Alternate Electoral Maps II
- Thread starter Aaaaasima
- Start date
- Status
Thinking about potentially doing a project where Andrew Jackson wins the 1824 election outright. William H Crawford is incapacitated by a second stroke and thus withdraws from the race. Thus, Andrew Jackson is able to win some of the electoral votes which Crawford won IOTL, and thus Jackson gets the majority of electoral votes (barely). No corrupt bargain and Jackson is in office four years earlier. Anyway, here's the initial draft of the electoral map:
Tex Arkana-How the 2020 election would look like using FiveThirtyEight's state-by-state estimation of Trump's approval ratings
So FiveThirtyEight did a state-by-state estimate of Trump's approval ratings:
And I thought I'd do this as an electoral map. basically my idea here, is that in the absolute worst case scenario for Trump in 2020, he would lose every state where his approval is currently below 50%:
The light red states are states where his approval rating is between 50-51%.
And I thought I'd do this as an electoral map. basically my idea here, is that in the absolute worst case scenario for Trump in 2020, he would lose every state where his approval is currently below 50%:
The light red states are states where his approval rating is between 50-51%.
Trading Places
My Unfortunately-Not-Too-Realistic Attempt to Flip Political Ideologies over the Course of Just 20 Years
My Unfortunately-Not-Too-Realistic Attempt to Flip Political Ideologies over the Course of Just 20 Years
George W. Bush (born July 6, 1946) served as the 46th Governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000. In 2000, he was elected America’s 43rd US President over incumbent Vice-President Al Gore in the Electoral College despite losing the popular vote in a historically narrow and disputed election. After the 9/11 Terrorist Attacks and subsequent Invasion of Afghanistan, Bush invaded Iraq in the first half of 2002 (the POD), which was soon followed by rumors of plans of invading Iran or Pakistan soon afterwards. Meanwhile, US Senator Hillary Clinton began openly opposing the direction the President was taking in combating terrorism while not opposing the war outright. With more and more of the budget being redirected to the wars overseas, Americans grew restless as terrorist leader Osama bin Laden went uncaptured and Hussein’s WMDs failed to surface. The 2002 midterms were a reflection of the growing discontent: Cleland and Wellstone narrowly won re-election, and Jean Carnahan and Jeanne Shaheen won their respective races as well; the Democrats narrowly held majority of the Senate. 2003 and early 2004 saw an unsuccessful primary challenge from Senator Lincoln Chafee, and several Bush domestic policy bills fail to pass into law. The 2004 election was narrow, but not that unexpected.
2004
Democratic: US Sen. Hillary D. R. Clinton (NY)/US Sen. Bob Graham (FL) – 49.74% – 60,829,456 popular votes – 19 states and DC – 275 electoral votes
Republican: Gov. George W. Bush (TX)/Fmr US Sec. of Def. Dick Cheney (WY) – 49.17% – 60,132,376 popular votes – 31 states – 263 electoral votes
All others candidates & votes – 1.09% – 1,364,014 popular votes – 0 states – 0 electoral votes
Hillary Clinton (born October 26, 1947) was America’s first female President. She previously served as First Lady of the United States before being elected to the US Senate in 2000. After much consideration, she opted to enter the race for the US Presidency in May 2003 despite a 2000 campaign promise to serve for a full US Senate term of six years. Clinton narrowly won in the 2004 primaries over challengers John Kerry, Howard Dean, Dick Gephardt and Wesley Clark (despite losing poorly in Iowa and New Hampshire, she bounced back in the South during Super Tuesday and increased momentum after Kerry ran out of funding, clinching the nomination in May over Dean, the sole major candidate left in the race), and chose retiring US Senator Bob Graham as her running mate to nullify questions concerning her lack of experience, including in foreign policy. This made for a ticket more conservative than pervious Democratic tickets, angering some liberals and former Dean supporters whom, without a viable third-party candidate to vote for, largely opted to stay home on election day. 2004 is sometimes called the Year of the Woman due to the election of not only Hillary Clinton to the Presidency, but also of several women to the House and Senate; these included Lisa Murkowski, Betty Castor, and Denise Majette. John Neely Kennedy (D-LA) was also elected. After this historic election, many hoped the wars overseas would come to an end. In early 2005, though, a US military jet being shot down over Pakistan was seen as reason enough to invade that nation, focusing on “sniffing out” terrorists in the Waziristan autonomous region. Her domestic policies, which heavily favored big business and Wall Street, damaged her approval ratings. By 2006, the now three wars overseas were only worsening under a White House uncertain which wars, if any, were winnable. The Democrats lost heavily in that year's midterm elections; Republican Lincoln Chafee won re-election over Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse; Republican Michael Steele won over Democrat Ben Cardin in Maryland; Republican Thomas Kean Jr. won over Democrat Bob Menendez in New Jersey; Republican Rick Santorum won by a .05% margin over Democrat Bob Casey Jr. (later PA Governor 2011-2019); Republican Ken Blackwell was narrowly elected Governor of Ohio over Democrat Ted Strickland; Republican George Allen narrowly won over Democrat Jim Webb in a controversial US Senate election that led to recount after recount until Webb finally conceded in May 2007, having lost by a mere 23 votes. Things worsened in late 2007 when the economy suddenly soured, and Clinton made the gaffe of referring to thousands of people losing money and/or their homes as an economic “hiccup.” Senator Paul Wellstone threatened to challenge her in the Democratic primaries, but ultimately declined due to poor health (he would die in office in early 2009 and be quickly succeeded by Al Franken). The 2008 general election was again a predictable occurrence.
