Talk Elections

YES

Oh boy!

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It's back!

Update: I'm taking the time to go back and actually calculate the result of every single house race from 1964-1974 before I post the first chapter of this. I've already done 1964-1968 and am working on 1970. I'll finish 1970 tomorrow, then do 1972 and 1974, and then post the first chapter by the end of the week (hopefully).

Numbers for the house will change because they're based on actual (rough) math instead of a random guessing like they used to be. Also two Senate races in 1968 didn't make much sense in hindsight so I retconned them. Welcome Abraham Ribicoff (D-CT) and Wayne Morse (D-OR) back to the Senate.

Also I found out Hale Boggs loses in 1968 which has this knock-on effect: Tip O'Neill (D-MA-08) becomes Majority Leader early and is the one on the plane with Rep. Nick Begich (D-AK-AL) in 1972 when it goes down. Oops. Phillip Burton (D-CA-05) is the new Majority Leader after becoming Whip following O'Neill's ascension to Majority Leader in 1969.

Interesting! Appreciate the efforts you're making here :)
Also, really hoping for President Scoop Jackson in this TL even though I know it's unlikely :P

Beautiful!

;)

Fun fact: Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH-23), elected in 1972 at age 26, is the youngest House member ever elected.

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   With the landslide loss of President Goldwater to Hubert Humphrey and the incoming Democratic supermajorities in the House and Senate, some are speculating that the Goldwater Administration may just be what kills the Republican party. The outgoing President, currently sitting at around 30% approval, became the only sitting President to ever lose all 50 states. President Goldwater was the champion of the conservative movement in the late 50’s and throughout the 1960’s, and rode to victory in 1968 amid a wave of conservative anger at the Kennedy Administration’s expansion of civil rights and government antipoverty programs.

   After a rebuke of the Goldwater Administration in the 1970 midterms, the Democratic wave crashed down hard upon President Goldwater and his wing of the GOP. Democrats gained 25 House seats, 13 seats in the Senate, and won all but three of the state governorships up for election in 1972 (additionally, incoming independent Governor McLane of New Hampshire is a moderate liberal as well, though not affiliated with the Democratic party). The Democrats have the largest House majority since 1935 and are just two members shy of setting a new record. Some new Congressmen, such as Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH-23), Rep. Bernard Sanders (D-VT-AL), and Rep. Allard Lowenstein (D-NY-04) are very liberal, a stark contrast to Goldwater’s conservatism. Many blame these new supermajorities on anger at Goldwater’s handling of the Vietnam War and the recent fall of Saigon, his ending of farm subsidies, and his unsuccessful attempts at privatizing Social Security. Democrats successfully mobilized their base against the incumbent government, and had success reaching out across the aisle as well, leading to a massive win in what is sure to be recorded as one of the lowest turnout Presidential elections in American history.

   The GOP is now left without a clear leader who is unaffiliated with Goldwater or his unpopular Administration. Without a radical shift in ideology, it is hard to see how the Republicans can rebound in time to win in 1974, 1976, or possibly even 1978. However, politics is usually full of surprises, and only time will tell what lies in the future of the Republican party.

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   President-elect Hubert Humphrey has announced three new Cabinet appointments today, following last week’s announcement that former Transportation Secretary Alan Boyd would be renominated to his old position, Joseph Barr would be nominated to the Treasury Department, and that Mark Felt would remain FBI Director.

   First was the announcement that Florida congressman and former Senator Claude Pepper will be the nation’s next Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare. Congressman Pepper has made issues of Social Security, healthcare, and old age major focuses of his, and is now expected to work with President Humphrey to make progress on those fronts as HEW Secretary.

   The next nominee to be announced was that of Idaho Senator Frank Church to the Interior Department. While Senator Church was rumored to have been considered for the position of Secretary of State due to his foreign policy chops, President-elect Humphrey apparently decided that Interior would be a better fit for Church, who also has a strong conservationist record. Governor Andrus has announced that Idaho State Senator John V. Evans will be Church’s replacement in the US Senate.

   And finally, for now, is the announcement that one of President Kennedy’s Deputy Secretary of Defense, Cyrus Vance, will be nominated to the position of Defense Secretary in the incoming Humphrey Administration. Vance was widely expected to be nominated, as he has years of experience in the Department of Defense. Vance also spoke out in the press against the war in Vietnam back in the middle of 1969, when the war was still popular, and warned that the war was not going to be easily winnable.

   Humphrey also announced yesterday that his campaign manager, Gary Hart, will be the next White House Chief of Staff.

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The Electoral College officially meets and elects Hubert Humphrey and Henry Jackson President and Vice President, respectively. One Arizona elector votes for Goldwater at Humphrey's request, to preserve Washington as the only US President to win 100% of the electoral vote.

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Harry S Truman, the 33rd President of the United States (1945-1953) passes away at age 88.

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Yay! Claude Pepper will do great

President-elect Hubert Humphrey announced this morning that former Under Secretary of State George Ball is his pick to run the State Department. His appointment was sent to the 93rd Congress, which convened for the first time yesterday. A liberal on foreign policy, Ball was the man in Kennedy’s ear most fervently against escalating Vietnam. He is expected to easily sail to nomination, as the Democrats hold a supermajority in the Senate.

Additionally, Ramsey Clark, the very pro-civil rights former Deputy Attorney General, will be Humphrey’s nominee for Attorney General. Humphrey has appointed a very liberal Cabinet so far, and his pick for DOJ is no different. Clark’s father, Supreme Court Justice Tom C. Clark, announced immediately after the nomination of his son that he would be retiring at the end of this judicial term. Humphrey will begin meeting with potential replacements for Clark after his inauguration.

The new Senate has been hard at work confirming Humphrey’s Cabinet. Cyrus Vance was confirmed to Defense, Claude Pepper was confirmed to HEW, and John Connally was confirmed to Commerce. Frank Church sailed through his hearings to become the next Interior Secretary, and Alan Boyd easily got approved to his old post at Transportation. Cesar Chavez, having been persuaded by Humphrey that he could help migrant workers more as a Cabinet member than a grassroots activist, was confirmed to head up the Agriculture Department, mostly along ideological (though not party) lines. Labor Secretary nominee Walter Reuther’s hearings are still ongoing, as he is one of the more controversial nominees. Head of the United Automobile Workers’ union, Reuther is unpopular among Southern conservative Democrats, though with the overwhelming Democratic majority it is quite likely Reuther will be confirmed anyway. The President-elect made history by nominating the first African-American woman to a Cabinet post when he nominated Patricia Roberts Harris to the Housing Department (which Humphrey has vowed to make more powerful); Harris was confirmed this morning. And finally (so far), Kennedy in-law Sargent Shriver got confirmed to his new post as UN Ambassador.

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Speaking from Phoenix, Arizona, outgoing President Goldwater gave the last major speech of his administration this evening. In it, he took a more combative stance than most farewell speeches. "America will not forever succumb to the dangers of rampant liberalism," cried the President; "one day, conservatism will rise again in this country."

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President Humphrey and Vice President Jackson are sworn in at the Capitol.

“Mr. Vice President, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Chief Justice, President Kennedy, President Goldwater, Vice President Reagan, Senator Fong, my fellow Americans.”

“...the America of four years ago was a better one by nearly every metric. Unemployment was down. Inflation was down. The dollar was more robust and America’s image around the world was better. We must take care in the coming days, months, and years to remedy these mistakes and fight the problems of the 1970’s with the solutions of the 1970’s, and not those solutions found in an idyllic myth of some bygone past…”

“...our great nation, which has withstood great troubles in the past, has once again proven that it can withstand great troubles in the present. We are a resilient people, a people which takes matters into our own hands not by revolution or violent uprising but by peaceful protest and diligence at the ballot box…”

“...we must provide for those who are poor, protect the rights of those who are oppressed, and preserve America's place as a superpower on the world stage. These are the guiding principles of this new administration. In the next hundred days and the next four years, we will pass civil rights legislation; protect workers, farmers, and everyday Americans; and ensure all Americans have easier access to common-sense government programs designed to help all of us…”

“...America’s promise has never dulled nor retreated into the shadows, and today, it shines bright like a beacon pointing us away from yesterday and towards tomorrow!”

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Yes! Update!
Wow, loving HHH.
America will be much more liberal in this TL.

Wow, I missed a lot!

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Humphrey officially appoints his Cabinet following the inauguration, and publicly urges Congress to send him bills on civil rights and welfare.

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ROE V. WADE: Supreme Court decides 6-3 (Bork, White, Carswell dissenting) that abortion is a Constitutional right.

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The Housing Rights Act of 1973, a bill which allows the Housing Department to “strictly enforce” anti-discrimination policies, passes the House 297-136.

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The HRA passes the Senate 65-35. President Humphrey proclaims “the era of housing discrimination ends now” when signing the bill into law.

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President Humphrey addresses Congress for the first time. In his first unofficial “state of the union,” the President proudly points to the recently enacted Housing Rights Act as a “great piece of legislation” and states that it is only the beginning of the extensive agenda of the Humphrey Administration.

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Associate Justice Tom C. Clark confirms that he will retire at the end of the Supreme Court term, as expected. This is apparently due to a deal between Clark and Humphrey reached before the inauguration; in return for allowing the new President to appoint a younger new justice, he would appoint Clark’s son, Ramsey, Attorney General. Humphrey is alleged to be considering a young candidate who would be a “first” for the Court.

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The Voting Rights Act of 1973 is passed in the House 322-113. The VRA, which initially failed under the Kennedy Administration, would protect the right to vote for all Americans, including millions of African-Americans, and give the government renewed powers to enforce the 14th Amendment.

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Florida becomes the 35th state to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. Governor Askew calls this a “victory for all Americans, regardless of their sex.”

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The Senate passes the VRA 72-28. President Humphrey signs it into law and says that “it’s about time we ensure the Constitution applies to everyone!” The President celebrates with Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his wife Coretta in the White House.

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Washington and Idaho special Senate elections are scheduled for November 6.

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President Humphrey sets up a commission, lead by Senator LeRoy Collins (D-FL) and Governor Ivan Allen, Jr. (D-GA), to assess the state of desegregation in the South and measures the Humphrey Administration can take to improve race relations, promote integration, and help black Americans build wealth.

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Former President John F. Kennedy announces he is funding a new initiative to help research Addison’s disease, a chronic endocrine disorder. The popular former President, 55, was noticeably thinner, stiffer, and more pained than he appeared during his Presidency, leading to speculation that Kennedy himself has the disease. The Kennedy family denied these claims, stating that President Kennedy was simply suffering from a flaring-up of a back injury sustained during his time in the Navy during World War II.

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In San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Antonio_Independent_School_District_v._Rodriguez), the Supreme Court rules that funding schools via property taxes is an unconstitutional violation of the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment because it gives an unfair advantage to the wealthy. Justices Marshall, Clark, Brennan, White, and Goldberg were the majority, with Blackmun, Bork, Carswell, and Stewart dissenting.

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A group of Chinese and Soviet soldiers get into an altercation on the border of the PRC and USSR. No one is injured, but the dispute threatens to reignite tensions between the two Communist countries, which had somewhat settled since the border conflicts of the late 1960’s. New Chairwoman Jiang Qing, who came to power after the assassination of her late husband Mao Zedong in 1972, has been aggressive in her foreign policy.

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President Humphrey, Governor Kennedy, former Secretary Rockefeller, and Senators Javits and Harriman attend ribbon-cutting for the newly-finished World Trade Center in New York City, the tallest buildings in the world.

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President Humphrey reaches out to Chairwoman Jiang Qing about taking steps towards improving relations between the United States and the People’s Republic of China. Jiang flatly rejected Humphrey’s proposals.

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  Today, President Humphrey nominated the honorable Judge Shirley Hufstedler to the Supreme Court seat being vacated by Associate Justice Tom C. Clark. Hufstedler was appointed by President Kennedy to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in 1968, and would be the first woman in history to serve on the Supreme Court. Liberal Senators such as Walter Mondale (DFL-MN) and George McGovern (D-SD) have praised the choice, while some conservatives such as Bob Dole (R-KS) and Spiro Agnew (R-MD) have raised concerns over her qualifications.

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I kept up with this a bit a while ago but haven’t read through recent bits. Nice work and a break from the stupid 2016-2020 TL stuff that clutters this board. Glad to see my boi Hubert Humphrey being a successful president!

It's a shame Humphrey's cancer diagnosis can't really be butterflied away. The question is will it be sped up here?

Scoop Jackson is quite a hawk, and moderate compared to other Democrats, and would be vulnerable to a primary challenge from someone like George McGovern or Robert Kennedy (though RFK would have some of the same problems as Ted would, minus the womanizing).

As for the Republicans, I'll bet they'll gain seats in 1974... And I'll be bold and predict on a primary battle between Richard Nixon (you've certainly foreshadowed that he'll run again) and Bob Dole in 1976.

<3 <3 <3 SENATOR LEROY COLLINS <3 <3 <3

His nephew was my Government teacher in HS!

Ol' Scoop is very hawkish on foreign policy. That's not gonna change. If he becomes president, he'll have been VP to Humphrey, who has the potential to be the most liberal president since at least FDR on domestic policy, which could conceivably have an impact on Jackson's domestic policy. However, though he wasn't McGovern by any stretch of the imagination, OTL Jackson was solidly in favor of unions and civil rights; ITTL America is even more liberal so we'll see what Jackson is capable of - if he's given the reigns of power, that is. A lot can happen before he runs for president himself in, say, 1980. McGovern, his greatest adversary within the party, likely won't be a major player after losing narrowly in the 1968 primaries and surprisingly badly in the 1972 primaries. Maybe a more dovish Democrat could challenge him in '80?

(Of course, I already have all of 1973-1985 planned out fairly extensively and have for a while now, I know exactly what happens :P)

Former Vice/Acting President Reagan is by far the most popular Republican in the country, but he's so far definitively ruled out a run. There are a bunch of big names that could run, but will they? Humphrey's pretty strong ATM, though again, there's a political eternity between April 1973 and January 1976. ;)

Oh that's really cool!

LeRoy Collins is by far the best thing to come out of George Wallace's 1968 coattails, and is possibly my favorite alternate senator ITTL.

Except Spiro Agnew, I love having him in the Senate to comment on current events once in a while.

Please keep glorious HHH alive

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  The UN Special Committee on Nuclear War releases its finished report on the US nuclear attack on Hanoi that took place on June 1, 1971. The UN sets the official death toll at around 500,000 people who were instantly vaporized; 750,000 more died from radiation sickness or other injury over the next year and a half. In Vietnam, Cambodia, and a swath of the southern PRC, the effects of nuclear fallout are beginning to show. Pregnancy rates have dropped slightly but noticeably, while cancer rates have ticked up. Current data cannot conclude with absolute certainty that this is due to the fallout, but experts both at the UN and elsewhere agree that the attacks are likely the cause.

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US intelligence shows 30,000 Chinese troops moving towards the Manchurian border with the USSR. The troops stop in Jiamusi. Leaders around the world are concerned that Chairwoman Jiang’s foreign policy is more bellicose than that of her late husband.

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Ruth B. Ginsburg delivers the ACLU a win with the Supreme Court’s 7-2 decision in favor of Sharron Frontiero in Frontiero v. Richardson. The US military must give benefits out to military spouses of both genders, the Court decided. Justices Bork and Carswell dissented.

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President Humphrey declares that, “just as John F. Kennedy said we must go to the moon, I stand before you to declare that humanity must forge a path to the next frontier: the planet Mars.” Humphrey announces a bill will be introduced to double NASA’s budget to achieve this goal by 2000. “Man should set foot on another planet in little more than a quarter century,” Humphrey stated, “and I should hope to live to see it.”

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The Next Frontier Act of 1973 passes with 251 votes in the House.

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The Next Frontier Act of 1973 passes with 62 votes in the Senate, and is signed into law by President Humphrey. NASA’s budget for FY 1974 will be slightly over $7 million, with a new focus on putting a man on Mars by 1990.

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The leaders of North and South Vietnam, along with Premier Zhou Enlai of the PRC and USSR Second Secretary Mikhail Suslov, meet in Saigon to discuss plans for the new Vietnam and how it fits into the world order. President Humphrey requested a place for himself, Secretary Ball, Secretary Vance, or some other representative of the US at the metaphorical table, but the request was denied.

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The McGovern Amendment, a proposed Constitutional Amendment to require the US to call for a national referendum before declaring war, is voted on in the US Senate. It fails, with only 56 Senators voting for it and 44 Senators voting against it, well short of the 67 votes needed to send it to the House. Senator George McGovern (D-SD) states he will not reintroduce his eponymous amendment; this is the second time it has failed to pass.

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Illinois becomes the 36th state to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment.

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A national referendum is scheduled in Vietnam as a result of the recent summit. It will take place on November 1. Voters will be able to choose from uniting Vietnam under communism, uniting Vietnam under capitalist democracy, and keeping the pre-war North/South Vietnam divide.

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Shirley Hufstedler’s confirmation hearing scheduled for the beginning of August.

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President Humphrey and General Secretary Brezhnev meet in Vienna for what will be the first of several arms limitation talks between the two world leaders over the course of the following couple of years. Secretary Brezhnev was open to such talks earlier, but former President Goldwater was not. President Humphrey campaigned on repairing the US-Soviet relationship, and he saw an end to the arms race as the start of fulfilling those promises.

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The House passes the Comprehensive Child Development Act of 1973, which would, if signed into law, provide free or subsidized day care to single, working parents across the country. Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm (D-NY-12), the sponsor of the bill in the House, called the Act a victory for women and poor Americans.

