The Running Mates are the Main Candidates (1960-2012)

[Mr. Smith]

How would the elections turn out as opposed to what actually happened? And yes it is headscratching to picture a lot of these running mates making it, but suspend all disbelief for now.

Discuss with maps where applicable, I'll put up mine later but here are the races:

1960

Senator Lyndon Johnson (D-TX) vs. Former Senator Henry Cabot Lodge (R-MA)

1964

Senator Hubert Humphrey (D-MN) vs. Congressman William Miller (R-NY)

1968

Senator Edmund Muskie (D-ME) vs. Governor Spiro Agnew (R-MD) vs. Curtis LeMay (AI-CA)

1972

Vice President Spiro Agnew (R-MD) vs. Sargent Shriver (D-MD)

1976

Vice President Nelson Rockefeller (R-NY)* and/or Senator Bob Dole (R-KS) vs. Senator Walter Mondale (D-MN)

1980

Vice President Walter Mondale (D-MN) vs Former CIA Director George Bush (R-TX)**

1984

Vice President George Bush (R-TX)** vs Congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro (D-NY)

1988

Senator J. Danforth Quayle (R-IN) vs Senator Lloyd Bentsen (D-TX)

1992

Vice President J. Danforth Quayle (R-IN) vs Senator Al Gore (D-TN) vs Admiral Stockdale (I-CA)

1996

Vice President Al Gore (D-TN) vs Congressman Jack Kemp (R-NY)

2000

Senator Joe Lieberman (D-CT) vs Former Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney (R-WY**)

2004

Vice President Dick Cheney (R-WY**) vs Senator John Edwards (D-NC)

2008

Governor Sarah Palin (R-AK) vs Senator Joe Biden (D-DE)

2012

Vice President Joe Biden (D-DE) vs Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI)

EDIT: I changed my mind regarding maps: I'm putting them all up

** George HW Bush may have been Texan IRL, but him moving to Maine is plausible if he wants a Texan running mate...that's where I went.
** Dick Cheney had Texan residency and only moved to run with with George W. Bush, without that he would've stayed in Texas as I have him.

[The Other Castro]

2000

Senator Joe Lieberman (D-CT) vs Former Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney (R-WY)

God help us

[Boston Bread]

Would Curtis LeMay even win any states? He doesn't seem to have the southern reactionary pedigree of Wallace.

[emcee0]

1960

Senator Lyndon Baines Johnson (D-Texas) / Senator Hubert Humphrey (D-Minnesota) 336 electoral votes
UN Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge Jr (R-Massachussetts)/ Fmr Governor Harold Stassen (R-Minnesota)
202 electoral votes

1964
(Johnson is presumably assassinated)

President Hubert Humphrey (D-Minnesota)/ Senator Edmond Muskie (D-Maine) 490 Electoral Votes
Rep. William Miller (R-New York)/ Senator Charles Percy (R-Illinois) 48 Electoral Votes
1968

Governor Spiro Agnew (R-Maryland)/ Governor Nelson Rockefeller (R-New York) 438 Electoral Votes
Vice President Edmund Muskie (D-Maine)/ Senator George McGovern (D-South Dakota) 85 Electoral Votes
General Curtis Lemay (I-CA)/ Colonel Harland David Sanders (I-Kentucky) 15 Electoral Votes

1972

President Spiro Agnew (R-Maryland)/ Vice-President Nelson Rockefeller (R-New York) 535 Electoral Votes
Ambassador Sargent Shriver (D- Maryland)/ Rep. Shirley Chisolm (D-New York) 3 Electoral Votes

1976

Senator Walter Mondale (D-Minnesota)/ Senator Henry Jackson (D-Washington) 270 Electoral Votes

President Bob Dole (R-Kansas)/ Senator Howard Baker (R-Tennesee) 268 Electoral Votes