2008
Republican: US Sen. John McCain (AZ)/US Sen. Lincoln Chafee (RI) – 52.23% – 68,585,209 popular votes – 35 states – 328 electoral votes
Democratic: US Pres. Hillary Clinton (NY)/US VP Bob Graham (FL) – 44.67% – 58,657,883 popular votes – 15 states and DC – 209 electoral votes
Green: US HoR Dennis Kucinich (OH)/Fmr Mayor Matt Gonzalez (CA) – 2.14% – 2,810,113 popular votes – 0 states – 1 electoral vote (faithless elector from Washington)
All others candidates & votes – 0.96% – 1,260,614 popular votes – 0 states – 0 electoral votes
Hillary Clinton lost re-election in a landslide, with 2.1% of the vote (mainly anti-Clinton liberals) going to third-party candidate Dennis Kucinich (whom chose former Mayor of San Francisco (2003-2007) Matt Gonzalez to be his running mate). However, in early December 2008, outgoing President Clinton was able to obtain one more victory when a Navy SEAL team successfully captured Osama bin Laden (however, he killed himself while awaiting trial in mid-2009). The new President, John McCain (born August 29, 1936) rode into the White House on the promise of returning order to the nation’s economy and foreign policy. He had won the nomination in a crowded field that included George Allen, Lincoln Chafee, Ron Paul, Mitt Romney, Fred Thompson, Rudy Giuliani, Tom Ridge, Rick Santorum, Duncan Hunter, Mark Sanford and others. Despite some initially poor debate performances, Chafee did surprisingly well among moderate voters in the primaries and polled well among independents; after considering Governors Palin, Pawlenty and Barbour, among many others, McCain chose Chafee to be his running mate, correctly believing conservatives would still back the GOP ticket over Clinton. However, while gradually withdrawing troops from Pakistan and Iraq, President McCain kept troops in Afghanistan and increased hostilities with Russia; furthermore, his domestic proposals were criticized by many for not being conservative enough. Regardless, in late 2009, the Republican-majority House and Republican-majority Senate passed what the Democrats soon dubbed “McCaincare.” However, McCain’s many plans were cut short on February 27, 2010. On this day, President McCain was visiting the President of Chile in Santiago, Chile on a diplomat trip concerning trade when the 8.8-magnitude 2010 Chile Earthquake struck the capital. While Chilean President Michelle Bachelet survived with only a bruised arm, McCain and two Secret Servicemen were crushed when the center of the ceiling of their room caved in, as they were unable to escape their location quickly enough. The US President received extensive wounds to his chest, and died from internal bleeding from several punctured organs within hours. John McCain was the first President to die in office since John F. Kennedy was killed in office in 1963.
