2024: A Look Back

Note: This article was edited on December 29, 2024 to reflect the fact that former President Carter passed away.

As the holidays draw to a close and the new year approaches, it is time to take a look back at the events that occurred this past year. 2024 was certainly an eventful year, and it’s worth taking some time to look at the main political events that defined this year. 

A defiant Donald Trump is escorted away from a rally stage following an attempt on his life. Source: AP

A year of elections

This year, approximately 80 countries, comprising four billion people, conducted national elections. This included 8 out of 10 of the world’s most populous countries. This year’s election cycle was generally defined by a wave of anti-incumbency, as over 80% of democracies saw the ruling party lose support compared to the last election. Let’s look at some of the significant elections:

In India, incumbent Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party lost its absolute majority in Parliament for the first time in ten years, to the surprise of many who thought it would pull off yet another decisive victory. They would cling to power by forming a governing coalition with other parties. The BJP has been characterized as causing democratic backsliding since its rise to power in 2014.

In the United Kingdom, the Conservatives, who had governed since 2010, lost in a crushing landslide to the opposition Labour Party. Labour flipped hundreds of seats, even defeating many senior Conservative Party figures such as former Prime Minister Liz Truss and picking off many longtime Conservative seats. The Tories had grown unpopular over the course of the past few years, with scandals and chaos defining the governments of Boris Johnson and Liz Truss. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was unable to change the public outlook on his party in the leadup to the elections, resulting in his party’s ouster from government and replacement by Labour’s Keir Starmer.

A victorious Keir Starmer addresses a crowd of supporters following his party’s victory in the 2024 British election. Source: The Guardian

Mexico elected its first female and Jewish president in Claudia Sheinbaum. Sheinbaum hails from the same party as her predecessor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who was ineligible for a second term. Sheinbaum won in a landslide victory, leading her closest rival by 33%.

The ruling parties of Japan, Botswana, and South Africa all lost their majorities this year after holding power for decades. They have either relinquished power entirely or have retained power by crafting coalitions with other smaller parties. 

The European Parliament also conducted elections this year. Pro-EU parties, which are generally more centrist and liberal, suffered losses, while anti-EU parties, which are more right-wing, made gains. This reflects a growing trend of the far-right and right-wing populists continuing to make a resurgence all around the world. 

Of course, it would be remiss not to discuss the American elections, which is in a wholly different category of its own. 

The inevitable return of Trump and the GOP

2024, of course, also saw Trump’s return to power.

First, there was his easy sweep of the Republican primaries. It hadn’t been a guarantee at the very start that Trump would be the GOP nominee. Twelve other prominent candidates threw their hats in the ring for the nomination, chief among them Florida governor Ron DeSantis and Trump’s former UN ambassador Nikki Haley. In the end, Trump won every single Republican state primary with the exception of Vermont and the District of Columbia. This demonstrated that even with his defeat, the January 6th attack, and the GOP’s disappointing midterm election performance, Trump still dominated the Republican Party. 

Trump also faced some legal troubles. He was indicted four separate times and was convicted of 34 counts on the hush money case, becoming the first U.S. president to have ever been indicted and convicted on criminal charges. Such cases, however, only solidified Republican support for the former president, with the belief that Trump was being prosecuted for political reasons becoming quite popular. These cases, however, eventually fizzled away, as they encountered hurdles and stalled in the bureaucratic court process. 

Republican support for the former president grew after the assassination attempt made on Trump’s life in July. Out of the attempt came an iconic image that portrayed a defiant Trump still standing after the bullet grazed his ear. This only served to grow popular support for the former president. Trump made a triumphant appearance at the RNC later on and selected Ohio senator J.D. Vance as his running mate.

The Democrats, of course, tried to revitalize their momentum. Incumbent President Joe Biden, who had not had a positive approval rating since 2021, had announced his intention to seek re-election earlier this year. Following a particularly disastrous debate with Trump and facing headwinds from Democrats, Biden withdrew from the race. In a hurry, Democrats nominated Vice President Kamala Harris in his stead. She would go on to select Minnesota governor Tim Walz as her running mate. It would not be enough to salvage 2024 for the party.

President Biden during his address to the nation on his withdrawal from the 2024 election. Source: AP

The Trump-Vance ticket would go on to defeat the Harris-Walz ticket in the presidential election. Trump became the first Republican to win the popular since George W. Bush in 2004, winning it 49.9-48.4%, and became the first president since Grover Cleveland in 1892 to win a second non-consecutive term. He swept all seven swing states this election, and vastly improved his numbers in blue states such as New Jersey and New York. Even as the economy was doing well and inflation was steadily declining, the widespread discontent about these issues and the unpopular Biden administration killed any chance of Harris winning the election. Trump improved his standing with almost every voter group, particularly among young men, working-class voters, and Hispanics. Since then, Trump has gotten to work planning his new administration, nominating some controversial people to his Cabinet, and calling for the occupation of Canada, Greenland, and the Panama Canal. He has also lobbied against the law Congress passed earlier this year that would ban TikTok on January 19, 2025 – Trump’s resurgence among the youth has been in part due to the app’s popularity.