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In a primetime speech, President Humphrey calls on Congress to pass not only the Child Development Act, but environmental protection legislation as well. The Clean Air Act and National Environmental Protection Act had both passed despite Goldwater’s veto in 1971, but Humphrey called for a Cabinet-level position to more effectively carry out the protection and conservation of the American environment.

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Special Senate elections: Senator Tom Foley (D) to face former Governor Daniel Evans (R) in Washington; Senator John V. Evans (D) and former Congressman James A. McClure (R) fight for the seat in Idaho.

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After much debate, the Senate passes the Comprehensive Child Development Act of 1973 with a vote of 65 to 35. President Humphrey signs it into law in the presence of a collection of lower-and-middle class working women from around the country, and the bill’s sponsors, including Rep. Chisholm, Rep. Andrew Young (D-GA-05) and Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA).

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Shirley Hufstedler appears before Congress for a series of confirmation hearings. Despite the monumental prospect of the first permanent female member of the Supreme court (President Goldwater appointed Phyllis Schlafly to the Court in 1970 during a Congressional recess, but she was voted down in 1971), the hearings are fairly boring. Hufstedler proves to be a reserved, competent jurist, and is widely seen to likely be a moderate vote on the Court. At 48 years old, Hufstedler could easily serve on the Court for three decades of more.

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The Judiciary Committee sends Hufstedler’s nomination to the floor on a unanimous vote. The full Senate votes to confirm her to the Court, with the only Senator voting no being Strom Thurmond (R-SC). Associate Justice Shirley Hufstedler is sworn in the following afternoon.

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President Humphrey meets with Senator Kennedy and HEW Secretary Claude Pepper at the White House to discuss proposals for comprehensive healthcare reform. The Administration sets the goal to overhaul the nation’s healthcare system by the 1976 elections.

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Significantly more Chinese troops are moved towards Kashmir. India and Pakistan get nervous and move more troops towards the region as well; the CIA reports to President Humphrey that India and Pakistan have also increased spending on developing nuclear capabilities. This concerns the President.

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After months of debate, the Environmental Protection and Conservation Act of 1973 (EPCA) passes the House with 259 votes in its favor. The bill would create a Cabinet-level Department of Environmental Affairs, which would be tasked with protecting and conserving America’s environment. The DoEA would research the environment, conduct studies, and provide solutions to environmental problems. In addition to these new functions, various environment-focused functions of other Cabinet departments would be folded into the DoEA as well.

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The EPCA passes the Senate with 73 votes. President Humphrey signs it into law, and announces that he will choose a nominee to be the DoEA Secretary within two weeks.

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President Humphrey announces Douglas Costle, a vocal environmentalist who pushed for the EPCA, will be his choice for DoEA Secretary.

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Missouri becomes the 37th state to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment.

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The Senate unanimously confirms Douglas Costle as the first Secretary of Environmental Affairs.

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Despite the best (covert) efforts of the CIA, the Vietnamese people choose communism, creating an air of doom and gloom among Western observers who subscribe to the domino theory.

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President Humphrey meets with several congressmen and Senators about possible education policies that could be pursued in 1974.

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Following another round of border skirmishes, Soviet leader Brezhnev warns that if war breaks out between the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China, he fears that the use of nuclear weapons would be “inevitable, if not immediate.” In response, Chairwoman Jiang says that “would be a pity,” which stikes an ominous tone on the world stage. President Humphrey calls this exchange “troubling” in a press conference.

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Glad to see so much progress! One thing though, isn’t 1990 only 17 years (not more than a quarter century) from 1973?

Hoping the ERA passes.

Oops basic arithmetic isn't my forte. I'll change it to 2000 :P

Amazing!

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   This afternoon, North Carolina Governor Skipper Bowles and millions of American feminists celebrated as his state became the 38th to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. There was initially opposition from conservatives in the state legislature, but since the 1970 midterms brought a number of ERA supporters into both chambers, and after Bowles won the 1972 gubernatorial election, the chances of North Carolina ratifying the Amendment increased. Governor Bowles pushed hard for the Amendment, and now his work has paid off: thanks to this ratification, the ERA will now just be known as the 27th Amendment to the United States Constitution.

   Famed ACLU attorney Ruth Bader Ginsburg made a statement congratulating Governor Bowles and the North Carolina state legislatures, while President Goldwater and his outspoken former Attorney General Phyllis Schlafly both condemned the Amendment’s ratification as “a legislative overreach that is sadly now enshrined in our Constitution” and “a dark day for women,” respectively.

   The Amendment, which guarantees equal treatment regardless of sex, goes into effect two years from today.

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President Hubert Humphrey delivers the 1974 State of the Union address to Congress. Humphrey calls for a comprehensive overhaul of the public education system. Humphrey’s plan, which is basically a revamped version of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act that failed in 1965, is the farthest reaching education legislation ever proposed. Millions of dollars in federal money would be put into primary and secondary education. New instructional material would be commissioned, new educational standards would be implemented, and school libraries would get much more funding. Teachers’ pay would also be increased, and new grants to low-income prospective college students would be created.

Desegregation and improved race relations are the next issues to be brought up. Humphrey calls for “total equality among the races, not only under the law but in practice.” The President congratulated Congress for its passing of laws outlawing housing discrimination and protecting black people’s right to the vote, but said they still had work to do. More stringent employment discrimination laws, more efforts to end de facto school segregation, and fostering better employment prospects in urban areas were the three points Humphrey hit upon the hardest.

Continuing the jobs theme, Humphrey also announces that he intends to push for a federal jobs program for veterans of the war in Vietnam, in order to keep recently returned veterans off the streets. “There is nothing more honorable than fighting for your country,” declares the President, “and it is only right that the government repay the favor by providing for those who answered the call of duty.”

Humphrey’s second State of the Union speech is well received. Senator Bob Dole (R-KS) gives the Republican response, mostly railing against the call by Humphrey to attempt to use the government to change societal attitudes regarding race; referencing George Orwell’s 1984, Dole states that “short of creating a thought police to stamp out ‘crimethink,’ that goal [of eliminating racism], while noble, is not possible solely through government intervention.” Senator Dole, who is up for reelection in 1974, is regarded as a potential Presidential candidate for 1976 and a rising star of the party.

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Mel Brooks’ controversial Western satire Blazing Saddles, starring Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor, premiers. Its vulgarity raises eyebrows, but its critique of racism both in 1874 and 1974 earn it critical praise and cult classic status for decades.

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President Humphrey meets with Senators Ted Kennedy (D-MA), Charles Percy (R-IL), Katherine Peden (D-KY), Jacob Javits (R-NY), and Mike Mansfield (D-MT), along with a number of congresspeople from both parties, to discuss the American Education Act of 1974, the landmark education bill which is making its way through committee. The bill would secure funding for public schooling from kindergarten through high school for schools across the country, in addition to funding school libraries; creating grants for poor students, including those in college; increasing school teachers’ pay; and expanding the National School Lunch Program. Humphrey states that he would “love” the AEA to be put on his desk before the midterms. Speaker Carl Albert (D-OK-3) and Senate Majority Leader Mansfield assure the President that they would have a bill out of committee by the end of the month, and that they hope to have it passed by the midterms as well.

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Harold Wilson’s Labour party keeps their majority in the British parliament, with their coalition holding a razor thin majority of 322 seats, four more than the 318 needed for a majority. Harold Wilson, who has been the British Prime Minister since 1964, will likely remain as leader for the foreseeable future.

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The American Education Act is successfully voted out of the House Committee on Education and Labor, a few days behind the informal goal set by Speaker Albert a month prior.

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A severely depressed man by the name of Samuel Byck assassinates renowned composer Leonard Bernstein outside Lincoln Center with a stolen .22 caliber revolver. Byck reportedly yells “die, queer” as he shoots, referencing rumors the composer is gay. U.S. Secret Service had previously been tipped off about Byck, as he previously made threats against Presidents Goldwater and Humphrey, virologist Jonas Salk, and Senator Abraham Ribicoff (D-CT); however, they failed to see him as a serious threat. Bernstein takes a bullet to the chest and two to the head, killing him nearly instantly. President Humphrey’s office releases a statement “mourn[ing] the loss of one of the nation’s great artistic talents.”

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After some debate, education reform passes the House of Representatives with 245 votes in its favor. The Senate begins its debate on the AEA.

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NBC’s Barbara Walters does a live interview with the late Leonard Bernstein’s widow, Felicia Montealegre. After discussing her anti-Vietnam activism, Montealegre states that “sometimes [Leonard] would be homosexual,” which sparks controversy among the general public. Montealegre states that she loved and supported her late husband in everything he did, even though, in her opinion, “when he was holding back the homosexual part, he did some of his best work.” She also expresses support for the gay rights movement, a fringe position at the time. The nascent movement, which started gaining national attention in 1969 after the riots at the Stonewall Inn in New York City, quickly adopts Leonard Bernstein and Felicia Montealegre as icons within their subculture. Meanwhile, Governor Kennedy passes stronger gun control in the state of New York, and pushes for the national government to take action as well.

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After three weeks of debate, the American Education Act passes the Senate with 62 votes. The sweeping education reform bill is opposed by all conservatives in both parties, most moderate Republicans, and a few moderate Democrats; however, the Democratic majority is big enough that the nay votes of conservative Democrats such as Herman Talmadge (D-GA) and James Eastland (D-MS) are cancelled out by the affirmative votes of a few moderate Republicans, such as Jacob Javits (R-NY) and Charles Percy (R-IL).

President Humphrey signs the bill into law later that evening.

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Conservative icon William F. Buckley announces that he will run as a Conservative party candidate for US Senate against Senator Javits and the Democratic nominee, likely to be Rep. Shirley Chisholm, in New York. Buckley states that Javits’ vote for the education reform bill is what spurred him to make the announcement, but also calls Javits “generally out of touch” with the state of New York. With Republicans divided between Javits and Buckley, the Democrats should be in a good position to pick up this seat if their candidate is strong enough. Congresswoman Chisholm has been making noise about running, though she has not officially announced her campaign. The only other major Democrat looking at running is Lt. Gov. Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr., who has also not announced his intentions for 1974. Governor Robert F. Kennedy is expected to run for another term, and seeing as his latest approval rating sits at 64%, he is likely to win reelection.

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François Mitterrand and Valéry Giscard d'Estaing win the first round of the French Presidential election, with 44% and 32% of the vote, respectively. The second round will be held on May 19th.

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President Humphrey about to get bad news, May 16, 1974

Hubert had enjoyed the first year and a half of his presidency, and with his high approval ratings, it appeared he could look forward to another six and a half. Still, he felt a pang of worry as he responded to his personal physician’s summons by walking down to his office himself.

General Tkach, the Physician to the President, had conducted a routine yearly physical on President Humphrey a week before. The urgency conveyed in the summons was not comforting to Hubert, who at that moment arrived in Tkach’s office. “You wanted to see me?” he asked. “Yes, Mr. President. We just got some tests back from the lab, and we think we found something…” the General trailed off.

“What kind of something?”

Tkach hesitated. “Bladder cancer, sir.”

Hubert was silent for a while. He didn’t feel sick. Finally, he feebly asked “are you sure?”

“Well, we’ll need to run a few more tests, but the signs don’t look encouraging, sir. If we’ve caught it early enough there may be some treatment options available, but if it’s been hiding for a while then treatment might be a hindrance to your office. Once we do a few more tests - x-rays, MRIs, stuff like that - you’ll have more information, and then you can make political decisions from there.”

Hubert knew it was early in the diagnosis - hell, he might not even have cancer - but those political decisions immediately started weighing on him. Should he run for reelection in 1976? Should he resign if treating cancer meant neglecting his responsibilities? Should he even seek treatment; was the lack of alertness that’d bring be a national security risk? And then there were the other, personal questions: when would he tell his family? When would he tell the rest of America? If he was only given a few more years to live, where did he want to go to die? What did he want to do before then? These thoughts swirled in his head as he left the physician’s office and returned to the Oval.

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India tests “Smiling Buddha,” the nation’s first successful nuclear bomb. The government calls it “peaceful” but Pakistan and China do not take it that way. Pakistan further accelerates their nuclear program in response.

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François Mitterrand wins the second round of the French Presidential election with 50.2% of the vote to Valéry Giscard d'Estaing’s 49.8%. This is the closest French Presidential election in history at the time.

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Former Vice President Morris Udall (serving under President Kennedy from 1965-1969) announces a run for the Arizona Senate seat currently held by Sen. Paul Fannin (R).

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After narrowly losing the Democratic Senate primary, Governor Ivan Allen Jr. of Georgia announces a run for Georgia’s Senate election as a “New South Democrat,” a more progressive alternative to the more conservative Democratic alternative, Sen. Herman Talmadge. Allen and Talmadge will go against the Republican nominee, likely Macon Mayor Ronnie Thompson. In the event that none of the candidates in the general election receives 50% + 1 of the votes, there will be a runoff held at a later date between the top two vote getters. Governor Allen is popular, but taking out an entrenched incumbent like Senator Talmadge will be an uphill battle.

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California Secretary of State Jerry Brown wins the Democratic nomination for US Senate to run against incumbent Republican Senator Charleton Heston.

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Secretary Brezhnev and President Humphrey meet again for another round of Strategic Arms Limitation Talks.

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Chinese and Soviet troops continue their standoff at the Sino-Soviet border. Secretary Brezhnev schedules a meeting with Chairwoman Jiang of the People’s Republic of China for August 1 to discuss ways to de-escalate tensions between the two nuclear-armed nations. Meanwhile, Chinese, Indian, and Pakistani troop presence in the disputed Kashmir region has increased dramatically. India and Pakistan have both fast-tracked their nuclear programs as well, to be able to compete with China if need be. These developments worry many in the West, and many hope that the next month’s meeting between Brezhnev and Jiang reduces tensions.

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President Goldwater’s former Army Chief of Staff and Vietnam War strategic architect, General William Westmoreland, narrowly beats State Sen. James Edwards for the Republican nomination for Governor of South Carolina. The GOP hopes Westmoreland can become the first Republican Governor of South Carolina since Reconstruction.

President Goldwater helped General Westmoreland win the nomination, appearing with “Westy,” as he is nicknamed, at multiple campaign rallies across the state. Those close to the ostensibly disgraced former President say Goldwater is testing the waters for a wider campaign across the South ahead of this year’s midterms. Goldwater is still reasonably popular, if still controversial, in the South, and has been drumming up support for conservative Republicans in the region, such as Georgia Senate candidate Ronnie Thompson.

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The world is shocked this morning as the latest news blasts out of Moscow: Leonid Brezhnev, the leader of the Soviet Union since Nikita Khrushchev's 1964 ouster, has had a fatal heart attack. A central figure in world politics for over a decade, Brezhnev brought relative political stability to the USSR and made strides towards a more peaceful relationship with the other side of the Cold War, led by the United States. Rumors have recently begun circulating that Brezhnev’s health was in decline, and this morning they seem to have been proven correct.

As the Soviet Union mourns, political jockeying to succeed Brezhnev has already begun. Two major candidates have instantly been considered the most likely next Soviet leader: Second Secretary Mikhail Suslov, and Fyodor Kulakov, a member of the Politburo that was reportedly in Brezhnev’s good graces.

The status of the scheduled meeting between the Soviet leader and Chairwoman Jiang of China is undetermined.

President Humphrey has offered his condolences to the people of the USSR for the loss of their leader.

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Senator Wayne Morse (D-OR) dies at age 73. Sen. Morse was retiring this year; an election between Governor McCall and state Sen. Betty Roberts is scheduled for this November. The seat will be vacant until then.

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After several days of debate, Fyodor Kulakov is chosen to be the next General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, making him the de facto Soviet leader. This is effective immediately. Mikhail Suslov, considered the other main candidate for the job, will remain Second Secretary. Kulakov’s first order of business is to resolve the Sino-Soviet border tensions, and as such communicates with Chairwoman Jiang regarding the meeting scheduled for August 1. Needing more than five days to get settled into his new government, Kulakov asks to postpone the meeting for two weeks; Jiang agrees and a the meeting is moved to August 15.

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President Humphrey announces a federal jobs bill for Vietnam veterans will be introduced by Senator Walter Mondale (DFL-MN) in the coming days. Designed to provide veterans with income after many returned without much in the way of job opportunities, the program would allow physically healthy veterans to apply for temporary federal infrastructure jobs to help “build resumes while also building new roads and bridges,” Senator Mondale said at the President’s press conference in the Rose Garden.

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Secretary Kulakov and Chairwoman Jiang meet in Sochi to discuss ways the two nations could end the recent series of border skirmishes and prevent war between the USSR and PRC. At the end of the meeting, the two world leaders hold a joint press conference wherein Kulakov describes Jiang as “sensible” while Jiang commends Kulakov’s “commitment to peace” and wishes him luck in his new job.

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Chinese troops start to slowly move away from the Sino-Soviet border. Chinese troop presence in and near the disputed Kashmir territory is set to increase, heightening tensions between India, the PRC, and Pakistan.

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US Secretary of Agriculture Cesar Chavez announces that some of the farm subsidies cancelled by the Goldwater Administration would be making a return; however, he states that the subsidies will be targeted at smaller farms owned by “average Americans, not corporations.” Goldwater’s Agriculture department under Secretaries Curtis and Butz pushed corporate farms as the future of agriculture, but Secretary Chavez, a former farmer himself, has taken a diametrically oppositional view of how the nation’s farms should operate.

Is Congresswoman Chisholm about to become Senator Chisholm?

New York, NY - Governor Robert Kennedy was easily renominated for another term as New York’s chief executive tonight, as expected; he only faced token opposition. Lt. Gov. Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr. did not run for renomination, deciding instead to run for Senate; former Small Business Administration chief Howard Samuels won nomination to that position. Lawyer Mario Cuomo won the party’s nomination for Attorney General.

