| By Gale Staff |
Without access to reliable information, it’s impossible to make informed decisions about the leaders and policies shaping our lives.
Gale In Context: Biography can help public librarians and K-12 educators bridge the gap with more than 5,000 in-depth, unbiased, and accurate biographies—including many of the 2024 presidential nominees and their running mates. Gale In Context: Biography features built-in accessibility tools to meet your patron’s needs, such as adjustable fonts, translation into 50 languages, and ReadSpeaker text-to-speech technology in more than 20 languages.
These profiles highlight each nominee’s professional achievements and journey to the ballot while providing context to help readers assess leadership qualities beyond political rhetoric and the current barrage of political ads.
Kamala Harris
Born on October 20, 1964, Kamala Harris was seemingly destined for a life in public service. Her first foray into politics was while she was still stroller-bound, accompanying her mother, an Indian scientist, and father, a Jamaican economist, during the 1960s Berkeley protests.
After graduating high school in Montreal, Harris enrolled in Washington D.C.’s Howard University for her political science and economics undergraduate degrees. Then, she was off to the University of California, Hastings College of Law. Upon graduating in 1989, she worked as a law clerk at the Alameda County District Attorney’s office, a period of her life that convinced her that the best way to effect change was to work within the system.
In 2004, Harris made history as the first woman of African and South Asian descent to serve as San Francisco’s district attorney. During her tenure, she focused on reforming criminal justice policies, targeting issues like recidivism and the impact of bias on procedural justice.
Harris continued to break barriers when she became California’s first Black and first female attorney general in 2011. In 2017, she was elected to the U.S. Senate, making her the second Black woman nationwide to hold the office. Her most recent groundbreaking achievement came in 2021 when she was sworn in as the first female, first Black, and first South Asian vice president of the United States.
Jill Stein
Three-time Green Party presidential nominee Dr. Jill Stein was born May 14, 1950, in Chicago. Stein graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University in 1973 with a combined major in anthropology, psychology, and sociology, and then earned her graduate degree from Harvard Medical School in 1979.
Stein spent more than 20 years as a practicing physician in Lexington, Massachusetts. During her time in medicine, she became interested in the connection between patient illnesses and exposure to toxic chemicals. This led to a transition from medical work to environmental advocacy focused on the coal industry.
As a member of the Massachusetts Rainbow-Green party, she was selected to run for the state’s gubernatorial race in 2002 and the secretary of the commonwealth election in 2006. Though Stein won neither campaign, she garnered more than 350,000 votes for the latter bid, surpassing any previous Green-Rainbow candidate. She has been on the presidential ballot in 2012 and 2016 before again winning her party’s nomination in 2024 along with vice presidential running mate Butch Ware.
Donald Trump
Donald Trump, born June 14, 1946, in Queens, New York, rose to national and global prominence as a real estate mogul and businessman before entering the political arena. Following graduation from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, he joined his family’s real estate company and began expanding the Trump Organization’s property portfolio on a global scale—including more than 60 towers in the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat’s database. Trump’s celebrity status eventually saw him become the host of The Apprentice.
In 2016, Trump launched a successful bid for the U.S. presidency on the Republican ticket with running mate Mike Pence. Notable legislation from his time in office included passing the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which provided the middle class $3.2 trillion in tax relief, and replacing the North American Free Trade Agreement with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement. Should he win the 2024 election, it will be only the second time in U.S. history that a president serves two non-consecutive terms.
JD Vance
James David “J.D.” Vance was born August 2, 1984, to a working-class family in the Rust Belt community of Middletown, Ohio. His early life was one of economic hardship and familial strife, including physical abuse from his mother.
After struggling throughout high school, Vance graduated in 2003 and immediately joined the U.S. Marines, serving a tour in Iraq before he was discharged in 2007. His return home marked a turning point for Vance: having “almost failed out of high school,” he graduated from Ohio State University in two years with political science and philosophy degrees.
Vance then graduated from Yale School of Law in 2013, and afterward went to clerk for a federal judge and litigated with a corporate law firm in D.C. before moving to Silicon Valley to work for a biotech firm. All the while, he was working on Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis. When it was published in June 2016, it was widely acclaimed, spending most of 2017 on the New York Times hardcover bestseller list.
After half a decade in the public spotlight for his memoir, Vance announced that he would run for U.S. Senate in July of 2021. Two years later, in July 2024, Trump announced Vance as his running mate.
Tim Walz
Born on April 6, 1964, and raised in West Point, Nebraska, Tim Walz spent most of his childhood working on his family farm. When he turned 17, he signed up for the Army National Guard—one of the branch’s reserve components—and struck out across the U.S., working odd jobs until he found himself teaching on a South Dakota reservation. His time in the classroom sparked a passion for education, and he obtained his teaching license through Chadron State College in Nebraska. After a stint teaching in China, Walz returned to Nebraska to work as a high school teacher and coach.
Walz remained in the military for 24 years, finally retiring when he decided to pursue politics in 2006. During his more than two-decade career, he achieved the highest rank among soldiers: command sergeant major. He went on to serve as the representative for Minnesota’s 1st Congressional District, advocating for education and veteran affairs. Following a six-term tenure as representative, Walz was elected governor of Minnesota in 2018 and re-elected in 2022.
Cornel West
Dr. Cornel West, born June 2, 1953, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, grew up in Sacramento, California, where he developed an early passion for philosophy and social justice. This passion brought him to Harvard University, where he graduated magna cum laude with degrees in Near Eastern languages and literature in just three years. West graduated in 1973 and then pursued a doctorate in philosophy from Princeton University, which he eventually completed at Harvard.
West spent the late ’70s and ’80s establishing himself as a preeminent scholar and activist with works such as Ethical Dimensions and Race Matters, which cemented his reputation as a groundbreaking thinker in topics such as the intersection of race and socioeconomic status.
Beyond academia, West regularly engages with grassroots movements, using his voice to elevate marginalized groups. In 2024, West announced his candidacy for the presidency, first as a candidate for the People’s Party, then the Green Party, and finally as an independent.
Gale In Context: Biography for Access to Reliable Information for Election Season and Beyond
Access to reliable information helps combat misinformation and fosters informed civic participation during election seasons. Gale In Context: Biography’sauthoritative profiles on historically, civically, and culturally influential figures provide your patrons with the trustworthy insights they need to form a well-rounded perspective and navigate current events with greater clarity.
To learn more about Gale In Context: Biography, rich in reputable multimedia content, we encourage you to contact our sales team or request a trial.