Alternate Careers

[Dr. MB]

John Fitzgerald Kennedy

1917-1992

Member of the U.S. House of Representatives (D-MA-11)

1947-1953

United States Senator (D-MA)

1953-1960

35th President of the United States

1961-1965

Chairman of the National Organization for Rare Diseases

1982-1984

41st President of the United States

1985-1989

Secretary of State

1989-1992

POD is Jackie is killed instead, prompting JFK to retire, until returning to public life as an advocate for rare disease research.

I seriously doubt JFK would live into the 1970's, nevermind the 1990's.

I'm not super familiar on how Addison's works, but I know the average life expectancy for a victim is 77.5 years. I feel that if JFK ended up leaving the stress of political life behind, and his family pressures him to get the whole Addison's ordeal dealt with for fear of his kids becoming orphans, he could very well survive.   

That's just under a normal lifespan. I agree with you.

[Dr. MB]

(I'll just imagine she never met Bill but went into politics on her own).

Hillary Diane Rodham
1947–present

Member of the Illinois House of Representatives
1977–1983

Attorney General of Illinois
1983–1997

U.S. Senator from Illinois
1997–2009

Attorney General of the United States
2009–2013

[Dr. MB]

Donald J. Trump

Republican Nominee for Governor of New York (1990)
Governor of New York (1995–2003)
United States Secretary of Commerce (2005–2007)
Republican Primary Candidate for President of the United States (2008)

Donald Trump Jr.

Candidate for Mayor of New York City (2009)
U.S. Representative, New York's 19th congressional district (2011–2017)

Jerry Brown

California Secretary of State (1971–1975)
Governor of California (1975–1983)
U.S. Senator from California (1983–1993)
President of the United States (1993–2001)

[Dr. MB]

Doug Jones
United States Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama (1997–2001)
Governor of Alabama (2003–2007)
United States Attorney General (2009–2013)

Roy Moore
Assistant District Attorney (1977–1982)
Judge for the Sixteenth Circuit Court of Alabama (1992–2000)
Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court (2001–2003)
Governor of Alabama (2007–2009)
Imprisoned (2009–present)

[Dr. MB]

Doug Jones and Roy Moore were Governors of Alabama at the same time?

Fixed

[Dr. MB]

Michelle Obama
Member of the Illinois Senate from the 13th district (2001–2007)
Lieutenant Governor of Illinois (2007–2009)
Governor of Illinois (2009–present)

Barack Obama
Member of the Illinois Senate from the 13th district (1997–2001)
Member of the United States House of Representatives from Illinois's 1st district (2001–present)
Second Gentleman of Illinois (2007–2009)
First Gentleman of Illinois (2009–present)

[Dr. MB]

Ben Carson
Lieutenant Governor of Maryland (2003–2007)
United States Senator from Florida (2017–present)

Jim Webb
United States Senator from Virginia (2007–2011)
United States Secretary of Defense (2011–2013)

Arnold Schwarzenegger
Governor of California (2003–2011)
United States Senator from California (2011–present)*

*–Switched from Republican to Independent in 2017

Dianne Feinstein
Mayor of San Francisco (1978–1988)
Governor of California (1991–1999)
Democratic Nominee for Vice President of the United States (2000)

[Dr. MB]

Walter Mondale
U.S. Senator from Minnesota (1964–1976)
Vice President of the United States (1977–1981)
Democratic Nominee for U.S. President (1984)
U.S. Ambassador to Japan (1993–1996)
U.S. Senator from Minnesota (2003–2009)

Dean Barkley
U.S. Senator from Minnesota (2002–2003)
Governor of Minnesota (2011–present)

Jesse Ventura
Governor of Minnesota (1999–2003)
U.S. Senator from Minnesota (2009–present)

George W. Bush
Governor of Texas (1995–2007)
U.S. Secretary of Commerce (2009–2013)
U.S. Senator from Texas (2013–present)

[Dr. MB]

Hillary Rodham

Illinois State Senator (1977–1983)
Attorney General of Illinois (1983–1991)
United States Senator from Illinois (1999–2005)
United States Ambassador to the United Nations (2007–2009)
United States Senator from Illinois (2011–2017)
President of the United States (2017–present)