The Senate primary was where the most attention was focused. Lt. Gov. Roosevelt faced off against Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm (NY-12) and former Labor Secretary Daniel Patrick Moynihan. Chisholm won 48% of the vote, Roosevelt won 40%, and Moynihan, having been a Democrat who served under President Goldwater, only received 12% of the vote. Chisholm will face off against Senator Jacob Javits (R) and conservative icon William F. Buckley (C) in the November 5 election.

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President Humphrey and Secretary Kulakov meet for the first time in Vienna during one of the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks. While progress on SALT has mostly been headed up by bureaucrats from both the US and USSR with occasional meetings between the two countries’ leaders, following the death of Leonid Brezhnev both Humphrey and Kulakov decided it would be best to meet in person.

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Secretary Kulakov announces that, like the United States, the USSR would also attempt to reach Mars. The Soviet plan is to successfully send a lander within the next year, and, ambitiously, to send humans to Mars (on a one-way mission) by 1990, undercutting NASA’s goal by a decade.

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Former President Barry Goldwater begins campaigning for congressional and gubernatorial candidates in select areas. Goldwater, who lost every state to President Humphrey in 1972, is still somewhat popular in the deep South, which is almost exclusively where he will campaign. Candidates Goldwater supports include South Carolina gubernatorial candidate William Westmoreland, Georgia Senate candidate Ronnie Thompson, and Arkansas Senate candidate Maurice Britt. Goldwater will also make appearances with William F. Buckley as he attempts to win a Senate seat in New York, and with Senator Paul Fannin in his attempt to retain his seat against former Vice President Udall in Goldwater’s home state of Arizona. Newt Gingrich (running for GA-06) and Ron Paul (running for TX-22) are two House candidates that Goldwater will campaign with as well.

While Goldwater’s approval rating is still around 30%, he is still widely liked inside the conservative faction of the GOP.

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The first NASA Mars lander to be sent after President Humphrey restarted the space race, named Prometheus 23, lands successfully on the red planet.

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The 1974 update was so big I had to split it into two parts. Next comes Election Night 1974, which will be presented like I've done Presidential elections in the past.

Very good stuff! Is Jiang Qing the leader of China???

Yes, Mao was assassinated in 1972 and Jiang took his place. She may or may not be acting rather aggressive on the world stage to preempt accusations of weakness due to her being a woman.

Hubert must live!

This is looking like an awesome update, I'll make a comment before continuing to read it: Sad about Bernstein. But with liberalism on the rise and with his death emboldening the LGB (hopefully, soon to be LGBT) movement, I hope that it can rise and get stronger before it did in our time. I'm espcially looking forward to see what you have planned for one Harvey Milk :)

Edit: Love this! Humphrey is doing really well, hope the space exploration can continue to be expanded. I also hope that his cancer was discovered early enough to treat it without impending him as President, but if not, I'm sure Scoop can do fine. Also, torn between Chisholm and Javits- would be really happy with any of them.

Interesting update

...Quite the development.

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“Good evening, I’m Walter Cronkite and this is CBS coverage of election night 1974. Polls for these midterm elections have just closed in the states of Indiana and Kentucky. Senator Ruckelshaus is locked in a close battle with Governor Birch Bayh; Indiana is too close to call. In Kentucky, Senator Katherine Peden has a lead over Congressman Gene Snyder of about four points, but this race too is too early to call. Let’s take a look at the maps…”

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“...so as you can see, we can already project that the Democratic party will hold the US Senate. Even if the GOP sweeps every state, they would only have 48 seats - three short of a majority. This year’s Senate map is rather unfavorable to the GOP; they may even lose a seat or two after the night is done. It is far too early to tell…”

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“...welcome back to election night 1974. Polls have just closed in Virginia, Vermont, South Carolina, Georgia, and most of Florida. In Vermont, incumbent Republican Senator George Aiken is retiring, and the race is a close one between former Rep. Richard Mallary and the man who beat him in an upset last election: Rep. Bernard Sanders. Once a somewhat radical activist - even describing himself as a “democratic socialist” at one point - Congressman Sanders has moderated his views to an extent in his campaign against Mallary, though he is still firmly progressive. The two men are virtually tied in the polls at the moment, even as we can call the governor’s election in that state for Thomas Salmon, the incumbent.

“In South Carolina, incumbent Senator Marshall Parker has beaten back a challenge from outgoing Rep. Thomas Gettys, winning a convincing margin. The governor’s race between Gen. William Westmoreland and Rep. William Dorn is too close to call at this hour, but Westmoreland leads. In Georgia, George Busbee has easily won the Governor’s mansion, while Sen. Herman Talmadge, Governor Ivan Allen, Jr., and Macon mayor Ronnie Thompson are in a three-way dead heat in the Senate race, which will likely go to a runoff. In Florida, both Governor Askew and Senator Collins have won comfortable reelections…”

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“...this is CBS News’ coverage of the 1974 midterms. Polls have now closed in Ohio, West Virginia, and North Carolina. Senator John Ashbrook is facing off against former state senator Howard Metzenbaum in Ohio, which is too early to call. Governor Gilligan and former Governor Rhodes’s race is too early to call as well.

“CBS can project, however, that former Governor Terry Sanford has won the Senate seat of Sam Ervin, who is retiring, in North Carolina. Additionally, Katherine Peden has won reelection in Kentucky. She will be a two term Senator at least.”

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Can't wait for more!

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“Welcome back to CBS News, this is Walter Cronkite with new returns from the 1974 midterms. A whole host of states closed their polls this hour, and a number of interesting results have come in. First, CBS News can project that the Democrats will maintain their control of the House of Representatives. By how much remains to be seen, but one thing is sure: there will be a Democratic trifecta of control until at least 1977.

“In Alabama, Senator Allen is effectively unopposed, and will win with over 95% of the vote. Bill Baxley will be the next Governor of the state.

“In Connecticut, Abraham Ribicoff has won reelection to the US Senate, while Governor Daddario will be governor for four more years.

“In Illinois, Senator Adlai Stevenson III will easily win reelection.

“In Kansas, the race between Senator Bob Dole and Congressman William Roy is too close to call, as is the governor’s race between Robert Bennett and Vern Miller.

“In Maine, George Mitchell has crushed James Erwin by almost 20 points.

“In Maryland, Senator Spiro Agnew has beaten Barbara Mikulski, while Governor Mathias has also won reelection.

“In Massachusetts, Michael Dukakis has won the governorship after John Volpe’s retirement. This is a pickup for the Democrats.

“In Michigan, Governor Sander Levin has won reelection.

“In Missouri, Senator Thomas Curtis has easily won reelection.

“In New Hampshire, the Senate race between Louis Wyman and John Durkin is too close to call, as is the governor’s race. Governor McLane, originally an independent, is running for reelection as a Democrat against Meldrim Thomson Jr.”

“Both races in Ohio are too close to call at the moment.

“In Oklahoma, Senator Harry Bellmon is facing a tough competitor in former Senator Fred Harris. The race is too early to call. David Boren, who successfully primaried Governor Hall, has won his first term as Governor convincingly.

“In Pennsylvania, Senator Richard Schweiker is ahead of Peter Flaherty by almost 5 points, but it is too soon to say who will win. Governor Shapp leads Andrew Lewis by a similar margin, but, like the Senate race, it is too early to call.

“Philip Noel overwhelmingly is reelected Governor of Rhode Island.

“Jacob Butcher will be reelected Governor of Tennessee.

“Barefoot Sanders will be reelected Governor of Texas.”

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“Polls have just closed in Arkansas, where Governor Britt is locked in a close race against Senator Fulbright, and where Dale Bumpers has finally managed to win the Governorship. The Democrats have picked up two governorships already tonight.

“We at CBS can project that Richard Schweiker will win reelection in Pennsylvania, while Governor Milton Shapp will govern Pennsylvania for four more years.

“In Indiana, William Ruckelshaus has narrowly won another Senate term. In a weak prospective field in 1976, Ruckelshaus and Schweiker stand out as moderates who could hypothetically reunite the divided Republican party and make a strong showing against President Humphrey, though it is too early to tell at this point.”

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“Good evening, welcome back to election night 1974 on CBS. A number of states have just closed their polls. Let’s run through them all:

“In Arizona, the election is too close to call between Senator Fannin and former Vice President Udall. Raul Hector Castro and Evan Mecham are locked in a close race for the governorship as well.

“In Colorado, unpopular Senator Peter Dominick was successfully primaried by businessman John McCandish King, who seems to have won an easy election. Lt. Gov. John Vanderhoof has beaten former Lt. Gov. Mark Anthony Hogan by several points.

“In Louisiana, Russell B. Long ran unopposed and has been elected by default.

“In Minnesota, Wendell Anderson has been reelected Governor in a landslide.

“J. James Exon has won reelection as Governor of Nebraska.

“New Mexico’s gubernatorial election is too close to call.

“In New York, Shirley Chisholm leads Senator Javits due to a significant amount of the vote - currently around 12% - being taken by Conservative candidate William F. Buckley. However, it is too early to call the race. Governor Robert Kennedy has won another term in office very easily.

“North Dakota’s Senate race is too early to call.

“South Dakota’s Senate race is too early to call. We can project Richard Kneip will be reelected Governor.

“In Wisconsin, Gaylord Nelson has won another term in the Senate while Patrick Lucey has been reelected Governor. With this call, Senate Democrats are ensured a filibuster-proof majority until at least 1977.

“Edgar Herschler has won the Wyoming Governorship, the third flip for Democrats tonight.

“We can also now make an interesting call: Gen. William Westmoreland will now be Governor William Westmoreland. Gov.-elect Westmoreland, whose campaign was supported by ostensibly disgraced former President Goldwater, will be the first Republican governor of South Carolina since Reconstruction. This is the first gubernatorial flip for Republicans tonight.

“Additionally, Senator John Ashbrook has been reelected in Ohio by a very narrow margin.”

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“...polls are now closed in all but 5 states, and a few calls can be made at this hour…

“In Idaho, Senator Evans will win a full term of his own. Not a single Senate seat has flipped to or from either party as of yet. Cecil Andrus has been reelected Governor.

“In Iowa, David Stanley has won another term, while Charles Grassley has flipped the Governor’s mansion to the Republicans.

“In Nevada, Lt. Gov. Harry Reid has won the Senate seat Alan Bible is retiring out of. Mike O’Callaghan has won reelection as Governor.

“We’re just getting word that Senator Bob Dole, another potential 1976 candidate, has secured himself another term in the Senate. The same cannot be said of Jacob Javits: Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm has been elected Senator from New York with 42% of the vote to Javits’ 37% and Buckley’s 19%. Chisholm is the first female African-American Senator-elect, and is the first Senate flip of the night.

“Governor Gilligan of Ohio has lost to former Governor Rhodes, we are being informed. Evan Mecham will apparently be the next Governor of Arizona. And Governor McLane will be reelected in New Hampshire as a Democrat.

“Oh, and one more call we can make at this time: Maurice Britt, outgoing Governor of Arkansas, will be the next Senator from that state, defeating the unpopular Senator J. William Fulbright, who narrowly survived a primary challenge from former Governor Orval Faubus. This is the first flip for the Republicans, negating the Democratic victory in New York.”

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Also fun thing I thought of while doing some research and decided to add:


Funding schools via property taxes is unconstitutional in this timeline, thanks to JFK convincing Earl Warren to retire early and LBJ not pushing Goldberg and Clark off the Court.

Great TL, awesome!

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“Welcome back to CBS coverage of the midterms. I’m Walter Cronkite, and polls just closed on the West Coast and in Hawaii. Senator Warren Magnuson of Washington has won reelection. In Oregon, Governor McCall and Justice Roberts are neck and neck in the Senate race, while Robert Straub has easily won the gubernatorial race - a flip for Democrats. In California, Senator Charleton Heston is slightly ahead of his challenger Jerry Brown, while Governor Unruh has won reelection handily. And in Hawaii, Daniel Inouye has won another term in an absolute landslide, while Governor Crossley trails George Ariyoshi but has not officially lost yet.

“In New Hampshire, Louis Wyman has beaten John Durkin by a little under a percentage point - 50.1% to 49.5% - to hold that Senate seat for Republicans. In neighboring Vermont, there is a similarly close race we can now call. 33 year old Congressman Bernard Sanders, who won in an absolutely shocking upset just two years ago, has narrowly defeated Richard Mallary - who held Sanders’ seat for ten months before losing to the insurgent activist - for Vermont’s Senate seat 48.2% to 47.6%. This is the second Democratic flip of the night, for a net change of one seat in Democrats’ favor.

“Interesting news out of Georgia: while it has been clear for a few hours now that a runoff was inevitable, it has been confirmed that the runoff will be between conservative firebrand Ronnie Thompson, the Republican, and Governor Ivan Allen Jr., the progressive Democrat. Conservative Democrat Herman Talmadge, the incumbent, is in third place. Thompson has 33.8%, Allen has 33.2%, and Talmadge has 32.3% with an estimated 99% of the vote counted.

“In North Dakota, Milton Young has narrowly won reelection by a little more than half a percentage point. And in a shocking turn of events, it looks like… it looks like George McGovern has seriously underperformed expectations in South Dakota tonight. We can call that Senate race for his challenger, Leo K. Thorsness; he has won by a quarter of a percentage point and will be the second GOP pickup in the Senate tonight. It looks as though Republicans are doing well in a region that was the nail in their electoral coffin two years ago: the Plains. Let’s look at the maps.”

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“It is now a new day, and some of the races for the midterms have not been resolved, though polls are only still open in Alaska. We do have some calls, however.

“In Kansas, Robert Bennett, the Republican, will defeat Vern Miller, the Democrat, and flip the governorship to the GOP.

“In Oklahoma, Sen. Harry Bellmon will very narrowly defeat former Sen. Fred Harris, keeping this seat in GOP hands.

“In New Mexico, where Democratic Governor King is term-limited, Republican State Sen. Joe Skeen has defeated fellow State Sen. Jerry Apodaca and will be the next Governor of New Mexico, another flip for the GOP.

“In Utah, Jake Garn, the Republican, is the new Senator-elect.

“The Hawaii governor’s race and Arizona, Oregon, and California Senate races are all still too close to call at this hour.”

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“Polls have finally closed in Alaska, where Democrat Mike Gravel has won another term. We can also project that Jay Hammond has narrowly beaten Governor Egan, flipping another governorship to the Republicans.

“In Hawaii, we can project that George Ariyoshi has flipped the governorship to the Democrats by beating Governor Crossley. This was the last Governor’s race which remained uncalled.

“In the Senate, we can project that Governor McCall has beaten Justice Roberts in the Oregon Senate race, filling the seat Wayne Morse (D) held until his death earlier this year. Oregon does not allow its governor to fill Senate vacancies via appointment, so the seat has been empty since this year.

“In California, Senator Heston has lost to his younger opponent, Jerry Brown, which is a flip to the Democrats.

“And finally, in Arizona, former Vice President Morris K. Udall has very narrowly defeated the incumbent Republican, Senator Paul Fannin.

“In the House of Representatives, Democrats have lost 19 seats to Republicans, many of which are in the South. Democrats will hold 302 seats going into the 94th Congress, a very wide margin over their Republican opposition.”

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That senate ()()()

Awful map for the gop, perhaps on par with OTL 2018 for the Democrats

NUT

Senators Brown and Reid!

Here's to hoping that Ivan Allen Jr. beats out Ronnie Thompson

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Democrats hold their supermajorities in the House and Senate, and, pending the Georgia Senate runoff between Gov. Allen and Mayor Thompson (scheduled for Dec. 3), may actually expand their Senate majority by one seat. The GOP is still in shambles with the Goldwater Administration still fresh in the minds of most of the country; however, the results would seem to suggest that conservatism is still popular in some areas of the country.

In the northeast, Democrats did very well, hanging onto some of the House seats they took by narrow margins in 1972, a Democratic landslide year. Democrats did very well in the Midwest as well, and on the West Coast; Congresswoman Myrlie Evers (D-CA-24), who was elected in a massive upset in 1970 and managed to ride Humphrey’s wave to victory in 1972, was reelected by a narrow margin again in the Humphrey midterm, despite being seen as the Democrats’ most vulnerable seat outside the South.

In the Plains, Republicans have been seen unfavorably in the past several years due to Goldwater’s massive cuts into federal farm subsidies. However, Republicans did well there in the midterm, likely due to Democratic inaction on the issue combined with states implementing their own subsidies. The South, once solidly for the Democrats in every election, seems to have shifted more towards the Republicans, or at least those who ran as conservatives. The only region where Goldwater’s approval is above water and where Humphrey’s is underwater, the South saw a large swing towards conservatives, as Republicans took a number of House seats like GA-06 (Newton Gingrich is Rep.-elect), elected Maurice Britt to the Senate in Arkansas, and sent William Westmoreland to the South Carolina Governor’s mansion. Still, Democrats like LeRoy Collins (FL-SEN), Reubin Askew (FL-GOV), James Allen (AL-SEN), Terry Sanford (NC-SEN-elect), Russell Long (LA-SEN), Katherine Peden (KY-SEN) and William Clinton (AR-03-elect) all still won their races in the South; Democrats should by no means write off the region as the 1976 election approaches.

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Senator Mondale’s Vietnam Veterans Work Program Act of 1974 clears committee and passes with 71 votes. It is sent to the House for their consideration.

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The VVWPA passes the House with 297 votes. President Humphrey signs it into law.

