The Campaign Trail: Post Your Maps!

[Del Tachi]

2012

President Barack Obama (D-IL) / Vice President Joe Biden (D-DE) - 347 electoral votes; 66,498,294, 52.0%
Fmr. Governor Mitt Romney (R-MA) / Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) - 191 Electoral Votes; 60,158,170, 47.1%

I played as Romney on normal difficultly.  My central theme was to attack Obama relentlessly on his performance while being just moderate enough on social issues like abortion and Planned Parenthood to court moderate voters.  Obviously, it didn't work and Obama was almost able to replicate his 2008 performance.  Closest states were Missouri, North Carolina and Indiana.   

[Del Tachi]

United States presidential election, 2012

Mitt Romney (R-MA) / Paul Ryan (R-WI) - 305 electoral votes; 64,006,458 (49.5%)
Barack Obama (D-IL) / Joe Biden (D-DE) - 233 electoral votes; 64,022,040 (49.5%)

Played as Obama and tried to tailor my campaign message in a way to turnout the liberal base and demonstrate the Republicans' obstructionist tactics.  As you can see it worked in a way, as I was able to win the popular vote (mostly thanks to large margins in CA and IL) while losing just about every single swing state.

Close States (within 5%)

1.  Wisconsin:  0.49%
2.  Colorado:  0.50%
3.  Nevada:  0.55% 
4.  Pennsylvania:  1.36%

5.  Virginia:  2.03%
6.  Iowa:  2.72%
7.  Ohio:  3.22%
8.  Minnesota:  3.28%
9.  Delaware:  3.48%
10.  New Hampshire:  3.53%
11.  Florida:  3.56%

Competitive States (within 10%)

12.  North Carolina:  6.36%
13.  New York:  7.18%
14.  Indiana:  8.93%
15.  Michigan:  9.04%
16.  Connecticut:  9.58%
17.  Missouri:  9.60%

[Del Tachi]

For some reason when I try to play this game, I can go through election night but whenever I click "Skip to Final Results" the final results screen never pulls up.  This is annoying because I can never see the national popular vote totals nor any of the other information regarding outcomes in specific states.

Anyone else having this problem?

[Del Tachi]

Got some interesting results playing as Romney.

Former Governor Mitt Romney (R-MA) / Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL): 379 Electoral Votes
President Barack Obama (D-IL) / Vice President Joe Biden (D-DE): 159 Electoral Votes

I didn't even campaign in either Delaware or New York, but managed to win them somehow.

Delaware, I could see under really good circumstances, but around the same time as winning Connecticut, Nwe Jersey, and Illinois, and definitely not before Maine, New Mexico, Washington, or Oregon. How did you manage to win New York of all states, though?

For some reason when I try to play this game, I can go through election night but whenever I click "Skip to Final Results" the final results screen never pulls up.  This is annoying because I can never see the national popular vote totals nor any of the other information regarding outcomes in specific states.

Anyone else having this problem?

It happens sometimes. What browser are you using?

Chrome.  I can even get the app to run on IE

[Del Tachi]

United States presidential election, 2000

Vice President Al Gore (D-TN) / Senator Evan Bayh (D-IN) - 328 Electoral Votes; 52,297,584 PV (48.9%)
Governor George W. Bush (R-TX) / Former SecDef Dick Cheney (R-WY); 210 Electoral Votes; 51,273,692 PV (47.9)
Activist Ralph Nader (G-DC) / Activist Winona LaDuke (G-MN); 0 Electoral Votes; 3,063,231 PV (2.9%)
Activist Pat Buchanan (R-VA) / Activist Ezola Foster (R-CA); 0 Electoral Votes; 309,534 PV (0.3%)

Closest States:
Tennessee - Gore by 10,383 (0.50%)
Missouri - Bush by 11,613 (0.52%)
Florida - Gore by 98,194 (1.37%)
New Mexico - Gore by 8,556 (1.41%)
New Hampshire - Gore by 9,039 (1.64%)

Despite the closeness of the results in several states, Gore's winning of the election was never in question due to his performance in the state of Ohio.  Gore carried the Buckeye State with 89,365 votes (1.90%) thanks in part to a strong, last-minute campaign push and perfectly-executed GOTV operation. 

[Del Tachi]

All these new campaigns!  Its Christmas time!

[Del Tachi]

The next ones they should add:

1860
1876
1916
1948
1988
1992

My thoughts exactly, but I'd also like to see 2004

[Del Tachi]

Nixon/Agnew '68 on normal

Better than 95.6% of players

http://www.americanhistoryusa.com/campaign-trail/game/59070

[Del Tachi]

http://www.americanhistoryusa.com/campaign-trail/game/61619

Embraced Eisenhower and campaigned as a conciliatory candidate with moderate positions on Civil Rights and the Cold War.  Backed Eisenhower's record on the economy.  I agreed to debate Kennedy, and got utterly trounced but it didn't seem to hurt me that much by the time Election Day rolled around.  Very close popular vote, but I won widely in the electoral college.

[Del Tachi]

Has anybody been able to win as Nixon/Goldwater in 1960 on anything other than easy?

I think its one of the few scenarios I haven't been able to beat the game at

[Del Tachi]

Hopefully we can get 1992 and 2004 scenarios.  1980 would also be cool. 