1998 election results, U.S. Senate, Illinois
Hillary Rodham (Republican) – 50.0%
Carol Moseley Braun (Democratic) – 48.5%

2004 election results, U.S. Senate, Illinois
Barack Obama (Democratic) – 50.4%
Hillary Rodham (Republican) – 46.6%

2010 special election results, U.S. Senate, Illinois
Alexi Giannoulias (Democratic) – 47.8%
Hillary Rodham (Republican) – 47.7%

2010 election results, U.S. Senate, Illinois
Hillary Rodham (Republican) – 47.9%
Alexi Giannoulias (Democratic) – 47.6%

2016 Republican presidential primaries
Hillary Rodham – 1,307 delegates
Ben Carson – 986 delegates
John Kasich – 103 delegates
Others – 76 delegates

2016 presidential election
Hillary Rodham/John Kasich: 278; 47.4%
Ed Markey/Maria Cantwell: 260; 48.6%

[Dr. MB]

Jim Hill
Oregon State Representative (1983–1987)
Oregon State Senator (1987–1993)
Treasurer of Oregon (1993–2001)
Governor of Oregon (2003–2009)
United States Senator from Oregon (2009–present)

[Dr. MB]

Jim Folsom Jr.
United States Senator from Alabama (1981–1999)
Vice President of the United States (2001–2005)
United States Senator from Alabama (2006–2015)

Richard Shelby
United States Representative from Alabama (1979–1987)
Republican Nominee for United States Senate, Alabama (1992)
United States Senator from Alabama (1997–2005)
President of the United States (2005–2009)

Notes:
1) Folsom edged out Jeremiah Denton in 1980, winning 50.1% of the vote to Denton's 49.6%. He narrowly defeated Denton in a 1986 rematch, and defeated Richard Shelby in 1992 with 54%. Folsom lost reelection to Jeff Sessions in 1998.
2) After Shelby was elected President, Folsom ran in the 2006 special election to replace him. He defeated Roy Moore, 54%–46%. The interim senator had been Steve Windom, former Lieutenant Governor of Alabama. Moore defeated Windom in the primary.
3) President Gore had approval ratings in the 40s by 2004, and narrowly lost reelection to Shelby with Christine Todd Whitman as VP, who had emerged as an unlikely dark horse contender.
4) Folsom was reelected with 55% of the vote in 2008, but was narrowly defeated in the 2014 Republican wave.

[Dr. MB]

Phil Bredesen

64th Mayor of Nashville (1975-1995)
47th Governor of TN (1995-2003)
TN-5 Representative (2003-2007)
Senator of TN (2007-2017)
45th President of the United States (2017-Present)

Kamala Harris

37th Governor of California (1999-2007)
California Senator (2007-2017)
48th Vice President of the United States (2017-Present)

How does she go from unknown deputy district attorney to governor of the largest state, without being elected state senator or Mayor or assemblywoman first?

[Dr. MB]

Jerry Springer

Mayor of Cincinnati: 1977–1978
Governor of Ohio: 1983–1987
United States Senator from Ohio: 1999–2006
Governor of Ohio: 2007–2011

[Dr. MB]

Mike Pence
Indiana State Senator: 1989–1997
U.S. Representative from Indiana's 2nd district: 1997–1999; 2001–2003
U.S. Representative from Indiana's 6th district: 2003–2005
United States Senator from Indiana: 2005–2017*
Democratic Nominee for Vice President: 2016

*–Senator Evan Bayh retired to mount an unsuccessful presidential campaign. He was the Democratic nominee but lost to George W. Bush.

In this scenario, Pence retains a lot of his old views from the 70s and remains a Catholic. However, he is still more socially conservative than most Democrats, but is economically left of center.

[Dr. MB]

Frank Church
United States Senator from Idaho (1957–1981)
President of the United States (1981–1983)†

†–Assassinated

Mike Gravel
Member of the Alaska House of Representatives (1963–1967)
Speaker of the Alaska House of Representatives (1965–1967)
United States Senator from Alaska (1969–1981)
Vice President of the United States (1981–1983)
President of the United States (1983–1993)

Jimmy Carter
Georgia State Senator (1963–1967)
Democratic Nominee, President of the United States (1976)
Governor of Georgia (1971–1975; 1983–1984)
Vice President of the United States (1984–1993)