President Gerald Ford (R-MI) / Senator Bob Dole (R-KS)
Senator Henry Jackson (D-WA) / Governor Reubin Askew (D-FL) ✓
Fmr. Senator Eugene McCarthy (I-MN) / Senator Mike Gravel (D-AK)
Jackson lags in the South, his hawkishness and Ford's roots hurt in the Midwest, and McCarthy plus Ford's appeal as a moderate Republican ding him in the Northeast, but he pulls through because of Watergate angst and a West Coast miracle. President Jackson kickstarts what we would call Reaganite financialization, but botches a coup in Iran and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan still happens, and things look pretty grim in 1980.
Poll