The new President, former US Senator Lincoln Chafee (born March 26, 1953), soon saw an opportunity to expand moderate support in the GOP, and tried to force the party to make a sharp turn to the left (for instance, packing his cabinet with liberals such as Olympia Snowe, David Patraeus, Tom Ridge and Tom Casperson), and in doing so ruffled many conservative feathers. His liberal economic policies sparked outrage among the GOP, leading to a close but ultimately unsuccessful primary challenge in 2012 in the form of outgoing US Senator Rick Santorum, whom opposed the Supreme Court’s 2011 decision on gay marriage, which Chafee supported. At the convention, Chafee decided to show consistency over calls to make a unifying ticket by picking the incumbent VP, former Ohio Governor Bob Taft, an exact centrist, to be his running mate. He famously proclaimed “If the Republican party continues to do the bidding of America’s lowest common denominators it will be doomed to the wrong side of history forever. We must be better than that; we must strive to protect America’s future and learn from America’s past, not disregard America’s future and not alter, through disregard or exaggeration, America’s past.” Meanwhile, in the 2012 Democratic primaries, a plurality of liberals supported freshman US Senator Mark Udall of Colorado; however, liberal votes were split among him and several other candidates (Al Franken, Brian Schweitzer, Denise Majette, Joe Biden, and Russ Feingold), allowing conservative candidate Donald Trump, a New York businessman (running on a near-quixotic “the best way to keep the planet green is to kill all the terrorists” platform many within the party found offensive and close-minded), to win the primaries via plurality after plurality. Trump chose one-term incumbent Governor Baron Hill of Indiana, another conservative “blue dog” conservative Democrat, to be his running mate. Not long after the GOP convention, former Governor Huckabee decided to form a third-party conservative ticket; this was believed to likely divide the conservative vote between Trump and Huckabee, confirming a Chafee victory. However, state results were unexpected.
2012
Republican: US Pres. Lincoln Chafee (RI)/US VP Bob Taft (OH) – 45.21% – 58,359,514 popular votes – 30 states and DC – 271 electoral votes (1 from a Mississippi faithless elector)
Democratic: Businessman Donald Trump (NY)/Gov. Baron Hill (IN) – 45.49% – 58,720,953 popular votes – 17 states and DC – 253 electoral votes
True Conservative: Fmr Gov. Mike Huckabee (AR)/US HoR Michelle Bachmann (MN) – 7.36% – 9,501,687 popular votes – 3 states – 14 electoral votes
Green: Fmr US HoR Dennis Kucinich (OH)/Fmr US HoR R. Bradley Miller (NC) – 1.19% – 1,536,296 popular votes – 0 states – 0 electoral votes
All others candidates & votes – 0.75% – 968,132 popular votes – 0 states – 0 electoral votes
In a surprising turn, though, in November Chafee narrowly won in the Electoral College despite losing the popular vote to Donald Trump (a feat that Trump would happily boast about until his dying day). The South saw a mass of pluralities and accusations of voter fraud as two Deep South states narrowly went to Huckabee and Georgia went to Trump by a surprisingly large margin. Trump’s unexpectedly strong grassroots campaign brought in more votes from traditionally Republican states such as Arizona and Texas, suggesting that the Democratic party could find strength (and victory in 2014 and 2016) by appealing more to these voters. Emboldened by the victory (possible by favoring legalizing marijuana, which narrowly brought in States like Colorado and Maine; a quick response to Hurricane Sandy also helped win over some independents as well), Chafee butted heads with conservatives – both politicians and voters – even further, especially with his refusal to expand McCaincare. Some conservatives (leaders) threatened to support expelling him from the party; others (backers) threatened to support impeaching him; others (individuals) threatened his life, and one of them (specifically, an ultraconservative unemployed man with adequate shooting skills) succeeded on June 1, 2014. Chafee is now buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
Robert Alphonso “Bob” Taft III (born January 8, 1942) was the great grandson of US President William Howard Taft, and served as Governor of Ohio from 1999 to 2007 before serving as America’s VP from 2010 to 2014. A strongly centrist individual, Taft tried to heal the wounds of a fractured party but still retain his positions; he was willing to compromise, and was more effective in that regard than Chafee. Taft was less prone to gaffes than Chafee as well, a quality of Chafee that many have since either forgotten or simply downplayed. However, Taft, at age 74, declined to run for a full term in early 2015. Former Governor Jon Huntsman Jr. (US Ambassador to China from mid-2009 to mid-2015) (whose birthday was the same day as Chafee's), won the nomination over 73-year-old US Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas and 69-year-old former Governor of Massachusetts Mitt Romney. The Democrats’ establishment leaders, meanwhile, tried to lead the party back to its more moderate/liberal ideas, but the primary voters that supported Trump instead rallied around an even more conservative Democrat. A man that represented stability to many and chaos to others at the same time. In November, the results were shocking to the former people and joyous to the latter people.