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Attorney General Ramsey Clark sets up an investigation into whether or not voter suppression was an issue in the 1974 midterms. There were scattered reports across the South that African-Americans had voting issues, despite the voting rights legislation passed in 1973. The “Clark Investigation,” as it came to be called, and the man it was named after become very unpopular very quickly among white Southerners, who see it as an insulting witch hunt.

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Ronnie Thompson, conservative Republican mayor of Macon, GA, wins the state’s Senate election runoff against progressive Democratic Governor Ivan Allen, Jr. Thompson wins 54% to 46%, becoming the first Republican to serve as a Senator from Georgia since Reconstruction. Republicans will hold 31 seats in the Senate come January 3rd, while Democrats will hold 69, a supermajority.

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The Clark Investigation finds evidence that voter suppression tactics were used against African-Americans in the Georgia Senate runoff. Clark does not make this public immediately, as Thompson’s margin of victory was likely too high for the suppression to have affected the outcome. Instead, Clark alerts President Humphrey and files the evidence away for the investigation’s final report.

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House Majority Whip John J. McFall (D-CA-14) announces he will not remain as Majority Whip (though he is not resigning from Congress). He suggests Rep. Kika de la Garza (D-TX-15) take his place.

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The 94th Congress convenes for the first time. Carl Albert is reelected Speaker; Phillip Burton is reelected Majority Leader; Kika de la Garza is elected Majority Whip; Gerald Ford is reelected Minority Leader; and Bob Michel is reelected Minority Whip.

In the Senate, Vice President Henry M. Jackson presides; James Eastland remains President Pro Tempore; Mike Mansfield is reelected Majority Leader; Ted Kennedy is reelected Majority Whip; Hugh Scott is reelected Minority Leader; and Paul Laxalt is reelected Minority Whip.

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Let's do something interesting: look at how Lee Harvey Oswald's better aim changed Elizabeth Hanford's life.

Hanford worked on the Kennedy/Johnson campaign in 1960, and on the Kennedy/Udall '64 reelection campaign. After 1964, she worked in the Kennedy White House for the entirety of JFK's second term. When Goldwater got elected, she left the White House in protest of the new President's views, which she felt were extreme. So, instead, she went to work as a consumer policy adviser to a freshman Senator, Robert J. Dole (R-KS). Hanford and Dole became quite close, and when Dole's marriage fell apart in 1970, they started dating. In 1973, they were married.

Elizabeth Dole enjoyed working for the man she just married, but wanted to get into politics in her own right. She hated Goldwater, but in 1972, she was inspired by the campaign of John Lindsay to join the Republican party (the fact that the man she was soon to marry was a Republican didn't hurt either). In late 1973, "Liddy" Dole announced she would run for Congress in Kansas's first Congressional district. George Meeker, the incumbent Democrat, had narrowly won the seat from Keith Sebelius (who had, in turn succeeded Bob Dole upon his ascension to the Senate in 1968) off the coattails of Humphrey's clean 1972 sweep, and was seen as extremely vulnerable. Being Bob Dole's wife cleared the field for Liddy, though she made it very clear she was seeking to be her own woman, not just a puppet of her husband. Bob was happy to campaign for Elizabeth, but commonly stated that "the people of Kansas's first should elect her for the reasons I married her - her kindness, her smarts, her dedication to public service - not because I married her."

Elizabeth Dole won the seat over Meeker by 7 points, and is a feminist, moderate Republican voice in the 94th Congress.

Nice!

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Former Vice President Ronald W. Reagan of California holds a press conference on the 1976 election. After being included in polls that showed him leading in the Republican primary, many wondered if he would renege on his promise made several years ago to never seek public office again. However, Vice President Reagan definitively rules out a run in 1976, 1980, 1984, and all other future Presidential elections, stating that his “career in elected office is over, and I'm not sure how much clearer I can make that.” He is expected to remain an important asset for the GOP on the campaign trail; he has a 77% overall approval rating, including a 97% rating among Republicans, 62% among independents, and 51% among Democrats.

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President Humphrey gives the 1975 State of the Union address. He lauds the things accomplished in the previous year while promising further action on education, healthcare, poverty, and maintaining peace in the world.

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Senator Jerry Brown (D-CA) and Congressman Allard Lowenstein (D-NY-04) introduce bills into their respective houses of Congress to create a United States Department of Peace. The Peace Act of 1975 would create a separate Cabinet department to work with other governments around the world to tackle significant world issues and create peace agreements, “taking some of the pressure off the Department of State and UN Ambassador,” according to Senator Brown. The Department of Peace would also oversee the Peace Corps and USAID, and would create the “United States Peace Institute” to train Americans seeking to work towards world peace.

President Humphrey did not request this legislation, but would be open to signing the Peace Act if it were sent to his desk.

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Edward Heath wins re-election as the UK Conservative Party's leader with the support of 152 MPs. This is closer than expected; Margaret Thatcher, called "the UK's Goldwater" by some, got the support of 112 MPs.

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At a fundraiser for the Barry M. Goldwater Presidential Library, former President Goldwater is asked whether he will run again in 1976. Goldwater curtly answers “no.” His son, Congressman Barry Goldwater Jr. (R-CA-20), also declines interest in seeking the White House in 1976.

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The Peace Act passes the Senate with 63 votes.

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The Peace Act passes the House with 259 votes, and is signed into law by President Humphrey. The US Department of Peace and Global Development is founded.

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The US economy is middling. Inflation rates sit at 5.5%, while the unemployment rate is 6.7%, which is around where it had been for several months.

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President Humphrey nominates former Senator George McGovern to be the nation’s first Secretary of Peace and Global Development. Hearings begin on March 5, and the confirmation vote is scheduled for March 10; McGovern has wide support for the position and his nomination is expected to easily pass.

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George McGovern is confirmed 86-12 to the Department of Peace. He is sworn in later in the evening.

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Senator George Bush (R-TX) denies interest in a run for the Presidency in 1976. “Given the way things look right now,” Senator Bush states, “it wouldn’t be prudent at this juncture.” He will run for reelection in Texas instead.

Also around this time, Senators Howard Baker (R-TN), John Ashbrook (R-OH), and Spiro Agnew (R-MD), along with Governor Charles Mathias (R-MD) all also decline to run for the nomination.

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The anti-segregation commission set up by President Humphrey in 1973, headed by Sen. LeRoy Collins (D-FL) and former Governor Ivan Allen Jr. (D-GA), concludes. The Collins-Allen Report states that President Humphrey should increase the amount of affordable housing available to African-Americans, increase investment in low income areas, and continue to encourage housing desegregation.

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President Humphrey acts upon the Collins-Allen Report by pushing for the introduction of the American Housing Act of 1975. The AHA is ambitious and sweeping: first, it creates more housing projects and sets fairly high construction and maintenance standards the projects must adhere to. Second, it creates a voucher program known as “Section 8” which allows low-income families to rent private housing at a subsidized rate. The Humphrey Administration writes this voucher program in such a way that is intended to promote lower-income black families moving into middle-class white neighborhoods, thus attempting to end de facto segregation in housing and having the knock-on effect of lessening school segregation without resorting to controversial programs like busing. Third, the AHA creates the Urban Homesteading Initiative to give vacant homes to people willing to fix them up. Finally, the AHA creates a National Institute of Building Sciences.

At the same time, Humphrey also asks for a Urban Revitalization Act, which would give federal grants to low-income prospective business owners, invest in urban infrastructure, and create the Low-income Energy Assistance Program, or LEAP, to help subsidize home energy for people in poverty.

Both bills have the support of major civil rights leaders such as Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, John Lewis, and Jesse Jackson.

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The American Housing Act is introduced into the Senate by Senator Chisholm (D-NY), while the Urban Revitalization Act is introduced into the House by Majority Leader Phillip Burton (D-CA-06)

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Former Vice President Richard Nixon sat and drank his coffee with a number of strategists, including H. R. Haldeman, Roger Ailes, Pat Buchanan, and John Ehrlichman.

“So how’re we gonna do this,” Dick asked.

Roger had a plan. “You’re going to need to beat Lindsay. He’s the only serious candidate the GOP’s got who’s not running for the hills so as to not lose badly in the general.”

“Who else do I have to worry about? I’m glad I don’t have to fight Bush or Agnew, but is Dole gonna be a problem?”

“Dole doesn’t have the experience or charisma to beat you. Besides, we’re not even sure he’s going to run.” Haldeman offered up some more advice: “Announce soon to try to clear the field. Run to Lindsay’s right, but just barely; run too far to the right and you’ll have people comparing you to Goldwater in the general, which will destroy you. Run too far to the left and you’ll be too liberal for the South while also being too similar to Humphrey to sway swing voters. We need to find your happy medium.”

“Sounds like a plan. Haldeman, you lead the campaign. Ailes and Buchanan, you’re in charge of media and messaging. Ehrlichman, you’re our legal counsel.” Nixon smiled. I let that Irishman beat me in ‘60 and that Jew bastard beat me in ‘68. I won’t let anyone beat me in ‘76.

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Surprising many in the GOP, former Vice President Richard Nixon launches a bid for the 1976 Republican nomination. He is the first candidate to announce, and is an instant frontrunner. In his announcement speech, Nixon speaks more in platitudes, like “now more than ever, we need a united party and a united country if we are going to move into the future” than on specific policies.

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The Urban Revitalization Act of 1975 passes fairly easily and is signed into law.

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The American Housing Act of 1975 passes narrowly and is signed into law.

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“...Four years ago, I ran for President to restore honor, dignity, and progressivism to our party. Well, I stand here today seeking the same goals. We need to take our party out of the past and propel it into the future. That is why I’m here today to announce that I am a candidate for President of the United States in 1976!” -Former Mayor John V. Lindsay (R-NYC)

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The Federal Campaign Act is signed into law. It sets limits for how much money people, corporations, and political action committees can donate to politicians and campaigns. It also creates the Federal Elections Agency to see that these limits are followed, and to penalize those who do not.

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President Humphrey is privately frustrated with how his attempt to pass comprehensive healthcare reform is going. The issue of healthcare deeply divides the Democrats in Congress; liberals (including Humphrey) want something similar to a single-payer system; moderates want stricter regulations, subsidies, and a public option, or even just simple expansions of the JFK programs; and conservatives want less government healthcare and cuts to the existing programs. Several different bills have been introduced in the past few months, but Humphrey wants one bill he can support so as to hopefully unite the party.

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“I’m running for President because I believe we need government to get out of our lives, not further into it.” -Former Senator Charleton Heston (R-CA)

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Attorney General Ramsey Clark’s investigation of voter suppression in the South comes to an end. The Clark Report recommends an executive order creating a nonpartisan group of federal elections examiners and observers in anticipation of the 1976 elections. President Humphrey signs this executive order on the same day.

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Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and Congressman Ronald Dellums (D-CA-08) introduce the American Health Insurance Act of 1975, which would create a single-payer healthcare system in the United States. President Humphrey voices his support for the bill, but Republicans are in near-universal opposition to it. Democrats could pass any legislation without a single Republican vote in both houses; however, the support of moderate and conservative Democrats is still necessary, and they are generally opposed to or at least wary of the idea of single-payer healthcare.

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“Bob Dole believes in the promise of the American Dream. America must tackle the slowing economy, prevent Democrat wars, and get the government off the backs of farmers and the middle class. If you agree, vote for Bob Dole in 1976!” -Senator Bob Dole (R-KS)

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Unbeknownst to the wider world, Pakistan makes a few new hires onto its nuclear program. The “Kashmir situation” - the standoff between India, Pakistan, and the People’s Republic of China regarding territorial claims to the Kashmir region - has become something of a low-grade regional cold war. This cold war has caused all nations involved to speed up their nuclear weapons development programs, to mixed success. China has had nuclear weapons for over a decade, and has increased production and testing; India has conducted several successful tests in the past year, and is considered a nuclear power; Pakistan has had worse luck, and is rapidly trying to get the bomb, as it (perhaps rightly) sees India having WMDs as an existential threat.

Pakistan also conducts an unsuccessful nuclear test around this time.

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“As Republicans, we must reclaim the moral high ground we have lost in the past few years and stand firmly in our principles of limited government. At the same time, limited government does not mean no government; we must also govern effectively and take care of our citizens. That’s why I’m running for President in 1976.” -Senator William Ruckelshaus (R-IN)

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In Moscow, President Humphrey and Secretary Kulakov finish the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks by signing the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in Helsinki. The ABM Treaty is sent to the Senate for ratification.

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Former Virginia Governor A. Linwood Holton announces a long-shot run for the presidency, to little fanfare.

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The House debates a sweeping new Constitutional Amendment, dubbed the “Nuclear Amendment,” which would clearly outline who has control of the nuclear weapons arsenal in times of crisis, and under what circumstances nuclear weapons are legally allowed to be used. This Amendment, a response to the Hanoi Incident of 1971, has been in the works for almost four years; legislators wanted an Amendment that was both effective in preventing another crisis like that of 1971, while also not limiting nuclear weapons to the point that the US could not retaliate in time should a nuclear attack be imminent. The Amendment reads as follows:

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The Nuclear Amendment passes the House with 407 votes in the affirmative, and is sent to the Senate.

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The Nuclear Amendment passes the Senate with 88 votes, and is sent to the states for ratification. 17 states immediately ratify the Amendment, leaving it with 21 more states before it becomes law.

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The American Health Care Act, dubbed “KennedyCare” after its Senate sponsor, moves out of the Senate Committee on Labor and Public Welfare. Its future is shaky; five Southern Democrats have come out against it: Sparkman (D-AL), Allen (D-AL), McClelland (D-AR), Stennis (D-MS), and Eastland (D-MS). Additionally, Sens. Chiles (D-FL), Carter (D-GA), Huddleston (D-KY), Galifianakis (D-NC), Gore (D-TN), and Byrd (D-WY) are all undecided. Democrats need 60 votes to pass the AHIA; they can spare only four votes after the five conservatives came out against it. The entire Republican caucus is against the “socialized medicine bill,” as they call it.

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In a blow to Senate Majority Whip Ted Kennedy (D-MA), the American Health Insurance Act fails, after Senators Sparkman, Allen, McClelland, Stennis, Eastland, Chiles, Carter, Huddleston, Gore, and Byrd vote against the bill, killing it with only 59 votes in the affirmative. Out of undecided Senators, only Nick Galifianakis (D-NC) voted in the affirmative. The White House issues a press release that states that President Humphrey is “saddened at the AHCA’s failure in the Senate,” but that he remains “hopeful for a future solution that finds broader support” so as to “improve the lives of every American.”

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The U.S. Senate ratifies the recently-signed ABM Treaty.

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President Humphrey visits California to discuss policy with Governor Jesse Unruh. As Humphrey and the Governor exit the California State Capitol building, Lynette Fromme pulls a Colt .45 out of her pocket and fires three shots towards the President and Governor Unruh. Two shots miss their targets altogether, while one hits the Governor in the shoulder. Both politicians are rushed from the scene. The President is unharmed, and the Governor is merely wounded and eventually makes a full recovery.

Lynette Fromme, a member of the Manson family cult, is later found guilty and sentenced to life in prison.

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House and Senate Democratic leadership meet with President Humphrey at the White House to discuss ways to reform the healthcare system that would attract broader appeal. They consider implementing an employer mandate, expanding Medicaid, and allowing people to buy into Medicare before the retirement age.

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President Humphrey becomes the first sitting United States President to meet with gay rights activists when he visits Castro Street in San Francisco, California. This move is controversial, especially among conservatives of both parties. Humphrey meets with political activist Harvey Milk, who is running for City Supervisor; Humphrey endorses the openly gay Milk, sending waves of anger through culturally conservative parts of the country.

After meeting with Mayor Alioto at City Hall, President Humphrey greets the crowd which had amassed to meet him. In the crowd is Sarah Jane Moore, who shoots at Humphrey and hits him in the torso. She shoots another time, hitting Humphrey’s upper leg. Before she can fire another shot, a bystander, former Marine Oliver Sipple, knocks the gun out of her hand.

Humphrey is sped to a hospital nearby, and is operated on immediately. The shots luckily did not hit much of importance, due to the fact that Moore had no previous shooting experience and had only bought her gun the morning of the shooting.

Sipple is hailed as a hero by the national media. After he is later outed by the press as gay, he becomes a symbol in that community, but Sipple himself claims his privacy has been invaded.

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President Humphrey emerges from the San Francisco hospital he has been recovering at for four days. While the President is still on crutches, he is expected to recover within a few months. He gives a short speech on the hospital steps about the resilience of the President reflecting the resilience of the American people who elected him. Then, he returns to Washington to resume his duties, which had been temporarily carried out by Vice President Jackson on an acting basis pursuant to Section 3 of the 26th Amendment to the Constitution - the first time this part of the Amendment is invoked.

Humphrey also invites Oliver Sipple to the White House as a thank you for his potentially saving Humphrey's life.

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Senators Jerry Brown and George Brown Jr. (D-CA) introduce the Hubert H. Humphrey Sensible Gun Control Act of 1975. The sweeping bill requires US citizens to go through psychological tests, background checks, waiting periods, and safety training to obtain a license, which would be required to own any kind of firearm if enacted. It also prohibits certain people, like previously convicted felons, members of cults, and the mentally ill, from ever owning guns. The left have been advocating for stringent gun control for years, while conservatives are against it; the recent attempts on the life of fairly popular President Humphrey may sway moderates to the liberals’ side.

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George Carlin hosts the first episode of NBC’s Saturday Night, a new sketch comedy show. Dan Aykroyd and Chevy Chase are among the comics on cast. The musical guest is blues legend B.B. King and his band, including its newest member, rising musical star Lee Atwater on the guitar. Atwater, who dropped out of college to pursue music professionally after King discovered him and asked him to tour with him, is something of a heartthrob for teenagers across America.

