrote a memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, about his upbringing and white working-class Americans. He also attended Yale Law School, worked as a venture capitalist and served in the United States Marine Corps.

Vance was elected to the Senate in 2023, surviving a stronger-than-expected challenge from Democrat Tim Ryan and keeping the seat in Republican Party control.

Read about the Democratic, Republican and third party candidates here.