1980

CIA Director George HW Bush (R-Texas)/ Senator Howard Baker (R-Tennesee) 423 Electoral Votes
President Walter Mondale (D-Minnesota)/ Senator Henry Jackson (D-Washington) 115 Electoral Votes

1984

President George HW Bush (R-Texas)/ Vice President Howard Baker (R- Tennesee) 535 Rep. Geraldine Ferraro (D-New York)/ Fmr Senator George McGovern (D-South Dakota)

1988

Senator Lloyd Bentsen (D-Texas)/ Senator Al Gore (D-Tennesee) 414 Electoral Votes
Senator J. Danforth Quayle (R-Indiana)/ Senator Jesse Helms (R-South Carolina) 124 Electoral Votes
1992

Vice President Al Gore (D-Tennesee)/ Governor Jerry Brown 434 Electoral Votes
Senator J Danforth Quayle (R-Indiana)/ Pat Buchanan (R-Virginia) 104 Electoral Votes
1996

President Al Gore (D-Tennesee)/ Vice President Jerry Brown (D- California) 358 Electoral Votes
Sec. Jack Kemp (R-New York)/ Senator Phil Gramm (R-Texas) 180 Electoral Votes
2000

Fmr. SoD Dick Cheney (R-WY)/ Senator John McCain (R-Arizona) 269 Electoral Votes
Senator Joe Lieberman (D-Connecticut)/ Senator John Edwards (D-North Carolina) 269 Electoral Votes

[emcee0]

2004

Senator John Edwards (D-North Carolina)/ Senator Bob Graham (D-Florida) 304 Electoral Votes
President Dick Cheney (R-Wyoming)/ Vice President John McCain) 234 Electoral Votes

2008

Senator Joe Biden (D- Delaware)/ Senator Russ Feingold (D- Wisconsin) 410 Electoral Votes
Governor Sarah Palin (R-Alaska)/ Congressman Tom Tancredo (R- Colorado) 128 Electoral Votes

2012

President Joe Biden (D-Delaware)/ Vice President Russ Feingold (D-Wisconsin) 294 Electoral Votes
Congressman Paul Ryan(R- Wisconsin)/ Governor Mike Huckabee (R-Arkansas) 244 Electoral Votes

[badgate]

Emcee, bless your heart. You used 2012 electoral votes for all of these maps.

[emcee0]

I know, I thought I would try these with 2012 maps. Haha well I started going and kept going after I realized.

[Thomas D]

1960

Lodge 386-151

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

35. Lyndon B. Johnson (D-TX)/Hubert H. Humphrey (D-MN) 1961-1963
36. Hubert H. Humphrey (D-MN)/vacant, Edmund Muskie (D-ME) 1963-1969
37. Edmund Muskie (D-ME)/R. Sargent Shrivet (D-MD) 1969-1973
38. Spiro T. Agnew (R-MD)/Robert Dole (R-KS) 1973-1974
39. Robert Dole (R-KS)/vacant, Gerald R. Ford (R-MI) 1974-1977
40. Walter Mondale (D-MN)/James E. Carter (D-GA) 1977-1981
41. George H.W. Bush (R-TX)/Paul Laxalt (R-NV) 1981-1989
42. Lloyd Bentsen (D-TX)/Michael Dukakis (D-MA) 1989-1993
43. Albert Gore, Jr. (D-TN)/Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) 1993-2001
44. Richard B. Cheney (R-WY)/ Thomas Ridge (R-PA) 2001-2009
45. Joseph R. Biden (D-DE)/Barack Obama, Jr. (D-IL) 2009-present

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

1960

Lodge (MA)/Miller (NY) 284 - LBJ (TX)/Humphrey (MN) 253

[Mr. Smith]

I'll put my results for the '60-'72 elections here.