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Supreme Court Justice G. Harrold Carswell comes under fire for using a racial slur beginning with “n” to refer to black Americans who benefit from the Humphrey Administration’s social welfare and housing programs, characterizing them as lazy and entitled. Congressman John Kerry (D-MA-05) calls for him to resign, while Senator Ronnie Thompson (R-GA) is “not happy about the word he used, but to be honest, is the sentiment wrong?”

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Senators Edward Brooke (R-MA) and Shirley Chisholm (D-NY) introduce a censure of Justice Carswell for his recent racist remarks. They pass 94-0. Congressman Ron Dellums (D-CA-08) introduces articles of impeachment against him, which House Speaker Burton doesn’t let come to a vote.

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The Humphrey Gun Control Act passes the House with 247 votes after passing the Senate with 63 votes the day before. President Humphrey signs the bill into law; conservative activists, including Congresswoman (and former Attorney General) Phyllis Schlafly (R-IL-22), vow to take the matter to the courts.

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Hubert was about to shock the world.

Two weeks ago, he’d requested air time on all the networks. He’d been thinking about his future for over a year, and now it was time to tell the people of America what their future held.

“My fellow Americans,” Hubert began. For a few minutes, he talked about the accomplishments of his administration: free universal childcare, voting rights for all Americans, ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment, less housing discrimination, the first female Supreme Court justice, the "Mars 2000" initiative, SALT, environmental protections, education reform. Then, he talked about the challenges America still faces: poverty, uneasy tensions around the world, the opening of the nuclear Pandora's Box (though that’s more Goldwater and LeMay’s mess Humphrey and the rest of the world was still dealing with), the failure of KennedyCare. After all that, Hubert mused on what America needs in her President: strength, vigor, a commitment to American values and to the American people. Finally, he turned to his own future plans.

“...so, you’re likely wondering why I am talking to you tonight. Well, I recently discovered some bad news which I have been grappling with and will now share with you, the American people: I have terminal bladder cancer. It will kill me someday; the question is when, not if. I have thought about what this means for me in my current position of power, and, more importantly, what it means for you. I have considered resigning immediately to seek treatment; I have also considered running for another term and continuing until I either serve my country to the fullest or until God calls me home.

“I have settled on this compromise: I will serve out my term to which you elected me in 1972. However, I will not seek another term in 1976. I cannot in good conscious ask the American people to elect me again if I cannot be reasonably certain that I can serve out the term, or at least devote my full attention to my duties rather than my survival. I would like to spend what time I have left in office fighting for you, and then spend what time I have left on Earth with my family and friends in Minnesota…”

Hubert finished his speech, then got up and hugged his wife Muriel when the cameras turned off.

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Governor Edwin Edwards of Louisiana is reelected easily.

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Lt. Gov. Julian Carroll of Kentucky wins the gubernatorial election in that state, while Gil Carmichael stuns political pundits by becoming the first Republican to be elected Governor of Mississippi since 1873.

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Vice President Henry M. Jackson announces his bid for the 1976 nomination. A “New Deal Liberal,” Jackson is solidly progressive on social and domestic economic issues, but a hawkish anti-Communist “Cold Warrior” on foreign policy. He vows to continue to fight for the working man while keeping the world safe.

Jackson is expected to lock up the nomination easily - if anyone even challenges him.

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The United Nations Special Committee on Nuclear War releases another study on the effects the nuclear bombings in northern Vietnam in 1971 have had on the Southeast Asia region. The UN report finds that crop yields have declined at a steady rate since 1971. If this continues, the region could soon see famine and unrest.

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29 states have ratified the Nuclear Amendment by this time.

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America is saved!

This timeline may be the most interesting one we’ve had since Castro’s Eternal Sunshine, SPC’s Kerry timeline or Cathcon’s Second Chance.

Thank you so much!

Zeh plot tickens.

This is amazing. Amazing.
And I also consider Humphrey in this timeline to be one of the country's greatest Presidents and Leaders.

Please continue this a masterpiece

I hope someone less hawkish runs against Jackson. Where’s Frank Church doing these days?

He’s serving as President Humphrey’s Secretary of the Interior.

I’m going to post the definitive list of all the 1976 candidates in an hour or two. Should be interesting to see who y’all support. ;)

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Congressman Allard Lowenstein (D-NY-04) makes an announcement on New Year’s Day

After the announcement the previous November that President Humphrey would be stepping down at the end of his term, many Democrats were concerned. Humphrey had been a liberal crusader on domestic policy and a diplomatic, internationalist dove on foreign policy, which many in the party liked. His Vice President and heir apparent, Henry “Scoop” Jackson, was still liberal on domestic issues, albeit lacking Humphrey’s “happy warrior” tenacity. However, his views on foreign policy were dramatically to the right of Humphrey’s; Scoop Jackson was a good ol’ fashioned Cold Warrior who looked at most issues through the lens of capitalism versus communism. Unhelpfully, Jackson was more introverted than Humphrey, more at ease campaigning one-on-one rather than at campaign rallies with thousands of people. Many Democrats were concerned that Jackson wasn’t the best candidate Democrats had to offer. Former McGovern supporters felt especially strongly that someone needed to challenge Jackson.

Enter Allard Lowenstein.

A four-term congressman from New York, Lowenstein was an avid peace activist and was somewhat to the left of Jackson domestically. A supporter of George McGovern in 1968 and 1972, Lowenstein started looking for potential challengers to Jackson as soon as President Humphrey announced he wouldn’t seek a second term. McGovern was serving as Secretary of Peace and Global Development, so he was a non-starter; Senator Kennedy refused so as to avoid losing his chance to become Majority Leader upon Mike Mansfield’s recently announced retirement; and his brother, Governor Robert Kennedy, laughed Lowenstein out of his office when the prospect was raised.

So, Lowenstein had thought, I guess I’ll have to do this myself.

Indeed, Lowenstein himself fit the bill. He obviously didn’t have Jackson’s name recognition or experience, but he was fairly well-known nationally, for a congressman. He was more liberal that Jackson on most domestic issues, and would particularly contrast Jackson when discussions turned to foreign policy. And, at 46, Lowenstein was a full generation younger than the sexagenarian Vice President. And so, on January 1, just before the Iowa filing deadline, he announced his run for the Democratic nomination to a small crowd in Manhattan.

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Name: Allard Kenneth Lowenstein
Age: 46
Home State: New York
Resume: U.S. Congressman (1969-)
Political Leanings: Economically liberal, socially liberal, dovish on foreign policy
Platform:
- Non-interventionist foreign policy
- Continued detente/possible rapprochement with USSR and PRC
- Free government healthcare for every American
- Guaranteed minimum income of $3,000 for impoverished Americans
- Continued expansion of civil rights
Slogan: “Allard for Peace. Allard for America”

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Scoop Jackson campaigns in Florida, January 23, 1976

Name: Henry Martin “Scoop” Jackson
Age: 63
Home State: Washington
Resume: Vice President of the United States (1973-), U.S. Senator (1953-1973), U.S. Congressman (1941-1953)
Political Leanings: Economically center-left, socially center-left, hawkish on foreign policy
Platform:
- The domestic successes of the Humphrey Administration should be continued
- Communism is an existential threat to the United States and must be defeated on a global scale (through proxy wars and geopolitical strategy, not conventional war)
- There should be a marketplace for health insurance which includes both private and public options; Medicaid should be expanded
- Discrimination based on race and sex should be eliminated because it hurts the American people and America's image abroad, and is a weakness for Communists to exploit
- The sluggish economy should be fought with public works projects to improve infrastructure and provide jobs to the unemployed
- Labor unions should be strengthened (Taft-Hartley repeal “on the table”)
- Create a federal Department of Education
Slogan: “Jackson: for a Strong America”

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Former Vice President Nixon launches his third White House bid in Los Angeles, April 15, 1975

Name: Richard Milhous Nixon
Age: 63
Home State: California (birthplace); New York (current residence)
Resume: Vice President of the United States (1953-1961), U.S. Senator (1950-1953), U.S. Congressman (1947-1950)
Political Leanings: Economically centrist, socially center-right, hawkish on foreign policy
Platform:
- Reduce taxes and close tax loopholes
- End desegregation busing
- Keep education in the hands of the states
- Contain communism
- Keep health insurance privatized
- Continue to use the government to protect the environment
Slogan: “Nixon. Now more than ever.”

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Former Mayor Lindsay campaigns among the people of Harlem, January 12, 1976

Name: John Vliet Lindsay
Age: 54
Home State: New York
Resume: Mayor of New York City (1966-1973), U.S. Congressman (1959-1965)
Political Leanings: Economically center-left, socially center-left, dovish on foreign policy
Platform:
- Protect civil rights and expand upon the gains made in the past few years
- Use government programs to fight poverty; expand Medicaid and public housing
- Let people under 65 buy into Medicare
- Provide more federal money for education
- Maintain American dominance in the world, but with diplomacy, not war; end proxy wars and ease tensions with USSR, PRC, and other Communist nations
Slogan: “A Fresh Face in Washington”

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Senator Bob Dole

Name: Robert Joseph “Bob Dole” Dole
Age: 52
Home State: Kansas
Resume: U.S. Senator (1969-), U.S. Congressman (1961-1969)
Political Leanings: Economically right, socially center-right, hawkish on foreign policy
Platform:
- Keep health insurance privatized
- Cut taxes significantly
- Protect individual gun ownership rights
- Contain communism
- Increase military budget
- Restore more farm subsidies
- Overturn Roe v. Wade
Slogan: “Bob Dole for President”

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Former Senator Charleton Heston

Name: Charleton Heston
Age: 52
Home State: California
Resume: U.S. Senator (1969-1975), President, Screen Actors Guild (1965-1969)
Political Leanings: Economically hard-right, socially center-right, very hawkish on foreign policy
Platform:
- Cut taxes
- Protect gun rights enumerated in the 2nd Amendment
- Protect private health insurance and roll back Medicaid
- Protect civil rights, but stop busing and all affirmative action
- Start a new military build-up to fight communism if necessary
Slogan: “Renew America’s Greatness”

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Senator William Ruckelshaus

Name: William Doyle Ruckelshaus
Age: 43
Home State: Indiana
Resume: U.S. Senator (1969-), U.S. Congressman (1965-1969), Deputy Attorney General of Indiana (1960-1965)
Political Leanings: Economically centrist, socially centrist, moderate on foreign policy
Platform:
- Bring respectability back to the GOP
- continue Humphrey's work to repair America’s image on the world stage (following the "Hanoi Incident")
- Close tax loopholes and reduce taxes for the middle and working classes and small businesses
- Seek meaningful healthcare reform that includes both public and private insurance
- Protect civil rights
Slogan: “Bringing America Together”

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Former Governor A. Linwood Holton

Name: Abner Linwood “Lin” Holton, Jr.
Age: 52
Home State: Virginia
Resume: Governor of Virginia (1970-1974)
Political Leanings: Economically centrist, socially center-left, moderate on foreign policy
Platform:
- Continue desegregation
- Protect civil rights
- Bring the "New South" to the White House
- Expand Medicaid but retain private insurers
- Continue detente
Slogan: “Win With Lin!”

Tim Kaines father in law 76!

Fantastic, fantastic timeline.

I simply love what you did with individuals like Atwater and events like the assassianations! One of the best TLs here for sure.

Also, JACKSON 1976!!!

Neither of the Dems seem to appeal to me more so than the other and for sure none of the Republicans interest me. Jackson seems good aside from foreign policy while Lowenstein seems good but maybe a little too dovish and am not fond of UBI. Hope to see a bigger Dem field.

Nixon in the late seventies would be a fresh--albeit, not the freshest--take. Hoping for Nixon or Ruckelshaus/Dole.

Interesting with Bob Dole actually running in '76.

Note: the Lindsay administration goes somewhat better than IRL and he wins re-election as a Republican (not a Liberal) in 1969. Rep. Herman Badillo narrowly wins the primary in 1973, leading Beame’s supporters to get behind Liberal candidate Allard Lowenstein. However, Badillo is able to win the election with 37% of the vote, and is the current mayor of NYC.

I’ve added the 1973 NYC mayoral election onto the first page.

For now im gonna have to have to go with Lowenstein, but that might change depending on who joins the field.

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Allard Lowenstein announces a longshot run for the Democratic nomination, running to the left of Vice President Jackson. Lowenstein then flies to Iowa, where he will campaign for the next three weeks ahead of the caucus in that state. Bob Dole has also spent a considerable amount of time and money in Iowa.

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Ignoring his challenger, Vice President Jackson embarks on a 50-state listening tour, starting in his native Washington and moving south and west through the country. His intention is to visit all 50 states over the course of 4 months, and then spend the remaining 4 months until the Democratic Convention vetting prospective running mates.The DNC will be held from August 16th through August 19th at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

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The 27th Amendment, previously known as the Equal Rights Amendment, goes into effect.

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In a statement to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Senator George Rawlings (D-VA) is outed as a homosexual by his wife, who then immediately files for divorce. Rawlings admits he is gay, and is “not ashamed of who I am.” This causes an uproar in Virginia. Senator Rawlings is up for reelection in 1976.

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President Humphrey gives his final State of the Union address. By far the least interesting of his Presidency, he thanks America for standing by him in his time of trouble, and pledges to continue fighting for healthcare reform in his last year. He states that he hopes to expand health insurance for children by 1977, even if he can’t get full health care reform passed by the time his term is up.

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Both parties are surprised by the results of the Iowa caucuses. Democrats are shocked that a Congressman beat out the Vice President, while Republicans expected Richard Nixon to win Iowa by a significantly higher amount than he did.

Vice President Jackson postpones his listening tour indefinitely and travels to New Hampshire, as does Congressman Lowenstein. Former Vice President Nixon focuses his attention to the South, while Mayor Lindsay spends time in New England. Dole continues to campaign in the Plains and blames Senator Ruckelshaus for splitting the moderate vote with him. Former Senator Heston starts campaigning in New Hampshire, while Ruckelshaus stays in the Midwest and Holton campaigns across Florida, hoping for an upset there to become the candidate of the New South.

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Recently outed as gay and subsequently divorced, Senator George Rawlings suddenly announces he will not stand for reelection in November.

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Governor Henry Howell (D-VA) announces he will run for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Senator Rawlings. If he were to win, he would vacate the Virginia governorship and be replaced by Lt. Gov. Douglas Wilder until 1978; Wilder would be the first black governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia.

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Campaign literature for Vice President Jackson

Speaking in Nashua, Vice President Jackson starts to go on the attack against Allard Lowenstein. Without directly mentioning his competitor, Jackson decries “insurgent forces of the new left” who seek to raise taxes on everyday Americans. In a tax averse state like New Hampshire, ambitious left-wing candidates like Allard Lowenstein don’t typically do well, and Jackson attempts to hammer this point home ahead of the February 24th primary.

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President Humphrey states that it is “unfortunate” that Senator Rawlings’s outing caused him to forego reelection; “as long as you love your country and care for your constituents, you should be allowed to run for and hold public office, regardless of factors such as race, sex, and sexual preferences. I know Senator Rawlings personally, and have worked with him both in the Senate and as President; he is a good man of sterling character.”

This admission of support for an open homosexual by the sitting President of the United States is seen as shocking to some, and is counted as a “gaffe” on Humphrey’s behalf by most, even in the more liberal media outlets.

Then, in an interesting turn of events, former President Goldwater also comes to Senator Rawlings’s defense, quipping that “if our Founders had put into place some sort of litmus test that all relationships held by political office holders must be faithful and with the other sex, then half of Congress would need to step down. The Constitution doesn’t require you to be straight to serve your country; the only thing the voters should require is straight talk. While we have our policy differences, I have worked with Senator Rawlings in the past and found him to be a dedicated public servant who loves his Commonwealth and his country.”

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Senators Ted Kennedy (D-MA), Charles Percy (R-IL), Shirley Chisholm (D-NY), and Louis Wyman (R-NH), along with Congresspeople Myrlie B. Evers (D-CA-26), Orrin Hatch (R-UT-02), John Kerry (D-MA-05), and Elizabeth Dole (R-KS-01) all co-sponsor legislation that would create the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), which would require states to set up funds to give health insurance to children who are not poor enough to qualify for Medicaid. Additionally, the federal government would match this state funding. CHIP has wide bipartisan support from all but the most conservative members of Congress.

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Wasting no time after his victory in New Hampshire, Mayor Lindsay turns his attention to Chicago

The results of the New Hampshire primary show that Vice President Jackson defeats Congressman Lowenstein by a very wide margin. Still, Lowenstein has been campaigning in Vermont and Massachusetts - the next states to hold primaries - and may win there due to the small, liberal populations of the states. Additionally, Lowenstein has been endorsed by Senator Bernard Sanders (D-VT) and Congressman John Kerry (D-MA-05).

The Republican race in New Hampshire was also not particularly close; John Lindsay wins a commanding 21 point victory over former Vice President Nixon in what the New York Times calls a “veritable rout.” Following stops in Massachusetts and Vermont (after gaining the endorsements of Senators Edward Brooke (R-MA) and Robert Stafford (R-VT)), Lindsay flies to Illinois to campaign in Chicago, hoping to replicate his 1972 victory in that same primary. In polling, Lindsay has a commanding lead among African American Republican primary voters nationwide; whether that is enough to win Illinois will be tested in due time.

Vice President Nixon campaigns in Vermont and Massachusetts as well, then travels to Florida to campaign there.

Senator Dole goes to Florida as well, then campaigns in rural Illinois as well.