Downballot, Trump’s Republican Party was also successful. They retook control of the Senate and held the House despite losses in that chamber. As a result, the Republicans have their first government trifecta since 2019. The GOP’s narrow House majority, however, would make it quite difficult for the Republicans to pass important legislation. It remains too early to tell whether Republican Mike Johnson will win a second term as Speaker of the House this coming January. As for the Democrats, they have some soul-searching to do to be successful in the 2026 midterms and 2028. 

Continued conflicts and crises 

The world saw the continuation of ongoing conflicts, and the resolution of some this year.

The Israel-Hamas war saw its second year of fighting, with consistent efforts to achieve a permanent ceasefire being unsuccessful and the conflict also spilling into some neighboring countries. Israel achieved some significant victories this year, with its killing of Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah and Hamas’s leaders Ismail Haniyeh and Yahya Sinwar, with the latter having orchestrated the October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel. Israel’s brutal attacks on civilians in the Gaza Strip and the conduct of Hamas have sparked protests all around the world. Such protests have been prominent in the United States, where they have often been seen on college campuses. 

Police break through barrier set up by pro-Palestinian protesters on UCLA campus. Source: AP

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine also marked another year of fighting. Russia made some steady advances into the eastern part of the country in the first half of the year, but Ukraine fought back with a counteroffensive into Russia proper. The two countries remain at a standstill regarding peace negotiations, with Russia demanding it keeps all the occupied territory it currently holds and Ukraine ending plans to join NATO, and Ukraine demanding the withdrawal of troops, the prosecution of Russian leaders for war crimes, and security guarantees for the country. Western support for Ukraine has remained steady, although there has been some growing skepticism and resistance from Republicans in the United States. 

The civil wars in Myanmar, Sudan, and Syria continued this year. In Syria in particular, a resumed offensive by rebels against the Ba’athist regime led to the toppling of the brutal dictator Bashar al-Assad. Assad, whose family has been in power since the 1970s and had been in power himself since 2000, fled to Moscow, Russia as Syrian rebels took control of government-held territory fairly quickly and marched into the capital Damascus almost unopposed.

In Bangladesh, the world’s 8th-most populous country, an uprising primarily led by university students against the government led to an end to the nearly 20-year-long tenure of its prime minister Sheikh Hasina. Hasina’s government had cracked down, often violently, against protesters demanding reforms in quotas in government jobs. The protests forced Hasina out, ending a tenure characterized by democratic backsliding in the country. 

A different kind of crisis developed in South Korea when its unpopular President Yoon Suk-Yeol declared martial law in December, accusing the opposition of being pro-North Korean. Following protests and scuffles with the military, the opposition-controlled Parliament was able to vote down the declaration of martial law. Yoon has since then been impeached alongside his prime minister, and both are now suspended from performing their duties. 

Deaths in 2024

Many prominent figures in politics died this year, including:

William Calley Jr., US Army lieutenant convicted of war crimes in the My Lai Massacre during the Vietnam War

Jimmy Carter, the 39th President of the United States

Carter in the Oval Office in 1978

Lou Dobbs, former conservative TV and radio host on Fox News

Alberto Fujimori, former Peruvian president who helped revive the economy but was notable for his autocratic behavior

Hage Geingob, the President of Namibia

Bob Graham, former Democratic governor and Senator from Florida 

Fred Harris, former Democratic Senator from Oklahoma who ran for President in the 1970s

James Inhofe, former Republican Senator from Oklahoma who gained prominence for being a climate change denier

Eddie Bernice Johnson, former longtime Democratic member of Congress from Texas who chaired the House Science Committee

Tim Johnson, former Democratic Senator from South Dakota who rebounded from a brain aneurysm

Ethel Kennedy, widow of Senator Robert F. Kennedy, sister-in-law to President Kennedy

Dexter Scott King, youngest son of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. 

Lilly Ledbetter, activist whose activism helped pass the Fair Pay Act

Sheila Jackson Lee, longtime Democratic member of Congress from Texas

Joe Lieberman, former Democratic and later independent Senator from Connecticut who was Al Gore’s running mate in the 2000 presidential election

Pete McCloskey, former Republican member of Congress from California who challenged President Nixon

Brian Mulroney, former Prime Minister of Canada who entered NAFTA but was tarnished by scandal

Alexei Navalny, Russian opposition leader who had been imprisoned in 2021 for his continued outspokenness against the Kremlin

Alexei Navalny addresses a political protest in Moscow, Russia. Source: AP

Nguyen Phu Thong, general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam who presided over rapid economic growth and balanced relations with the U.S. and China

Bill Pascrell, longtime Democratic member of Congress from New Jersey

Donald Payne Jr., Democratic member of Congress from New Jersey

Ebrahim Raisi, the President of Iran 

Marian Robinson, mother of Michelle Obama and mother-in-law to President Obama who lived in the White House

Nikolai Ryzhkov, former premier of the Soviet Union who took much of the blame for the economic collapse that led to the USSR’s collapse

James Sasser, former Democratic Senator from Tennessee who became President Clinton’s ambassador to China

Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, whose assassination ignited nationwide sensation around his killer and furthered criticism of the American healthcare system

Masamitsu Yoshioka, the last surviving Japanese bomber of Pearl Harbor during WW2

In conclusion…

2024 has been a remarkable year and will make its place in the history books. We now await 2025 with great anticipation and trepidation. But for now, a Happy New Year to all.