1. 1960

I believe would come down in this case to Lyndon Johnson (TX)/Hubert Humphrey (MN) vs. Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr (MA)/Barry Goldwater (AZ) and Harry Byrd (VA) as a Southern protest candidate

Senator Lyndon B. Johnson (D-TX)/Senator Hubert Humphrey (D-MN): 325
Ambassador Henry C. Lodge (R-MA)/ Senator Barry M. Goldwater (R-AZ): 196
Senator Harry F. Byrd (D-VA) [unpledged]: 16

2. 1964

Unfortunately, the heart problems that led to Johnson's demise in 1973 in this timeline take him in office, just days before the Civil Rights Act gets voted on, this pretty much results in a very similar effect when Kennedy was assassinated...except in the very Deep South who came to see Johnson as a turncoat. This gave room for Congressman William Miller to capitalize on State's Right's...which he did in his choice of the newly minted John Tower of Texas.

Ultimately the result was 1964-lite, because Humphrey still didn't have the same charisma LBJ did and because John Tower turned out to be a little less blunt and alien than Goldwater or Miller IRL...but Miller still ran horribly.


President Hubert Humphrey (D-MN)/Senator Edmund Muskie (D-ME): 435
Congressman William Miller (R-NY)/Senator John Tower (R-TX): 103

3. 1968

Humphrey declines a second term for health reasons, ultimately not making it past 1969. Muskie runs in place of Humphrey. However because of taking a slightly more dovish approach to Vietnam and attempting to build an even "Greater Society", he ends up being more polarizing than even Johnson. Except he has a firm base. Muskie tries to distance himself and hold onto the South by picking Senator Sam Ervin of North Carolina.

Enter Spiro Agnew who campaigns mostly on a psuedo-isolationist platform and yes, the Southern strategy and Curtis LeMay who campaigns on being more hawkish.The running mates here are Governor George Romney (R-MI) and in an attempted take on the  south, Senator Strom Thurmond (R-SC)

Vice President Edmund Muskie/Senator Sam Ervin: 267
Governor Spiro T. Agnew/Governor George Romney: 234
LeMay/Thurmond: 37

Thanks to the choice of Thurmond, the Deep South goes to LeMay. But because Muskie chose a Civil Rights skeptic but with a very good civil liberties record, he managed to retain Texas and the Upper South. Romney managed to pull Utah, the Midwest, and Vermont into the otherwise conservative Agnew's court. This puts the election to the House, to which the Southern Democrats decide to give the election to Agnew.

4. 1972

Agnew manages to pull a lot of "dirty tricks" which stops all credible campaigns, what with Ed Muskie pulling an '04 Gore and declining to try again. This leaves it to super dark horse Sargent Shriver of Maryland to run the general, and he picks Eagleton of Missouri and does not back down when the revelation is discovered. This manages to allow him to do slightly better than McGovern, but still pretty horribly.

President Spiro T. Agnew (R-MD)/Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller (R-NY): 497
Ambassador Sargent Shriver (D-MD)/Senator Thomas Eagleton (D-MO): 41

And it would probably end with Agnew resigning, leaving Rockefeller as president...and I guess he'd choose Dole as replacement.

[Rocky Rockefeller]

I'll put my results for the '60-'72 elections here.

1. 1960

I believe would come down in this case to Lyndon Johnson (TX)/Hubert Humphrey (MN) vs. Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr (MA)/Barry Goldwater (AZ) and Harry Byrd (VA) as a Southern protest candidate

Johnson/Humphrey: 325
Lodge/Goldwater: 196
Byrd: 16

2. 1964

Unfortunately, the heart problems that led to Johnson's demise in 1973 in this timeline take him in office, just days before the Civil Rights Act gets voted on, this pretty much results in a very similar effect when Kennedy was assassinated...except in the very Deep South who came to see Johnson as a turncoat. This gave room for Congressman William Miller to capitalize on State's Right's...which he did in his choice of the newly minted John Tower of Texas.

Ultimately the result was 1964-lite, because Humphrey still didn't have the same charisma LBJ did and because John Tower turned out to be a little less blunt and alien than Goldwater or Miller IRL...but Miller still ran horribly.


