The people to watch in 2024 ahead of America’s election

By James Bennet

Time was when American politics served up electrifying or at least surprising nominees to be president: Barack Obama, barely three years out of the Illinois state legislature, storming past Hillary Clinton; John McCain overcoming the scorn of conservatives; Donald Trump doing that thing he did in 2016; and even, lest you forget, Joe Biden, once counted out because of his age and past centrism, clearing the field in 2020.