America: 2000-2016

[Vosem]

What happened in the 2008 Senate, governor, and House races?

[Vosem]

You know, rereading the beginning of the timeline, I just realized you never posted results for the 2000 or 2002 Senate elections. Since Bush did better than OTL in 2000, I decided it was logical Republicans would also do better downballot; since Roy Barnes is reelected, it must follow that Democrats did better than OTL in 2002, as well.

I came to the conclusion that the following five races that went Democratic IOTL went Republican in your timeline: that in Florida Bill McCollum defeated Bill Nelson; that in Michigan Spencer Abraham defeated Debbie Stabenow; that in Nebraska Don Stenberg defeated Ben Nelson; that in New Jersey Bob Franks defeated Jon Corzine; and that in Washington Slade Gorton defeated Maria Cantwell.

Since 5 Republicans were elected in 2000 that weren't OTL, five Democrats in 2002 are needed to balance this out. Therefore; I conclude that in Colorado Tom Strickland defeated Wayne Allard; that in Georgia Max Cleland defeated Saxby Chambliss; that in Minnesota Paul Wellstone defeated Norm Coleman (obvious since Wellstone was a candidate in '08); that in Missouri Jean Carnahan defeated Jim Talent; and that in New Hampshire Jeanne Shaheen defeated John Sununu.

You specified the results in 2004; but alternate results in 2000 would result in alternate results in 2006. You only said that Harold Ford, Jr. was elected in Tennessee and Mike Ciresi was reelected in Minnesota; you do not specify any other non-OTL results in 2006, but merely state that seven Democratic pickups occurred. Missouri is held by Jean Carnahan. We can have the other five pickups from OTL, plus Ford; we need only one extra. We can have McCollum, Gorton, Stenberg, and Abraham be reelected; our alt-N.J. Senator, Bob Franks, was suffering from cancer by 2006 (he died from it earlier this year); let's say Thomas Kean Jr. was elected to his seat after his retirement. As for that extra Democratic pickup...let's say Craig Thomas dies a couple months early, and the voters, rather than elect a dead man, in a huge fluke, elect Democrat Dale Groutage a Senator from Wyoming.

Can all this be canon?