2016
Democratic: Gov. David Alexander Clarke Jr. (WI)/Gov. Mitchell J. “Mitch” Landrieu (LA) – 42.42% – 57,979,321 popular votes – 23 states and DC – 271 electoral votes
Republican: Fmr Ambassador Jon Huntsman Jr. (UT)/US Sen. Michael Steele (MD) – 43.01% – 58,785,432 popular votes – 24 states – 243 electoral votes
Revolutionary/Independent: US Sen. Bernie Sanders (VT)/US HoR Alan Grayson (FL) – 10.47% – 14,310,315 popular votes – 3 states – 22 electoral votes (3 from faithless electors in California)
Libertarian: Activist Austin Petersen (MO)/Actress Melissa Joan Hart (CT) – 1.83% – 2,501,228 popular votes – 0 states – 0 electoral votes
Marijuana: Actor Corey Feldman (CA)/Actor Corey Haim (FL) – 0.94% – 1,284,783 popular votes – 0 states – 0 electoral votes
Constitution: Fmr US HoR Harley D. Brown (ID)/Fmr US HoR Ben Lewis Jones (GA) – 0.56% – 765,403 popular votes – 0 states – 1 electoral vote (from an Idaho faithless elector)
All others candidates & votes – 0.77% – 1,052,130 popular votes – 0 states – 1 electoral vote (for Colin Powell, from a Texas faithless elector)
David Clarke (born August 21, 1956), America’s first African-American President, held beliefs contrary to those of most African-Americans. After winning the Wisconsin Governor’s mansion in the 2012 recall election and subsequent 2014 election, the former Sheriff Clarke became Trump’s “chosen successor” in the 2016 presidential primaries. In a crowded field that included Cory Booker, Andrew Cuomo, Mark Warner, Bob Casey Jr., and several other candidates, Clarke won by being an effective debater and campaigner. Clarke convinced Mitch Landrieu, the former Mayor of New Orleans (2010-2016) elected Governor of Louisiana in 2015, to be his running mate despite being Governor for less than a year. Running on a harsh and hawkish law-and-order platform, the South didn’t really know what to make of the conservative African-American Governor but voted for him out of opposition to Huntsman and other liberal candidates. Senator Bernie Sanders ran as a democratic-socialist alternative to the technocratic Huntsman and “hater” Clarke, whom many saw as having “hijacked” the Democratic Party. Sanders heavily campaigned in California, hoping to deadlock the Electoral College, but instead gave the state to Huntsman (35% Huntsman - 34% Sanders - 30% Clarke - 1% other). Constitution candidate Harley Davidson Brown, a former Congressman for one term (2011-2013), obtained an impressive 9% in his home state of Idaho. Clarke won in the Electoral College despite losing the popular vote; attempts to deny him the presidency through the Electoral College failed. Liberal Republicans (by now the main faction in the GOP) placed much of the blame for Clarke’s victory on the top three third-party candidates (Sanders, Petersen, and Feldman), all of whom drained votes away from the Huntsman campaign. Under Clarke, the US increased foreign engagement, invading Iran over accusations of developing WMDs in an event similar to what unfolded under George W. Bush’s term. Clarke overturned the environmental policies of the Chafee/Taft administrations, and racial relations crumbled even further in the inner cities; Clarke actively cracked down on liberal protest organizations, which only weakened relations between liberal and conservative voters and receive perpetual ridicule from the press. The 2018 nuclear strike on North Korea was the breaking point for many; over it, Clarke famously stated, “This administration had just cause for leveling Pyongyang, and that’s the end of it. Through the chaos we will maintain order in all inferior overseas nations, whether the locals like it or not!” In 2018, the Republicans regained the Senate by 1 seat, and narrowly won back the House; they soon pushed for impeachment, but narrowly missed the number of votes needed. With approval ratings so low they were practically underwater, it was to nobody’s surprise that Clarke lost re-election:
2020
Republican: Actor Dwayne Johnson (CA)/Gov. Charlie Baker (MA) – 60.85% – 84,039,122 popular votes – 34 states and DC – 342 electoral votes
Democratic: US Pres. David A. Clarke Jr. (WI)/US VP Mitch Landrieu (LA) – 37.97% – 52,445,476 popular votes – 16 states – 196 electoral votes
All others candidates & votes – 1.18% – 1,629,857 popular votes – 0 states – 0 electoral votes
Dwayne Douglas Johnson (born 5/2/1972) was the first US President to have neither political nor military experience, and the first US President under the age of 50 since Bill Clinton. Johnson was a professional wrestler-turned-actor whom finally threw his hat into the presidential ring after literal years of calls for him to do so. In the primaries, he defeated candidates Rand Paul, Tom Corbett, Charlie Baker, Will Hurd, and Mia Love quite easily, and chose Baker to be his running mate to add administrative experience to the ticket. The November election saw millennials pour out to the polls in record numbers; however, many in the Midwest and South still voted for Clarke due to him having kept his promise to produce jobs (after all, cleaning up a radiated Asian peninsula requires a lot of domestic decontamination products to be manufactured). Already speculative Democratic candidates for the 2024 election include Senators John Neely Kennedy, Jay Nixon, Joe Sestak, and Bradley Ellsworth, and incumbent Governors Gabby Giffords of Arizona and Robin Carnahan of Missouri. However, re-election of President Dwayne Johnson looks inevitable in the face of high approval ratings.