[Del Tachi]

Finally!  Won as Truman without accepting a Civil Rights plank in the Democratic platform.  My strategy was to campaign exclusively in Ohio and the Mountain/Plains states, as CA and NY quickly become fools' gold if you don't accept Civil Rights.  I always answered the most liberal policy position given as well.

Truman / Barkley - 289 EV, 23.9 million PV (49.5%)
Dewey / Warren - 242 EV, 21.8 million PV (45.1%)
Wallace / Taylor - 0 EV, 2.6 million PV (5.5%)

[Del Tachi]

A Southern Strategy in '60

Nixon/Goldwater - 283 EV, 33.1 million votes (49.5%)
Kennedy/Johnson - 248 EV, 33.8 million votes (50.5%)
Unpledged electors - 6 EV, 0 votes (0.0%)

Won as Nixon/Goldwater on normal after multiple tries.  After picking Goldwater, choose to run as Eisenhower's third term, always pick the moderate-conservative or moderate answer (except on foreign policy, of course), choose to campaign extensively in the South, don't debate Kennedy, send Eisenhower to CA/the West Coast, and spend your last day in Texas/the South.  To win under this scenario you need CA, MO, NC and one of MS/AL (the Industrial Midwest is out of reach).  California is a tough nut to crack in this scenario, and I campaigned there the most.  I also ended up getting both MS and AL and winning WA (though I never campaigned there).   

https://www.americanhistoryusa.com/campaign-trail/game/766857

[Del Tachi]

Won an electoral majority as Kennedy/Humphrey on normal mode.  Ran as a mainstream Democrat on economics, while going hard left on civil rights.  To win with this ticket you have to nail down CA, WI and MO.


https://www.americanhistoryusa.com/campaign-trail/game/771249

[Del Tachi]

A Liberal Carter

(✓) Governor Jimmy Carter (D-GA) / Senator Walter Mondale (D-MN) - 379 EVs, 40.9 million votes (49.8%)
President Gerald Ford (R-MI) / Senator Bob Dole (R-KS) - 179 EVs, 39.7 million votes (48.3%)

Ran as Carter and took the liberal positions on gun control, abortion, NYC bailouts, busing, Hawkins-Humphrey, healthcare, and opted to leave the Plains church.  Looks like it did me well in CA, OR and IL at the expense of MS and MO.   

[Del Tachi]

Had to post this after the result, I think this is my closest game ever:

Kennedy/Johnson - 271
Nixon/Lodge - 252
Unpledged Electors - 14

A pretty historical 1960 game as Kennedy, I ran strong on the Cold War and moderate on Civil Rights.  Resoundingly beat Nixon in the debates.  The only state to flip from IRL is Pennsylvania, but the result hinged on several nail-biting results (less than 1% difference) in a few states, which pretty much all broke for Kennedy:

Closest states:

Hawaii - Kennedy by 38 votes (!!!) (0.02%)
Pennsylvania - Nixon by 5,190 votes (0.11%)
Delaware - Kennedy by 378 votes (0.20%)
Texas - Kennedy by 4,560 votes (0.20%)
New Jersey - Kennedy by 16,540 votes (0.58%)
Missouri - Kennedy by 11,613 (0.62%)
Michigan - Kennedy by 23,044 votes (0.69%)
Nevada - Kennedy by 380 votes (0.81%)

A flip in any of these state's would have thrown the election into the House of Representatives, Texas would have delivered the White House to Nixon.

Kennedy also won the popular vote by only 58,181 votes (0.09%), making it roughly as close as the 1880 election.

[Del Tachi]

Does anyone have a good strategy on how to win as Clay in 1844?  It's one of the few scenarios I cannot win

[Del Tachi]

Dukakis on Impossible

Dukakis/Bentsen: 296 EV 49.8%
Bush/Quayle:       242 EV 49.0%

https://www.americanhistoryusa.com/campaign-trail/game/928815

It seems like all modes are easy when your playing the 1988 election lol. I have no idea why these chose this over 1992 or why they chose 1916 over 1912

I think the reason why the maker of the campaign trail did 1916 over 1912 is because he didn't want to make third parties.

Yeah for some reason the 1968 scenario seems a bit broken with Wallace as a third party.  When playing as Nixon or Humphrey, you still sometimes get prompts aimed towards Wallace.

[Del Tachi]

Had to post, because it was a pretty rare outcome.  269-269 tie in 1976.  I played as Ford/Anderson.

Carter/Mondale - 269 EV; 41,106,921 (49.9%)
Ford/Anderson - 269 EV; 39,639,330 (48.1%)

Closest states were Maine (Ford +615), Virginia (Ford +4,913) and Wisconsin (Ford +7,811).  Closest Carter win was Oklahoma (Carter +7,728)

Just because its a rare outcome, I'll post the outcome blurb:

While the Electoral College ended in a tie, the Democrats have a huge advantage in the House of Representatives and are sure to elect your opponent in that manner. Perhaps you can still play a role in 1980, or seek your old Congressional leadership positions. In any case, you can still take solace in the fact that you did the right thing by pardoning Nixon and moving the country beyond the Watergate episode.

If anyone has the "no majority" blurbs for 2016, 2012, 2000, 1916 or 1896 (if possible) please share.  I'd be interested to know what they say.