Former Senator Heston drops out after a disappointing New Hampshire result, and endorses John Lindsay.

William Ruckelshaus focuses his attention on Illinois, hoping that being from a neighboring state will give him an advantage.

Former Governor Holton continues to camp out in Florida, criss-crossing the state to raise his name recognition.

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Fun fact: the party not in control of the White House traditionally holds their convention first. That hasn’t affected anything until now; since there is a Democrat in office from ‘73 to ‘77 instead of Nixon and Ford, the Republicans will hold their convention in July while Democrats hold theirs in August, rather than like IRL, where it was the other way around.

Thankfully it looks like the only text Dave deleted from my timelines were Goldwater's farewell speech and half of the post on Humphrey's inauguration. I've fixed it.

In the future, I'll make sure not to post any more copyrighted images.

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Congressman Lowenstein wins the Vermont Democratic primary with 52% of the vote and the Massachusetts Democratic primary with 50.3% of the vote. Vice President Jackson wins his home state of Washington’s primary with 81% of the vote.

John Lindsay wins both Vermont and Massachusetts in the Republican primary. Attention now turns to Florida and Illinois, the next states to hold primaries.

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United Nations General Secretary Max Jakobson gives a speech expressing concern about the growing humanitarian crisis in Southeast Asia, especially Indochina. Following the United States dropping multiple 25 Mt nuclear bombs on or around Hanoi on June 1, 1971 - which had been called the “Hanoi Incident” by the U.S. government ever since, which would almost be laughably diminutive if it wasn’t describing an event that took the lives of hundreds of thousands of innocents - the fallout from the bombings had spread across the region. “Radiation has been detected as far west as Afghanistan, as far north as Mongolia, as far east as Guam, and as far south as Australia,” the obviously concerned General Secretary said. “Fertility rates in both humans and livestock have dropped precipitously in the Southeast Asian region since 1971. Those who can have children find many have birth defects and abnormalities. And there is a growing food shortage from Vietnam to Indonesia to southern China and all the way to parts of India. This is a crisis of the United States’s making, but it is a crisis we must all tackle.”

The World Food Programme has determined that the radiation has decreased crop yields by as much as 35% in certain parts of the Indochina region. As such, the WFP warns that the situation will be upgraded from a Level 2 to a Level 3 emergency in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, from Level 1 to Level 2 in Burma and Thailand, and Level 1 emergencies may arrive in the Philippines, China, Malaysia, Taiwan, Singapore, and Bangladesh, with India also facing reduced crop yields (though not to the point of emergency at this time).

Chairwoman Jiang announces shortly thereafter that her regime will begin to provide food assistance to the affected areas (except, of course, Taiwan, the seat of the Republic of China), though crop yields have decreased in the PRC as well.

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Vice President Jackson beats Congressman Lowenstein in a landslide in the Florida primary. While Jackson declares victory, Lowenstein, who got barely 20% of the vote, vows to continue on.

Richard Nixon wins the Republican Florida primary with 39% of the vote, but Bob Dole wins 30%, spelling trouble for Nixon’s campaign. Dole is seen as a dull empty suit to some and a needlessly divisive hatchetman by others, but he is the most conservative candidate in the race, which is playing well in the South, where Dole is focusing some of his efforts. In his speech, Dole calls Nixon a “paper tiger” who is beginning to fold under pressure.

A. Linwood Holton, having only won 3% of the Florida primary vote, ends his campaign for the Presidency and endorses John Lindsay.

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President Humphrey signs the Metric Conversion Act of 1976 into law. This mandates that the US gradually move to a fully metric system by 1990. Public opinion on the bill is split.

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British Prime Minister Harold Wilson announces his retirement, effective April 5. Prime Minister since 1964, Wilson, of the Labour Party, cited “exhaustion” and a desire to retire at age 60.

The Labour party will hold leadership elections to replace Wilson; the two major candidates are expected to be Michael Foot, Secretary of State for Employment, and James Callaghan, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs.

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Vice President Jackson wins the Illinois primary with 72% of the vote, which is seen as further proof that Allard Lowenstein’s chances of being a serious challenger is dwindling. Still, he pledges to “fight on for peace.”

In the Republican primaries, John Lindsay wins 30% of the vote in Illinois to Richard Nixon’s 27%, William Ruckelshaus’s 25%, and Bob Dole’s 18%. The Nixon campaign blames Sens. Dole and Ruckelshaus for splitting the moderate vote and letting Lindsay win.

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Mayor Lindsay secretly meets with Senators Dole and Ruckelshaus in New York City. Nothing about what is discussed at this meeting is made public.

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Senator William Ruckelshaus announces he is abruptly pulling out of the North Carolina, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania primaries, and announces he will throw his efforts into Texas and his home state of Indiana.

On the same day, Senator Dole announces he will throw resources into North Carolina, Texas, and Georgia in an attempt to win conservative Republicans there.

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Mayor Lindsay has another secret meeting at his New York residence, this time with former Vice President Ronald Reagan.

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“...ladies and gentlemen, I have a very special guest who came here to North Carolina with me today. He’s here because he thinks Bob Dole is the future of America. Welcome to the stage, Vice President Reagan!”

The crowd went crazy as Senator Dole stepped away from the podium and embraced the hugely popular former VP. He’d blanched when he’d picked up the phone yesterday and heard the news that Reagan wanted to endorse him ASAP.

“Thank you, Asheville!” Ronnie Reagan waited for the crowd to stop cheering. “Thank you! Thank you… I’m here today to announce who I think will be the best choice to carry our Republican banner in 1976. We need a leader of tomorrow to lead our party into our nation’s third century, not a two-time loser, a has-been and never-will-be. And I believe that man is Senator Bob Dole!”

Excellent, thought the Senator, clearly enjoying himself. This is a game changer.

“Our nominee must be able to reign in the government which has grown even bigger and more unruly under the current Administration. We need the policies of true conservatives in the White House. If you want four more years of Barry Goldwater, vote for Bob Dole tomorrow and in November!”

Senator Dole’s face went white.

“...like President Goldwater, Senator Dole won’t be afraid to show Communists who’s boss. Like President Goldwater, Senator Dole won’t take funny business from elites in Congress. Like President Goldwater, Senator Dole will appoint only the best people to his Cabinet and to the courts. And like President Goldwater, Senator Dole will fight for farmers across the plains and midwest. A vote for Senator Dole is a vote for Barry Goldwater! Thank you, and goodnight Asheville!”

The crowd, still excited, was somewhat more subdued. Mild confusion, perhaps. Senator Dole was quietly raging as he once again embraced the man who compared him to the man whose incompetent Cabinet picks lead to a nuclear first strike which killed (and continues to kill) untold millions. The man whose relationship with Congress was… tenuous once the Vietnam War spoiled in opinion polls. The man who’d cost hundreds of farmers their jobs and livelihoods in the name of “small government.”

The man who went lost every single state in the last election. Who lost by 25 percentage points.

The man who was still pretty popular among Southern Republicans, sure. But the association, if it stuck, to the least popular President since Herbert Hoover would kill Bob just about everywhere else.

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Vice President Jackson wins North Carolina with 92% of the vote.

Bob Dole wins North Carolina in an upset, likely due to Ronald Reagan’s endorsement the day before. Senator Dole wins 43% of the vote; Richard Nixon wins 37%; John Lindsay wins 20%.

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Four men are caught breaking into John Lindsay’s presidential campaign headquarters, located in the Flatiron Building in New York City. They are arrested and subsequently questioned, though they remain mum on who they, the “Flatiron Four,” as they become known, work for.

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In John Ashbrook, et. al v. Federal Elections Agency, the Supreme Court rules 7-2 that the Federal Campaign Act of 1975 is constitutional. The FCA created the FEA and set restrictions on the amount of money people, corporations, and PACs could contribute to political campaigns. Senator John M. Ashbrook (R-OH) filed a lawsuit against the FEA, claiming it violated people’s rights to free speech and due process.

All Justices besides Bork and Carswell disagreed. In his minority opinion, Justice Bork argues that “money is speech, and restricting how much money people and corporations can donate is therefore equivalent to limiting how much speech they can make.” In his majority opinion, Chief Justice Thurgood Marshall tosses this point aside, writing that “large amounts of money poured into a campaign by the rich and powerful has a corrupting influence that effectively drowns out the ‘free speech’ of the everyday Americans who can only afford to contribute small amounts to campaigns,” and reminds the public that they are free to express their support up to the limits and then contribute as much time and energy to the campaign as they choose.

Senator Ashbrook and Congresswoman Phyllis Schalfly decry this decision as a misstep made by a "court of judicial and Constitutional activists."

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Vice President Jackson wins South Carolina with 95% of the vote.

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President Humphrey signs an executive order nationalizing the freight rail industry. The passenger rail industry had been similarly nationalized by Humphrey shortly after he entered office in 1973, after President Goldwater had let the industry nearly collapse. “Amtrak Freight,” as the newly-government-owned industry will be called, will attempt to spend money improving railways to eventually turn a profit; since it is now owned by the government rather than the private sector, it has more time in which to improve, as the government can afford to keep it in its unprofitability while a corporation cannot.

Since Amtrak’s creation in 1973, first in an “emergency” executive order in early 1973, then officially created by an act of Congress later in the year,  the passenger rail system, while still unprofitable, is better off due to new investment from the government. Humphrey states that he hopes “Congress will authorize Amtrak Freight later in 1976, so the entire rail industry can begin to recover.”

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Vice President Jackson easily wins the Kansas and Virginia primaries.

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Secretary of State George Ball visits Panama to begin talks regarding who would continue to own the Panama Canal in the future. Some would like to see the US give the Canal back to Panama; President Humphrey and Secretary Ball are two of these people, while, notably, Vice President Jackson is not.

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Michael Foot defeats James Callaghan in the third ballot (a runoff) of the Labour Party leadership election. 162 Labour MPs voted for Foot, while the remaining 157 voted for Callaghan. Foot is officially pronounced the new Prime Minister shortly after the runoff is concluded.

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Vice President Jackson wins 80% of the vote in the Wisconsin primary, while he wins 67% of the vote in the New York primary (the home state of his only opponent, Allard Lowenstein). This victory eliminates Lowenstein’s chances at the nomination.

Richard Nixon wins the Wisconsin primary with 37% of the vote, while John Lindsay takes 35% and Bob Dole does surprisingly well and takes 28%. Despite this victory, many question how viable Richard Nixon’s campaign actually is if he’s polling (nationally) behind a former mayor of New York City (and not a fantastic one at that) and just a few points ahead of a formerly unknown Senator from Kansas.

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Allard Lowenstein gives a speech congratulating Vice President Jackson on running a good campaign, and announces that he will drop out of the race following a landslide loss in his home state of New York the previous day. “I hope and pray that we elect someone in 1976 who is as dedicated to peace as I am. Honestly, while I respect Vice President Jackson, I do not think he is that man.”

When asked if he would instead endorse John Lindsay, whose foreign policy views are more aligned with Lowenstein, the Congressman simply had “no comment.”

Vice President Jackson, having locked up the nomination, begins thinking about who specifically will be his running mate, and resumes his listening tour.

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Idaho becomes the 38th state to ratify the Nuclear Amendment, making it the 28th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.

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The investigation into the break-in at the Lindsay campaign headquarters in New York’s Flatiron building continues. It is discovered that the four men who broke into the office (known as the “Flatiron Four” in the press) were paid by someone to break in and wiretap the campaign headquarters. Who paid the men is still unknown, but the New York Times has dedicated a large portion of its time, money, and personnel to getting to the bottom of the break-in.

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Mayor Lindsay wins the Pennsylvania primary with 52% of the vote, a wider-than-expected margin of victory over Richard Nixon, who won 35% of the vote, and Bob Dole, who won 13%. Many credit Lindsay recently gaining an endorsement from William Scranton with his expanded margin of victory.

Nixon has been meeting with RNC officials recently to try to organize a “Stop Lindsay” movement, to little success. Nixon’s campaign has been floundering as of late, and many in the Republican party don’t want to overturn the popular will to nominate a man who hasn’t held office in 16 years.

Former President Goldwater reminds Nixon that “there are millions of voters today who were in diapers the last time you held public office.”

Regarding the “Stop Lindsay” “movement,” Nelson Rockefeller reportedly tells a friend that “if you ever hear of a group getting together to stop X, be sure to put your money on X.”

Nixon reportedly becomes more and more agitated as his chances of winning the nomination continue to slip. Still, he throws himself into the upcoming Texas primary, to be held on May 1.

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A bomb explodes outside the Soviet embassy in Beijing, killing 17 Soviet diplomats and wounding 43 others. 7 Chinese diplomats are killed as well. Tensions between the USSR and the PRC reignite after dying down somewhat over the past few months.

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New York, NY - The New York Times has exclusive reporting on the investigation into the break-in at the Flatiron Building, the headquarters of Former Mayor John V. Lindsay’s (R-NYC) campaign for the Republican Presidential nomination. The Times has obtained evidence that one of the men who broke into the office of Mr. Lindsay’s campaign was, in fact, an aide for the campaign of former Vice President Richard M. Nixon (R-CA).

   The Times’s investigation into the break-in found that the aide’s bank account recently had a check for $25,000 deposited into it from a Mexican bank account. Inquiry into the ownership of the account showed what was perhaps intentionally a complex web of accounts designed to hide their true owner, but after extensive investigation, our journalists believe there are potentially links back to the manager of Mr. Nixon’s campaign, H. R. Haldeman.

   If there is any evidence that Mr. Nixon directed Mr. Haldeman to pay for a break-in, there could be criminal ramifications for the former Vice President. The Nixon campaign refrained from commenting.
   
   Governor Robert Kennedy (D) stated that the investigations are “troubling,” but did not comment on what it should mean for Nixon’s campaign.

   Mr. Lindsay said that if the news “paints a harrowing portrait of a dirty politician of a bygone age attempting to claw his way back to relevancy by any means necessary.” The former mayor called on his rival to drop out and let Senator William Ruckelshaus of Indiana and Senator Bob Dole of Kansas take up the anti-Lindsay mantle.

   Congressman G. Gordon Liddy (R-NY-25) commented on the break-in this morning, saying that if it was indeed orchestrated by Mr. Haldeman, he should be fired immediately, and that if Mr. Nixon himself directed it, he is “a disgrace to the Republican party and should drop out.” Mr. Liddy has endorsed Mr. Lindsay for the GOP nomination.

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Prime Minister Foot! Also, could you remind us what the Nuclear Amendment does again?

Gladly! The 28th Amendment:

Firmly in the Jackson camp in the GE.

Looks like Dole’s The One. Damn shame for Ronnie to throw him under the bus.

Can we see primary maps?

While UK politics isn’t a focus of this TL, this is still a fun little thing I added in:

Don't you mean Ted Heath.  Wilson was famously Labour

You’re right! I had just done a lot of reading about Heath and Wilson and got them confused. Wilson was the leader of Labour since 1963 and Prime Minister from October 1964 until April 1976.

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Senator Bob Dole wins an upset victory in Texas, taking 35% of the vote. Vice President Nixon takes 33% of the vote, Senator Ruckelshaus takes 22% of the vote, and Mayor Lindsay wins 10% of the vote.

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Vice President Nixon fires campaign manager H. R. Haldeman, replacing him with Patrick Buchanan. Nixon is furious that he is losing conservatives to Bob Dole and hemorrhaging moderates to Lindsay and Ruckelshaus, a process that may have been accelerated by the recent New York Times story painting Nixon as, potentially, a criminal. Nixon is becoming increasingly agitated, and bringing Buchanan - known in GOP circles as an arch-conservative - in to manage the campaign may well feed his erratic tendencies rather than keep them under control.

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Richard Nixon narrowly wins Georgia 47% to Bob Dole’s 44%, with John Lindsay taking 9% of the vote.

William Ruckelshaus wins his home state of Indiana by a narrower than expected margin; he won 38% of the vote, while Bob Dole won 31%, John Lindsay took 16%, and Richard Nixon came in last, at 15%.

Mayor Lindsay barnstorms the state of West Virginia, hoping a divided opposition and extensive campaigning can deliver the state to him in the primary.

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Mayor Lindsay gets a call from a soon-to-be-former rival.

“Is our deal still valid?” The two-term Senator from Indiana was on the other end of the line.

“Yes, of course,” Mayor Lindsay assured him.

“Alright. After Nebraska and West Virginia vote in a few days, you’ll be getting another call from me…”

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Bob Dole carries Nebraska easily, being from a neighboring state; Ruckelshaus comes in second, Nixon is on the hoosier’s heels, and Lindsay is a distant fourth.

Shockingly, John Lindsay wins West Virginia in a squeaker. Lindsay carries the state with 29% of the vote. Dole and Nixon both win 28% each, while Ruckelshaus wins 15%.

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William Ruckelshaus drops out of the race for President and endorses John Lindsay, stating that “Nixon’s a crook and Dole’s a dime-store Goldwater.” Lindsay sees his polling numbers improve among moderates, who see Lindsay as the only palatable alternative to Nixon.

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Congress passes the Freight Train Nationalization Act of 1976, officially creating Amtrak Freight. The FTA enshrines Humphrey’s previous executive order into American law.

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In an interesting turn of events, Bob Dole refers to Vietnam as a "Democrat war," even though operations in Vietnam were begun in the 1950s by President Ike Eisenhower, and war was declared under President Barry Goldwater, both Republicans. "I figured it up the other day: If we added up the killed and wounded in Democrat wars in this century, it would be about 1.4 million Americans — enough to fill the city of Detroit - and over a million innocent Vietnamese." Many were confused by this statement, and it did nothing to assuage fears that Senator Dole is extreme and a follower of Goldwater.