2001-2005: 43) George Walker Bush (R-TX) – age in office: 54-58
2005-2009: 44) Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton (D-NY) – age in office: 57-61
2009-2010: 45) John Sidney McCain III (R-AZ) – age in office: 72-73
2010-2014: 46) Lincoln Davenport Chafee (R-RI) – age in office: 57-61
2014-2017: 47) Robert Alphonso “Bob” Taft III (R-OH) – age in office: 72-75
2017-2021: 48) David Alexander Clarke Jr. (D-WI) – age in office: 60-64
2021-present: 49) Dwayne Douglas Johnson (R-FL) – age in office: 48-present
Last edited:
1789
1792
1796
1800
1804
1808
1812
1816
1820
1824
1828
1832
1836
1840
1844
In a surprising twist of events, Birney and his Liberty Party are the winners of the election. A law is proposed by a Senator from the Liberty Party tries to abolish slavery, but is shot down in the Senate, which only adds fuel to the fire. And, Birney also has the Mexican-American war to finish, which they win, and got California, Nevada, Utah, and bits of Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, and Wyoming. Texas was annexed as well, but over the course of his term, people were bickering over if these states should be slave states or free states. Birney declines to run in 1848, due to nothing being done in his presidency. His party relatively falls into obscurity, being overshadowed by the Free Soil party, whose candidate had ran for president prior, in the next election.
George Washington (Federalist) 1789-1796
John Adams (Federalist) 1796-1804
Charles Pinckney (Federalist) 1804-1812
DeWitt Clinton (Federalist) 1812-1816
James Monroe (Democratic-Republican) 1816-1824
William H. Crawford (Democratic-Republican) 1824-1828
John Quincy Adams (National Republican) 1828-1832
Andrew Jackson (Democratic) 1832-1836
Martin Van Buren (Democratic) 1836-1844
James Birney (Liberty) 1844-1848
1792
1796
1800
1804
1808
1812
1816
1820
1824
1828
1832
1836
1840
1844
In a surprising twist of events, Birney and his Liberty Party are the winners of the election. A law is proposed by a Senator from the Liberty Party tries to abolish slavery, but is shot down in the Senate, which only adds fuel to the fire. And, Birney also has the Mexican-American war to finish, which they win, and got California, Nevada, Utah, and bits of Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, and Wyoming. Texas was annexed as well, but over the course of his term, people were bickering over if these states should be slave states or free states. Birney declines to run in 1848, due to nothing being done in his presidency. His party relatively falls into obscurity, being overshadowed by the Free Soil party, whose candidate had ran for president prior, in the next election.
George Washington (Federalist) 1789-1796
John Adams (Federalist) 1796-1804
Charles Pinckney (Federalist) 1804-1812
DeWitt Clinton (Federalist) 1812-1816
James Monroe (Democratic-Republican) 1816-1824
William H. Crawford (Democratic-Republican) 1824-1828
John Quincy Adams (National Republican) 1828-1832
Andrew Jackson (Democratic) 1832-1836
Martin Van Buren (Democratic) 1836-1844
James Birney (Liberty) 1844-1848
Last edited:
This is probably what would have happened if Sanders had run as a third party and got into the debates in 2016.Trump wins many blue states with slim pluralities of the vote and wins in an electoral college landslide, whilst managing to still lose the popular vote narrowly.