Humphrey/Muskie: 435
Miller/Tower: 103

3. 1968

Humphrey declines a second term for health reasons, ultimately not making it past 1969. Muskie runs in place of Humphrey. However because of taking a slightly more dovish approach to Vietnam and attempting to build an even "Greater Society", he ends up being more polarizing than even Johnson. Except he has a firm base. Muskie tries to distance himself and hold onto the South by picking Senator Sam Ervin of North Carolina.

Enter Spiro Agnew who campaigns mostly on a psuedo-isolationist platform and yes, the Southern strategy and Curtis LeMay who campaigns on being more hawkish.The running mates here are Governor George Romney (R-MI) and in an attempted take on the  south, Senator Strom Thurmond (R-SC)

Muskie/Ervin: 267
Agnew/ Romney: 234
LeMay/Thurmond: 37

Thanks to the choice of Thurmond, the Deep South goes to LeMay. But because Muskie chose a Civil Rights skeptic but with a very good civil liberties record, he managed to retain Texas and the Upper South. Romney managed to pull Utah, the Midwest, and Vermont into the otherwise conservative Agnew's court. But ultimately Muskie ekes out in such a case.

4. 1972

There is no plausible way for this to happen I know of, but supposing it did:

Agnew/ Kissinger?: 497
Shriver/Eagleton: 41

And it would probably end with Agnew resigning, leaving Kissinger as president...and I guess he'd choose Dole.

Since you need 270 votes to win, the 1968 election would be sent to the House of Representatives were LeMay/Thurmond would be kingmaker. In such a case, Agnew might end up winning if he pulls in enough southern democrats angry at Humphrey/Muskie's civil rights record. However, the Senate might pick Ervin for Veep over Romney, which would be interesting to say the least.

[badgate]

Actually, that electoral map has Agnew winning 25 states. It's not unreasonable to think the delegations would vote based on who won their state's popular votes.

[Libertarian Socialist Dem]

1960

Lodge (MA)/Miller (NY) 284 - LBJ (TX)/Humphrey (MN) 253

Humphery's pro civil rights stance would still cause Mississippi and Alabama to go unpledged.

[Libertarian Socialist Dem]

2000

Senator Joe Lieberman (D-CT) vs Former Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney (R-WY)

God help us

This, worst election ever.

[Thomas D]

1964

Humphrey 343-195

[Libertarian Socialist Dem]

1976:

(D)    Mondale/Harris 311
(R)    Dole/Baker 181
(AIP) Thurmond/Hicks 46  [1]

[1] Louise Day Hicks, head of the Boston anti-busing movement. The AIP was revived in an attempt to build a right-wing populist coalition around opposition to desegregation efforts among other things.

[Mr. Smith]

Fixed, and actually that really does give more sense to '72. I'll also add that Romney was dropped for the more pragmatic and less puritanical Rockefeller just to make sense of this.

Anyway here's '76-'88:

5. 1976

After 1973 when the tax evasions got to him, Agnew resigned in shame, which led to Nelson Rockefeller becoming president in his place and the next year Senator Robert Dole (R-KS) as Vice President. But because of health concerns, and resentment of a corrupt bargain and "dirty tricks" by his  predecessor fueling up a nearly unbeatable Democratic ticket, Rockefeller declined to run again.

This left an opening for Robert Dole to run in his place. To which he chose Senator Howard Baker of Tennessee

On the Democratic side, Senator Walter Mondale (D-MN) narrowly defeated fellow Senator "Scoop" Jackson (D-WA) and former Governor of Georgia Jimmy Carter. The latter of whom dropped out after a deal was made to be running mate ala IRL 1932.

