From the economy to the climate crisis: key issues in the 2024 US election

As a Joe Biden v Donald Trump election rematch looms, much is at stake. From the future of reproductive rights to the chances of meaningful action on climate change, from the strength of US support for Ukraine in its war with Russia to the fate of democracy in America itself, existential issues are set to come to the fore.

Here’s a look at why.

“It’s the economy, stupid.” So said the Democratic strategist James Carville, in 1992, as an adviser to Bill Clinton. Most Americans thought stewardship of the economy should change: Clinton beat an incumbent president, George HW Bush.

More than 30 years later, under Biden, the post-Covid recovery remains on track. Unemployment is low, stocks at all-time highs. That should bode well but the key question is whether enough Americans think the economy is strong under Biden, or think it is working for them, or think Trump was a safer pair of hands (forgetting the chaos of Covid). According to polling, many do prefer Trump. Cost-of-living concerns dominate such surveys. Inflation remains a worry. For Biden, Republican threats to social security and Medicare might help offset such worries. For Trump, whose base skews older, such threats must be downplayed – even though they are present in Republicans’ own transition planning.

Last month, House Republicans impeached Alejandro Mayorkas, Biden’s secretary of homeland security. Then, at Trump’s direction, the Senate GOP sank a bipartisan border and immigration deal. Last week, on the same day, Biden and Trump went to the southern border. Biden highlighted Republican obstruction but called on Trump to work with him, a political call meant to show voters which party wants to work on the issue and which doesn’t. Trump focused on denunciations of