2016 if all ethnic groups voted exactly the same as they did in 1976.
So:
Trump wins whites 52-46, Clinton wins Blacks 82-16, Clinton wins Hispanics 75-24, and Clinton wins Asians 71-28% (Asians weren't included in 1976 exit polls so I just gave her the same margin among them as Obama 2012)
Rosa Luxemburg
Banned
(I think this belongs here, since parliament / congressional diagrams have popped up on here before. If not, I'll make a map to go along with it)
Anyways, this is based off of a thought experiment done by the YouTuber Soliloquy imagining the 2016 election with a proportional system. Using his method, I have done the same for 2000. Of course, it isn't perfect, but I think this is a decent representation.
George W. Bush (Republican): 142 Seats
Al Gore (Democratic): 129 Seats
John McCain (Moderate): 72 Seats
Ralph Nader (Green): 44 Seats
Bill Bradley (Progressive): 36 Seats
Alan Keyes (Conservative): 12 Seats
In this scenario, the next President is George W. Bush, leading a Republican-Moderate-Conservative coaliton.
Anyways, this is based off of a thought experiment done by the YouTuber Soliloquy imagining the 2016 election with a proportional system. Using his method, I have done the same for 2000. Of course, it isn't perfect, but I think this is a decent representation.
George W. Bush (Republican): 142 Seats
Al Gore (Democratic): 129 Seats
John McCain (Moderate): 72 Seats
Ralph Nader (Green): 44 Seats
Bill Bradley (Progressive): 36 Seats
Alan Keyes (Conservative): 12 Seats
In this scenario, the next President is George W. Bush, leading a Republican-Moderate-Conservative coaliton.
1908 in Forgotten No More:
Nelson A. Miles (Federalist - Massachusetts)/George H. Ross (Federalist - Huron) 407 EV; 44.11% PV
Terrence V. Powderly (Moderate-Labor Workers - Pennsylvania)/George E. Chamberlain Sr. (Moderate-Labor Workers - Columbia) 41 EV; 38.1% PV
Hyrum M. Smith (Truth & Light - Ute)/no running-mate 3 EV; 0.87% PV
Josiah Strong (Social Gospel Workers - Washington)/John W. Leedy (Social Gospel Workers - Minnesota) 0 EV; 11.17% PV
Augustus O. Bacon (Constitution - Georgia)/William T. Hamilton (Constitution - Maryland) 0 EV; 5.45% PV
Nelson A. Miles (Federalist - Massachusetts)/George H. Ross (Federalist - Huron) 407 EV; 44.11% PV
Terrence V. Powderly (Moderate-Labor Workers - Pennsylvania)/George E. Chamberlain Sr. (Moderate-Labor Workers - Columbia) 41 EV; 38.1% PV
Hyrum M. Smith (Truth & Light - Ute)/no running-mate 3 EV; 0.87% PV
Josiah Strong (Social Gospel Workers - Washington)/John W. Leedy (Social Gospel Workers - Minnesota) 0 EV; 11.17% PV
Augustus O. Bacon (Constitution - Georgia)/William T. Hamilton (Constitution - Maryland) 0 EV; 5.45% PV
Warren would probably only win if Trump is an absolute disaster (and even in that case, it wouldn't be a blowout, probably Hillary 2016 states + PA + WI + MI). She has several of Hillary's problems- she's quite polarizing (I live in Massachusetts and don't know anyone who really likes her) and has personal/political weaknesses (i.e. fake Native American ancestry) Trump would have a field day with.
The most "average" result is probably this:
350 EVs for Trump, 188 for Warren.
SBS News Online - 2nd May 2016, 10:22PM - EMILY L. QUACKENBUSH WINS PRESIDENCY
After 3 months of contentious campaigning, SBS can confirm that Emily L. Quackenbush has surpassed the 217 electoral votes needed to be elected President of the Confederation of Columbia.
President-Elect Quackenbush will be the 24th Columbian President since independence, the second female President, and the first President from the Commonwealth Party.
Since President Schneider's election in 2011, his Labor Party has suffered from the record unpopularity of his administration. Senator John F. Beadore of Delaware, the left-wing insurgent which won the candidacy of the Labor Party, was never unable to overcome the popular sentiment that his party was corrupt and responsible for the economic and domestic troubles of the last five years. Beadore won only two states, Ohio and Delaware, a massive fall from Labour's 2011 landslide.