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John Lindsay easily wins Maryland, and takes Michigan by 9 points.

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Campaigning in Tennessee ahead of that state’s primary, former Vice President Nixon accidentally falls off of the stage, breaking his left leg and fracturing his left arm. He is unable to campaign for two weeks, but vows to “stay in ‘til the very end.” He is furious at this misfortune, but cannot do anything about it.

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Vice President Jackson selects his running mate, but doesn’t make the announcement public yet.

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On what the media is dubbing “Super Tuesday,” six states hold their primaries. Nixon narrowly wins the Arkansas primary, edging out Bob Dole; Senator Dole wins Idaho; Mayor Lindsay wins Kentucky in an upset; Dole wins Nevada; Lindsay wins Oregon after being endorsed by Senator McCall; and Nixon narrowly wins Tennessee.

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The Children’s Health Insurance Program Act passes and is signed into law by President Humphrey. CHIP will provide several million children who are not poor enough to qualify for Medicaid but whose families are not wealthy enough to have decent health insurance with government-guaranteed healthcare.

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Bob Dole wins Montana and South Dakota, while John Lindsay wins Rhode Island in a bigger-than-expected landslide.

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Chairwoman Jiang and Secretary Kulakov meet in Mongolia for a three day summit to attempt to de-escalate tensions between the PRC and USSR.

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Talks break down between the PRC and USSR; Chairwoman Jiang angrily storms out of the room and tells the press that the talks are over; she is quoted as saying something to the effect of “sometimes, you just have to walk away.”

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Vice President Nixon, with the assistance of crutches and the occasional wheelchair, begins campaigning again. Obviously in a state of intense discomfort, Nixon nevertheless returns to his original home state of California to attempt to win the primary there. This weakened Nixon, however, looks just that: weak. Compared to the energetic, young, fit, healthy, and vitriolic campaigner in John Lindsay, Nixon is a frail old man. Nixon hopes he can lock down this final primary, and is counting on his deep roots in the state to carry it for its supposed favorite son.

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Nixon’s injury seems to take a serious toll on his campaign, as Lindsay easily sweeps the June 8th primaries. Lindsay wins Ohio by 12 points, New Jersey by 14, and even takes Nixon’s home state of California by 7 points. This is not the first time a leg injury may have ruined Nixon’s chances at the Presidency.

Activist Harvey Milk wins the primary for the 16th District of California’s State Assembly, beating Art Agnos by 2,000 votes. As he has no serious general election opponents, Milk looks set to become one of the first openly gay men to be elected to a public office in the United States.

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John Lindsay smiled to himself as he looked at the cover of LIFE commemorating his successes in the Republican primaries. Nixon looked as unbeatable six months ago as the rest of the field looked weak; however, John had recognized that the old former VP’s time was more than past, and had done the unexpected: become the frontrunner heading into the convention. Nixon had been a paper tiger; he had finished well behind an unemployed former mayor and just ahead of a nobody Senator from Kansas.

John had spent the last four years since his better-than-expected run against Goldwater studying how the primary system worked. Additionally, he had taken notice of how Nixon seemed to have been gearing up for another run ever since his 1972 RNC speech endorsing the embattled President; so, John studied the former VP’s handbook of dirty tricks and campaign tactics he’d used in ‘60 and ‘68.

And so John went out and campaigned among actual people, not party elites; he got them registered to vote, and ensured that they came out for caucuses and primaries. He let Ruckelshaus and Dole attack Nixon for him so John could paint them all as different sides of the same coin, while making himself the change candidate, the candidate of the new GOP. And then, after it became apparent that the only two real competitors for the nomination were John and Nixon, the former mayor had made sure to strike a deal with the other competitors. He’d offered one the Vice Presidential slot and the other Attorney General, should John win; they had taken the deal and agreed to help stop Nixon.

Better yet, he’d gotten Ronald Reagan to also agree to help stop Nixon. John saw that most of those in the South who didn’t want to vote for Nixon were voting for Dole, and feared that Dole could be an insurgent dark horse; so he’d gotten the most trusted, well-liked politician in America to unwittingly associate Dole with the most unpopular President in the past half-century. His plan had worked flawlessly.

Of course, Nixon had shot himself in the foot several times as well. John hadn’t planned on a break-in at his offices, though he wasn’t surprised when it happened. He was surprised at how fast investigators were able to link the break-in to the Nixon campaign, and also by how silent the campaign stayed on the issue. And of course, John hadn’t pushed Nixon off that stage in Tennessee, but it couldn’t have been better timing even if he had. Dole's "Democrat wars" comment was bizarre and also not planned, but helped further minimize his chances.

John fully realized the struggle that was coming up. He was the most liberal nominee since Rockefeller, and he knew the South wouldn’t like that. Lowenstein had proven that the Northeast didn’t love Jackson, however, so that was where John planned to focus his time. He would pick someone to his right as VP - he was going to honor his commitment to his primary opponents - and try to win some of the same states that almost delivered Rockefeller the White House in ‘64.

His youth and ability to connect with voters was constantly underestimated by his opponents. He was facing an introverted politician who was almost a decade his senior. John had the leg up on Jackson when it came to foreign policy; the mayor’s positions were more diplomatic and dovish (though not as dovish as Lowenstein) than Jackson’s, and were much more popular to boot. Conservatives in this election had no candidate - and no time to orchestrate a third-party bid with serious ballot access.

Polls showed Lindsay was definitely the underdog. While John would not play dirty to win, he would play hardball to as much an extent that the law - and his conscious - would allow him to.

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In Williams v. Clark, et al., the Supreme Court rules 7-2 to uphold US v. Miller (1939) and the recent Hubert H. Humphrey Sensible Gun Control Act of 1975. The Court decides that the 2nd Amendment allows some cases of, but does not necessarily guarantee, the individual right to firearm ownership, and allows Congress to regulate certain weapons which do not fall into the category of necessary to maintain “a well regulated Militia” or “the security of a free State.”

Chief Justice Marshall writes the majority opinion, while Justices Bork and Carswell dissent.

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Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) is first identified in Zaire, where there is currently an outbreak of the heretofore unknown pathogen.

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The Southern District of New York subpoenas all communications between H.R. Haldeman and Richard Nixon.

47% of the country thinks it is at least “somewhat likely” Nixon ordered Haldeman to commit crimes to win him the nomination.

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In a series of judicial opinions on the death penalty, referred to by the lead case Gregg v. Georgia, the Supreme court rules 5-4 to uphold the US’s ban on the death penalty. Chief Justice Thurgood Marshall was joined by Associate Justices Brennan, Blackmun, Goldberg, and Hufstedler, while Justices Bork, Carswell, Stewart, and White dissented. Blackmun was allegedly the swing vote, and took a great deal of convincing to come to the side of Chief Justice Marshall.

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President Humphrey presides over the celebration of the bicentennial of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

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Secretary Fyodor Kulakov of the USSR announces he wants a peace deal with Chairwoman Jiang and the People’s Republic of China. Many in the Soviet Union don’t actually want peace; after the bombing of their embassy and the slaughter of their diplomats, many view the PRC as a mortal enemy.

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USSR Second Secretary Mikhail Suslov suddenly appears on state TV to announce that, regrettably, Secretary Kulakov has suffered a nervous breakdown, and so Suslov will become the de facto leader of the Soviet Union.

Secretary Suslov is a hardliner, and as such will likely not take a conciliatory tone towards the PRC or the West. He will also likely not push for economic reforms some have called for in the USSR over the past year or so.

Kulakov beat out Suslov for leadership of the Soviet Union following the death of Brezhnev two years ago.

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This is absolutely fascinating. Best TL here imo.

How does CHIP get passed so soon when the framework for CHIP IRL was created by Casey Sr when he was governor of PA?

Interesting question.

The U.S. Bipartisan Commission on Comprehensive Health Care, in the late 1980's, proposed achieving universal health insurance by expanding health insurance to children and pregnant women first and then moving on to everyone else later. Casey Sr. implemented the framework in PA, sure, but he didn't have a monopoly on the idea.

Rep. Claude Pepper was the first chair of that commission (which sometimes bore his name). Guess who's Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare under President Humphrey, and has been spearheading healthcare reform in Congress? Claude Pepper!

I don't think it's outside the realm of possibility that Secretary Pepper has spent at least part of the period from 1973-1975 developing a system that works similar to IRL CHIP, with the same (pretty generic IMO) name. If that is too far out of the realm of possibility, then I think New York Governor Robert Kennedy definitely would have pushed healthcare reform (including something like CHIP) through in his first term (1971-1975), and the federal government could use that as the framework, but I think just having Pepper in a place of higher power sooner could do the trick just the same.

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After a tumultuous primary season, the Republicans finally went to Kansas City, Missouri to determine their nominee for President of the United States.

Richard Nixon was, at this point, unpopular both among the party elites and the general public for the possible crimes he may have committed in connection to the Flatiron Four. Once assumed to be the nominee by default, now three full quarters of the party would rather someone else be the party’s standard-bearer in 1976. Nixon went from being the only candidate (other than Reagan) who could give Jackson a run for his money to being the only candidate to seemingly assure him election with over 60% of the vote. Temporarily crippled and with a ruined reputation, Nixon did not seem likely to be the nominee.

John Lindsay, on the other hand, had the support of all the party’s liberals and most of the moderates. More importantly, he had the most delegates. While not a majority, Lindsay had won about double the number Nixon had, and, combined with Ruckelshaus’s delegates and some of Dole’s (in exchange for being made Attorney General should Lindsay win), Lindsay was certain he would be nominated.

Many had qualms about Lindsay; he was inexperienced, hadn’t been the best Mayor New York had ever had, and was notably more liberal than a decent chunk of the party (particularly the fledgling Southern GOP, the ones who still supported Goldwater) was willing to accept. Lindsay knew this, and so did his team, including one key player: Roger Stone.

Roger Stone’s first political experience was rooting for Nelson Rockefeller in 1964. His narrow loss had impressed upon the young Stone that the victory was stolen from him by the Kennedys; he had been driven towards politics ever since, working to elect those with views similar to the former New York Governor’s. His devotion to Rockefeller was so great that he would later get a tattoo of Nelson’s face across his back. After working for Lindsay’s 1972 primary challenge to President Goldwater (who Stone despised, as the president had almost “stolen” the nomination from Rockefeller in 1964), he had caught the Mayor’s attention for his innovative (to put it one way) campaign tactics. The only thing Lindsay required of him is that he not commit any crimes in pursuit of victory. At just 24, he became one of Lindsay’s chief strategists and was made floor manager at the convention, tasked with nominating the man Stone saw as Rockefeller’s second coming.

First was the platform. Lindsay’s team struck a conciliatory tone when crafting it so as to hopefully unite some factions together. It included such Lindsay policies like expanded access to health insurance, using the government to fight urban poverty, and expanded civil rights protections, but also included more conservative positions like fewer activist judges and keeping public education funding and management at the state level.

Before balloting begun, former Vice President Reagan, still immensely popular among Republicans, gave a speech in which he dropped his endorsement of Bob Dole and gave a… lukewarm endorsement to Lindsay. “While we disagree on policy, I will vote for John Lindsay in November not because I love the mayor but because Henry Jackson will be four more years of disastrous big-government domestic policy.” That line got scattered applause, but the speech mostly took the wind out of Dole’s sails rather than adding any momentum to Lindsay’s campaign. After Reagan got off stage, Minority Leader Gerald Ford gave a speech in full support of Lindsay, and then balloting begun.

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After the voting was done, Lindsay took the stage to accept the nomination. He gave a rousing speech; “this is the year we redefine what it means to be Republicans. We must abandon the politics of the past and look ahead, look ahead to the bright future of our party and our country. The future where everyone’s civil liberties are protected, children have the freedom of never knowing poverty, our boys know they never have to fight pointless foreign wars, and where working families have the safety of affordable health insurance. This is the future we must stand for as Republicans!”

Next, Lindsay introduced his pick for the Vice Presidential nomination: his former rival, Indiana Senator William Ruckelshaus. Many had hoped he would pick Dole to reach out to conservatives; however, Lindsay viewed Dole as too far right, and so picked Ruckelshaus (who was still more conservative than the mayor). Still, some wanted Dole, but they did not prevail.

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The ticket was set. The odds looked long. But the Republicans were a far cry from the landslide loss of 1972. Lindsay had succeeded in pulling at least part of the GOP away from Goldwater conservatism, and he was intent upon bringing the rest of the nation with him.

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Currently leaning Lindsay, but I'll be happy with Jackson too.

GO LINDSAY

Roger Stone as a Rockefeller Republican! This TL just keeps getting better and better. Leaning Lindsay but somehow I feel like you have a twist in store for him.

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Roger Ailes, chief media strategist for the former Nixon campaign, leaves the Republican Convention disgruntled with politics in general and Nixon in particular. He is eventually hired as a programming consultant for CBS, and decides to stay with that company creating family-oriented television programming, a job he would go on to call “gloriously apolitical.”

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President Humphrey travels to Panama to meet Maximum Leader Omar Torrijos. Together with Secretary of State George Ball, they make strides towards treaties to sign over control of the Panama Canal.

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New York City Mayor Herman Badillo (D) announces in a televised address that the city is facing a larger-than-expected budget deficit. Mayor Badillo blames the movement of a large number of middle-income families from the city to the suburbs, which has decreased the tax base, and the overall middling US economy for the shortfall. Badillo promises to fix the situation by the October 31st deadline.

Congressman Ed Koch (D-NY-18) has criticized Mayor Badillo for his extensive “New Day for New York” programs, which Badillo designed to clean up the streets and make New York City great again. Badillo has added thousands more police officers to the streets and launched new urban revitalization projects - and increased taxes to pay for the programs, which Koch blames for the flight of middle earners to areas outside the city.

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Congressman Allard Lowenstein (D-NY-04), the only candidate to challenge Vice President Jackson, announces he will not attend the Democratic convention, and will instead endorse the Republican ticket. “I worked with John Lindsay while he was mayor of our great city, and he did a fantastic job. He will stand up for peace on the global stage when he is elected President this November.

Lowenstein categorically denied that he would run for President as a third party in 1976, but was… more ambiguous as to whether he would seek a rematch against Mayor Badillo in the 1977 New York mayoral race. Lowenstein is not the nominee for his House seat, and as such will be unemployed come January 1977. His political future is uncertain, but some consider it to be bright nonetheless.

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Former Vice President and unsuccessful 1976 Presidential candidate Richard Nixon is subpoenaed by the Southern District of New York in relation to the “Flatiron 4” case.

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The Vice President’s listening tour wraps up in Brooklyn, and he heads to Manhattan to prepare his acceptance speech.

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I'm assuming that segregation is dismantled forever in the South under the HHH Presidency ?

The CRA of 1964 (well, 1965 ITTL) was watered down, but still an important landmark civil rights bill. The VRA and CRA of 1968 (i.e. the Fair Housing Act) both failed under Kennedy. Goldwater wasn't keen on federal civil rights legislation, so nothing happened on that front from 1969-1973. President Humphrey made civil rights a top issue, and got the Voting Rights Act of 1973, the Housing Rights Act of 1974, the American Education Act (which, among many, many other things, helps desegregate schools and enforce Brown), the American Housing Act of 1975, the Urban Revitalization Act, and the Equal Rights Amendment all passed and made into law. House and Senate supermajorities and a clear mandate by the scale of the 1972 victory over Goldwater allowed for this super productive Presidency, which wasn't just limited to civil rights. I mean, Humphrey's America has universal Pre-K and a federal childcare program!

However, not all is well in the South. Many southern whites don't like this legislation, and some state governments are still engaging in voter suppression. President Humphrey has signed an executive order to mandate election observers for 1976 after evidence of suppression in the '74 midterms, but how much resistance this will be met with remains to be seen...

YIKES. The Southern states just don't get it: I hope we don't see some of these states not pulling a Trujillo in exterminating minorities in terms of other extreme methods of suppression.

I'm going to assume Briscoe runs for the TX Governor's Mansion in 1974 for the first 4-year term ? I feel bad for the guy.

What will the Conservative Republicans who voted for Dole/Nixon vote for?

Things aren't that bad, they're just not great. I was thinking more like some states skirting poll tax laws, purging non-white people from the voter rolls "accidentally" or for "inactivity" and, at worst, using intimidation tactics to keep non-white voters away from the polls, not the South devolving into an apartheid state complete with ethnic cleansing.

Governor Sanders won a four-year term in '74. Perhaps Sanders will run for Senate in '78, leaving room for Briscoe to run? Sanders is in his third term, so who knows what his plans for '78 are. ;)

HHH is clearly the best or second best President of the 20th century in this scenario. For that reason I support the man best prepared to continue his legacy: Vice President Scoop Jackson.

HHH forever!

Go Jackson!

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As the delegates piled into New York City’s Madison Square Garden for the Democratic convention, the party was mostly unified behind Vice President Jackson. Though there was a small group of very vocal anti-war activists who had supported Lowenstein (who threatened to vote for John Lindsay now that Lowenstein had endorsed him), they were nowhere near a majority. So when Mayor Herman Badillo gaveled in the convention on August 16, no one expected any kind of difficulty in getting Jackson the nomination.

Jackson’s job now, as he saw it, was to draw those anti-war activists back under the Democratic banner. Jackson had wanted to make John Kerry, Congressman from Massachusetts and vocal anti-war activist, his running mate, but Kerry would only be 34 on inauguration day of 1977, making him ineligible for the Presidency and thus the Vice Presidency as well. For now, Jackson settled for passing a peace plank in the platform and giving Kerry a keynote address on the first night of the convention.