Senator Walter Mondale (D-MN)/ Fmr. Governor Jimmy Carter (D-GA): 270
Vice President Robert Dole (R-KS)/Senator Howard Baker (R-TN) : 268

This one turns out even closer, due to Mondale and Dole both lacking charisma of any kind, sometimes it was more about the running mates than the runners themselves. Ultimately the Southern electorate preferred the bold and pragmatic Baker over the forthright Carter. In the end Mondale could only capture three of the old Confederate states, but he was the managed to keep the Northeast and Midwest and gain Oregon and Washington, giving him the election.

6. 1980

Mondale gets into serious hot-water concerning the economy, and very narrowly survives a challenge from conservative Senator Ernst Hollings of South Carolina. And unfortunately for Mondale, Former CIA Director George Bush manages to paint Former Governor of California Ronald Reagan as too conservative, which pretty much wipes away any chances of hanging on. Even worse, Bush has relocated to Maine so he can select former Texas Governor John Connally in a ploy to gain Dixiecratic votes.

Fmr. CIA Director George HW Bush (R-ME)/Fmr. Governor John Connally (R-TX): 457
President Walter Mondale (D-MN)/Vice President Jimmy Carter (D-GA): 81

7. 1984

This ends up being the 50-state bloodbath Reagan diehards still wish happened in 1984. This comes from the Geraldine Ferraro ending up becoming the nominee on the Democrats side because of practically everyone else staying out. And just like George McGovern in '72 IRL, she has issues finding someone who will run with her. Ultimately it is Senator John Glenn of Ohio who steps in...which does nothing.

President George HW Bush (R-ME)/ Vice President John Connally (R-TX): 535
Congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro (D-NY)/Senator John Glenn (D-OH): 3

8. 1988

Although Bush remains popular throughout, the GOP ended up in trouble when the bench had practically cleared for Howard Baker. When that failed, dark horse candidate Senator Dan Quayle of Indiana ended up becoming the unlikely nominee. Quayle seeing himself as a "Jack Kennedy", he decided to tap veteran Governor/Senator Paul Laxalt of Nevada to be the "LBJ"

The newly formed DLC did everything they could to get Senator Lloyd Bentsen of Texas successfully nominated. Bentsen chose promising young Senator Albert Gore of Tennessee in a strategy of reinforcement rather than the usual North-South.

Senator Lloyd Bentsen (D-TX)/ Senator Albert Gore (D-TN): 390
Senator J. Danforth Quayle (R-IN)/Fmr. Senator Paul Laxalt (R-NV): 148

In the end, Laxalt ended up only helping Quayle take Flyover Country and most of the West. Whereas Bentsen ended up proving a great moderate and effectively split the South while bringing back Washington and gaining California.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

MormDem, why would Agnew choose a Jewish immigrant with no prior official experience for Vice President? Choosing someone in eligible for the office seems a bit counter-intuitive.

[Mr. Smith]

@Cathcon: I fixed that, forgetting the 270 rule in '68 opened up a lot of unnecessary holes. I switched to Rockefeller switching out Romney.

Also, I find it funny that 1988 in this scenario does more to give the South back to the Democrats than 1976.

And 1976 is the one off-time for Ohio and Missouri instead of Nevada (which was off in '76 and '88 here)

1992-2004 will be tomorrow.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Lyndon B. Johnson: 55.7%, 369
Henry C. Lodge: 43.8%, 168

[Antonio the Sixth]

Hubert H. Humphrey: 57.2%, 416
William E. Miller: 42.4%, 122

[Antonio the Sixth]

Spiro T. Agnew: 47.8%, 351
Edmund Muskie: 44.1%, 160
Curtis LeMay: 7.8%, 27

[Antonio the Sixth]

Spiro T. Agnew: 53.6%, 325
R. Sargent Shriver: 45.0%, 213

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

1960

Lodge (MA)/Miller (NY) 284 - LBJ (TX)/Humphrey (MN) 253

Humphery's pro civil rights stance would still cause Mississippi and Alabama to go unpledged.

In spite of Humphrey, a Southern candidate is much preferable to Lodge for the Deep South. Unpledged come in 2nd place in MS and AL.