Governor Emilio Busto of Montana led in the polls for most of the election after winning the Conservative primaries. Busto was at first considered personally popular, thanks to his governing record in Montana, and the Conservative Party's traditional strength. Corruption scandals and anti-austerity protests pursued him through his campaign, however, sinking his popularity. The exit polls indicate that Busto was unable to break out of his base of rural westerners, failing to win the crucial Mississippi region states.
The Liberal Party's perennial candidate, Congressman Peter Q. Rushing from North Carolina, achieved a historic high for his Liberal Party, winning multiple states for the first time since the 1970s. Rushing strongly attracted educated and upper-middle class urbanites, especially in the rapidly growing coastal cities. Despite this, he was unable to break out into the working-class demographics needed to win the Presidency.
Quackenbush, originally thought of as a folksy peculiarity of Memphis politics, rose quickly into national prominence based on her anti-austerity campaigning across the nation. Despite the Commonwealth Party traditionally being the party of "Cajuns, Catholics, and Blacks", Quackenbush became well known for her appeal across racial lines, and tireless advocacy for working-class interests across the nation. Her rise in popularity was unforeseen, however, with exit polls indicating that Quackenbush has performed strongly amongst Appalachians, Rust Belt workers, and eastern urbanites. It remains to be seen if this success can be replicated downballot for the Commonwealth Party's other candidates.
President-Elect Quackenbush's victory may inflame tensions with Columbia's northern neighbour of Fredon, which has formally protested against Quackenbush's threats to nationalise Fredish-owned 'strategic assets'. Towards the south, however, Latin America is celebrating the arrival of a possible ally against European and Fredish interference in the affairs of 'second world' nations.
Rushing, Busto and Beadore's concession speeches are expected before 11:15pm, while President Schneider will call President-Elect Quackenbush to congratulate her at 11:40pm. The transition of power will take place in a month, on the 2nd of June.
-
The general idea for this is a quick non-Confederate mega-South (with a pre-revolutionary POD). The Confederation of Columbia is heavily racially mixed, heavily economically unequal, and heavily Christian, with a significant Spanish-speaking population as well. Basically, imagine a bunch of mixed-race Christian leftists speaking in r-dropping classical Deep Southern dialects. The election itself was inspired mostly by the French election, but with left-populists instead of liberals.
Maryland and Delaware have their borders shifted northwards to their original colonial-era claim, plus South Jersey is included, because the areas have some dialect things in common with the south, plus because I've never seen it before on an AH map.
I realise that an electoral system exactly like the OTL USA is probably implausible, but I wanted to keep it as an exact parallel to the US election maps on Wikipedia. If I found a good way of displaying it, I would have every state distribute its votes through OTL Nebraska's manner, plus some special EVs for Native American groups, etc.
Last edited:
2016 US election
Hillary Clinton/Tim Kaine-Democratic: 350 EV 50.63%
Donald Trump/Mike Pence-Republican: 188 EV 43.34%
View attachment 325046
2016 Senate elections
Harry Reid-Democratic: 49+5 56.4%
Mitch McConnell-Republican: 49-5 39.8%
Independent: 2_
100 seats
51 for majority
View attachment 325048
2016 House elections
Paul Ryan-Republican: 236-11 46.5%
Nancy Pelosi-Democratic: 199+11 50.6%
435 seats
218 for majority
Edited to include down-ballot results.Hillary Clinton/Tim Kaine-Democratic: 350 EV 50.63%
Donald Trump/Mike Pence-Republican: 188 EV 43.34%
View attachment 325046
2016 Senate elections
Harry Reid-Democratic: 49+5 56.4%
Mitch McConnell-Republican: 49-5 39.8%
Independent: 2_
100 seats
51 for majority
View attachment 325048
2016 House elections
Paul Ryan-Republican: 236-11 46.5%
Nancy Pelosi-Democratic: 199+11 50.6%
435 seats
218 for majority
Last edited:
2016 Senate elections
Harry Reid-Democratic: 49+5 56.4%
Mitch McConnell-Republican: 49-5 39.8%
Independent: 2_
100 seats
51 for majority
2016 House elections
Paul Ryan-Republican: 236-11 46.5%
Nancy Pelosi-Democratic: 199+11 50.6%
435 seats
218 for majority
- Status