Congressman Kerry officially switched his endorsement from Lowenstein to Jackson in the well-received speech that was intended to get the younger, anti-war crowd behind the more hawkish Vice President. “I was in the war before I was against it,” Kerry proclaimed, “so I know a thing or two about wars. What I also know is that Henry Jackson will keep this country safe from all enemies, foreign and domestic. That’s why I’m going to support him in 1976.”

On the second day of the convention, Jackson announced his pick for Vice President: Kentucky Senator Katherine Peden. Katie Peden had been one of the first Senators to turn against the Vietnam War, and would hopefully help keep Southerners in the Democratic camp (after they had trended Republican under Goldwater). Peden was widely liked in Kentucky, and she was an energetic and ferocious campaigner and staunch supporter of civil rights. Plus, twelve years after Senator Smith joined Governor Rockefeller on the GOP ticket, the Democrats would finally nominate a woman for the Vice Presidency.

Peden was almost unanimously nominated for Vice President, and gave a short, witty, and energetic speech accepting the nomination. With the ticket chosen, the rest of the convention was dedicated to speeches from prominent politicians, including Rep. Barbara Jordan (D-TX-18), who laid out the list of things Democrats stand for and why Jackson and Peden were the best candidates to accomplish them.

President Humphrey cracking jokes with Senator Carter before Carter’s keynote speech

Senator Carter addressing the Convention

Senator Jimmy Carter (D-GA), steadily becoming an important Democratic player in the Senate and, as many believed, a model for what Southern Democrats should be in the future, gave a keynote speech in which he gave his resounding endorsement to the Jackson/Peden ticket. Carter called Peden, his close friend, Senate ally, and fellow New South Democrat, “a shining example of decency and a good woman who embodies the values of equality and good ol’ Southern hospitality.”

Governor Robert Kennedy: “We need more Democratic leadership in this nation, and in November, we will have the opportunity to continue the progress President Humphrey and Vice President Jackson have made in the past four years and see it through the next four!”

Former President John F. Kennedy: “During my eight years in office, I worked to protect civil rights for all Americans. While I couldn’t quite get all the way there, I got damn close, and the Humphrey Administration has finished much of what I’d have liked to have done myself. However, there is still work to be done. Inequality between the races, sexes, and other minority groups” - Kennedy did not explicitly state it, but conservatives assumed by this he meant gay people - “still looms large over millions of Americans. Thankfully, this year’s convention has nominated the team who I think will be excellent at doing the work that remains.”

Though Kennedy’s speech was vigorous, while getting onto and off of the stage the former President looked unusually pained for a 59 year old. Speculation and gossip about his health swirled in the aftermath of the otherwise critically acclaimed speech. As always, the Kennedy family stayed mum on the subject.

The public had seen less and less of Hubert Humphrey since the ailing President had announced he had cancer several months ago. So, when he gave a keynote address to the convention delegates, all eyes were on the 37th President. He gave a rousing speech that lauded his accomplishments and gave all the things he wished he had accomplished, while also expressing hope that Jackson and Peden would win and finish what he’d started.

For many, watching Humphrey’s convention speech was a sad affair; while the President was not feeble or obviously sick by his manner of speech, his appearance was obviously deteriorating and his body language was that of a dying man. For this reason, people who listened to the speech on the radio reacted to it differently than those who watched it on television. President Humphrey got a seven minute standing ovation after he was done.

Finally, Vice President Jackson spoke after being nominated by voice vote. His acceptance speech brought the convention to their feet, and is widely remembered to be his best ever. “We’re going to provide all Americans with access to healthcare, access to jobs, and economic and physical safety from those who wish us harm. We’re going to protect American interests and make sure freedom rings not only from sea to shining sea, but around the world. We’re going to protect the civil rights and liberties of Americans from Baltimore to Birmingham, from Tulsa to Toledo, from Sarasota to Spokane, and everywhere in between. And we’re going to continue to push further into space than mankind has ever gone before. So, fellow Democrats, I humbly and gratefully accept your nomination for President of the United States!”

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Secretary Fyodor Kulakov ostensibly resigns as General Secretary of the Soviet Union. He cites his recent “nervous breakdown” in his letter of resignation. Some outside observers believe the “breakdown” was fake and the resignation letter a forgery; several US analysts call the situation a “bloodless coup” by Second Secretary Suslov and, possibly, the KGB.

Second Secretary Suslov, who had been de facto leader of the USSR for a little more than a month, officially becomes the General Secretary later in the day.

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Federal Election Observers, a nonpartisan group assembled and employed on a temporary basis (akin to census workers) by the Federal Election Agency, begin operating in the South. Some, like Alabama Governor Bill Baxley and Florida Governor Reubin Askew, welcome the workers with open arms; others, like Mississippi Governor Gil Carmichael and Arkansas Governor Dale Bumpers, are indifferent; and a few, like Governor Westmoreland of South Carolina, are openly hostile to the idea.

Governor Westmoreland calls election observers “the Humphrey/Jackson insurance policy” and “flagrant violators of the rights of the people.” South Carolina sues the federal government over the issue.

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The League of Women Voters announces it is sponsoring debates between the Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates. If the candidates accept, three debates between Vice President Jackson and Mayor Lindsay will take place on September 23, October 6, and October 22, and a debate between Senators Peden and Ruckelshaus will take place on October 15.

Both the Jackson and Lindsay campaigns accepted all four debates within hours.

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Prometheus 25, the joint US-Soviet Mars lander, becomes the first successful landing of a scientific vessel on another planet.

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Secretary Suslov ends Soviet involvement in the Prometheus program, ending thirteen years of US-Soviet joint space ventures. President Humphrey calls this “regrettable,” but lauds his doubling of NASA’s budget and reminds the Soviets that America will continue to push deeper into space, with or without the Soviets.

Suslov’s rebuttal? “A new space race has begun.”

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Mayor John Lindsay begins his general election campaign in earnest with a large rally in his hometown of New York City. He plans to campaign in the city for a few days, then move up through New England before flying down to the South to try to make inroads with black voters whose right to the franchise was recently guaranteed, and who were turned off by the GOP due to the recent memory of the Goldwater Administration. After that trip, he will spend considerable time doing debate preparations.

Senator William Ruckelshaus will focus on campaigning in the industrial Midwest on Lindsay’s behalf, and will also do occasional debate prep.

Meanwhile, Vice President Jackson also makes his way across the South, trying to appeal not only to black voters but to skeptical conservative whites as well. Jackson attempts to get the point across that Lindsay is weak on foreign policy and Jackson, in contrast, will be tough on Communism. Calling Lindsay a New York liberal doesn’t hurt either. Jackson has extremely strong support from unions, which means he doesn’t worry much about the Midwest, though he makes sure to visit Wisconsin at least once. New England voted against him in the primary, and Lindsay is overperforming there, so Jackson makes stops there as well.

Senator Peden also campaigns in the South.

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H. R. Haldeman, former Nixon ‘76 campaign manager, is indicted by the Southern District of New York on several different counts, including directing the Flatiron break-in and several financial and campaign finance crimes.

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The first of three Presidential debates between Vice President Henry Jackson and former New York Mayor John Lindsay takes place at the Walnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia. Sponsored by the League of Women Voters and moderated by Edwin Newman, this debate is the first since the Kennedy/Rockefeller debates of 1964.

Vice President Jackson uses the debates to argue for universal healthcare, and attempts to hammer Lindsay on foreign policy. Lindsay makes the case for Republicans to “get back to our progressive roots” on social issues while restraining the government in some areas and using it to advance the social good in others. Lindsay surprisingly holds his own in the foreign policy debate and turns it around on Jackson, asking why President Humphrey’s foreign policy achievements are lacking compared to his domestic accomplishments. Jackson sputters for a minute before retorting that “that’s why I’m running: to build a safer world.”

Jackson, obviously the less energetic of the two men, is out of his element in the first debate. His attempt to make up for what he lacks in charisma by touting his knowledge and experience gets mixed reviews. Lindsay is younger and more charismatic, but has a weaker record. Nevertheless, the mayor is seen as having bested the Vice President in the first debate.

Towards the end of the debate, the sound went out, pausing the debate. Jackson and Lindsay sat down with each other in front of the camera (the video feed was still live) and made small talk while audio technicians tried to fix the problem. It was a message to the people that even fierce opponents could still get along.

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General Secretary Suslov and Chairwoman Jiang meet for the first time. The meeting is tense and only lasts an hour.

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I'm guessing Suslov's hawkishness will help Jackson, since it definitely invites a strong response. Interesting, as always!

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Once a fairly popular governor, Jack Williams appointed himself to the Senate seat being vacated by President Goldwater in 1968. Since winning a term of his own in 1970, Senator Williams’ popularity has declined, especially since he voted in favor of reducing farm subsidies, which inspired anger in his home state. He faces a fierce competitor in Raúl Héctor Castro, former ambassador to El Salvador and Bolivia. Castro drew upon angry farmers to win the Democratic primary, and looks formidable in the general. However, his Mexican heritage and Communist-sounding surname hurt him with conservatives in this very conservative state.

RATING: TOSSUP

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George Brown, Jr. has been a solidly progressive voice in the United States Senate since his election in 1970. Having run a grassroots campaign in that year’s primary, Brown has made sure to keep in tune with what his constituents want, making him fairly popular. The Republicans have nominated Robert Finch, who served as Governor from 1969 to 1971. Most voters see him as undistinguished and bland.

RATING: LIKELY DEMOCRATIC

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Joseph Duffey ran as an anti-Vietnam progressive in 1970, and has voted in such a progressive manner ever since. His opponent in 1970, Lowell Weicker, is back for a rematch in 1976, and has been campaigning against Duffey almost since the day Weicker lost the last election. While a very liberal Republican, Weicker is campaigning as a common-sense moderate.

RATING: TOSSUP

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William Roth is popular in his home state, and is heavily favored to defeat Wilmington Mayor Thomas Maloney.

RATING: SAFE REPUBLICAN

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Lawton Chiles is very popular among Floridians, and is widely expected to easily sail to reelection in November, probably by double digits.

RATING: SAFE DEMOCRATIC

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While Cecil Heftel is quite popular in Hawaii, he faces a potentially strong opponent in former Governor Quinn. Quinn was instrumental in making Hawaii a state, and was both Hawaii’s last territorial Governor and first state Governor. However, Senator Heftel is more ideologically in tune with what Hawaiians want, and combined with the advantage of incumbency, is favored to win reelection.

RATING: LIKELY DEMOCRATIC

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Vance Hartke has been unpopular in his home state for years, his progressive policies increasingly at odds with his conservative constituency. In his last election, during the Democratic wave year of 1970, he only won by around 5 percentage points. This time, Hartke is running against Indianapolis Mayor Richard Lugar, a young moderate Republican. Lugar has been polling ahead of Hartke by at least high single digits and at most by 25 points.

RATING: LIKELY REPUBLICAN

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Senator Muskie is a popular incumbent running against a perennial candidate with no political experience.

RATING: SAFE DEMOCRATIC

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Over the past 12 years, Joseph Tydings has managed to anger members of the right in his state with his support for gun control, while angering the left with support for a series of crime-related bills perceived as racially discriminatory. Tydings survived a primary challenge from former Governor and 1968 Democratic vice presidential nominee George P. Mahoney, winning 47% to 42%, with more liberal candidates splitting the rest of the vote. Congressman Lawrence Hogan won the Republican nomination, and has been polling well ahead of Senator Tydings.

RATING: LIKELY REPUBLICAN

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His first reelection campaign since his disappointing 1972 bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, Senator Kennedy is assured reelection against token opposition.

RATING: SAFE DEMOCRATIC

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Senator Philip Hart is retiring, leaving an open seat. Michigan Secretary of State Richard Austin won the Democratic nomination. People have raised concerns that Austin, who is African-American, will have a difficult time appealing to white voters, while others say it will help him turn out working-class black voters. The Republicans have nominated 13-term Congressman George Meader, a moderate Republican. This is a closely-watched race on the national scale, with both the DSCC and the NRSC dumping large amounts of money into their candidates’ coffers.

RATING: TOSSUP

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Senator Mondale is quite popular in his home state, and is only facing token opposition.

RATING: SAFE DEMOCRATIC

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Senator Stennis is a fixture of Mississippi politics and has been since 1928. Expected to go unchallenged this year, John Lindsay’s campaign strategist Roger Stone has instead recruited the Mayor of Fayette, Charles Evers, to run against him. Evers, an activist and the brother of civil rights movement martyr Medgar Evers, is a moderate Republican. Stone is under no illusion that Stennis will lose, but hopes Evers’s showing is good enough to show that moderate Republicans can be competitive with conservative Democrats in the South.

RATING: SAFE DEMOCRATIC

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Senator Stuart Symington is choosing to retire. Jerry Litton beat out several other candidates for the Democratic nomination, perhaps because he had the endorsement of Governor Thomas Eagleton. Litton, considered a rising star, is a progressive Democrat and an energetic campaigner. Republicans nominated State Auditor Kit Bond, a conservative Republican.

RATING: TOSSUP

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Majority Leader Mike Mansfield is retiring. Congressman John Melcher is considered the heavy favorite over the Republican nominee, Stanley Burger, former Executive Officer of the Montana Farm Bureau Federation.

RATING: SAFE DEMOCRATIC

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Senator Morrison is seeking another term, and is facing three-term Congressman John McCollister.

RATING: LEAN DEMOCRATIC

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Conservative Senator Laxalt is facing a moderate Democrat in the Nevada Senate race. 
Democrats are investing heavily in this race, as Laxalt may be too far to the right, even for a conservative state like Nevada. However, Laxalt has continued to hammer Rose on his inexperience; he has only been in office for a year and a half.

RATING: LEAN REPUBLICAN

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Senator Williams is popular and expected to defeat NJ Election Law Enforcement Commission Executive Director David Norcross quite easily.

RATING: SAFE DEMOCRATIC

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Joseph Montoya is seeking a third term in the Senate, but faces a strong recruit for the GOP in former NASA astronaut Harrison Schmitt. The young and telegenic Schmitt is in contrast to Senator Montoya, who is not frequently on the campaign trail.

RATING: TOSSUP

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With Senator W. Averell Harriman retiring, several candidates are attempting to fill his shoes. Congresswoman Bella Abzug won the Democratic primary, and is campaigning on a progressive platform that won her the support of the Liberal party as well. Meanwhile, commentator William F. Buckley, Jr. is running for Senate again, this time as the nominee of a Republican/Conservative fusion ticket.

RATING: LEAN DEMOCRATIC

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Heavily favored for reelection, Senator Burdick looks set to cruise to a fourth term, facing State Senator Robert Stroup. The NRSC has all but abandoned this race.

RATING: SAFE DEMOCRATIC

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A rematch of the 1970 election, Senator Glenn is seeking a second term while former Senator Taft is looking to win his seat back. Glenn is a moderate who has been a valuable Humphrey ally in the Senate, while Taft was a conservative Goldwater ally during his tenure.

RATING: LEAN DEMOCRATIC

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Minority Leader Hugh Scott is retiring. Republicans nominated District Attorney Arlen Specter over Congressman John Heinz, while State Senator Jeanette Reibman won the Democratic nomination. Specter is a moderate Republican running in a swing state, while Reibman is also a moderate.

RATING: TOSSUP

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John O. Pastore is not seeking reelection. Incumbent Governor Phillip W. Noel narrowly won the Democratic primary, while former Governor John Chafee easily won the GOP’s nod. The two Governors are locked in a tight race for the Senate seat.

RATING: TOSSUP

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After narrowly winning another term in 1970, Senator Gore is seeking a fifth term, which he promises will be his last. The increasingly unpopular Senator, aged 68, is facing tough opposition from GOP Congressman Robin Beard, a 37-year-old who has helped build the Tennessee GOP into a competitive party.

RATING: LEAN REPUBLICAN

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George Bush is running for a second term, and is facing a conservative economics professor, Phil Gramm. Bush is heavily favored.

RATING: SAFE REPUBLICAN

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Three-term Senator Moss is running for a fourth, but Congressman Orrin Hatch is running to stop him. Hatch’s campaign is that of change from the status quo; his main argument is that Moss is out of touch with the people of Utah, and his slogan is “what do you call a Senator who’s served in office for 18 years? You call him home.”

RATING: LEAN REPUBLICAN

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Senator Stafford, a liberal Republican, is running for another term in the Senate. Governor Thomas Salmon is the Democratic nominee. The race is expected to be tight, with neither candidate favored.

RATING: TOSSUP

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After Senator George Rawlings was outed as gay earlier in 1976, he decided to forgo reelection. In his stead, popular Governor Henry Howell is running for his seat against the man Rawlings beat in an upset in 1970: Harry Byrd Jr. Howell is a populist with wide appeal among the working class. However, Byrd is formidable, because while the Byrd machine may be damaged, it is still a facet of Virginian political life.

RATING: LEAN DEMOCRATIC

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Senator Tom Foley, who was appointed to Vice President Jackson’s Senate seat in 1973, is running for a term of his own. He faces no serious opposition.

RATING: SAFE DEMOCRATIC

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Senator Byrd is running unopposed.

RATING: SAFE DEMOCRATIC

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Senator Proxmire is facing token opposition.

RATING: SAFE DEMOCRATIC

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Senator McGee is largely unpopular in Wyoming, and State Senator Wallop has run ads highlighting the less popular aspects of McGee’s Senate career.

RATING: LIKELY REPUBLICAN

I wonder what happens to L. Douglas Wilder in this TL ?

He’s the current Lt. Gov. of VA

My endorsements for the Senate races:
Arizona- Raúl Héctor Castro
California- George Brown, Jr.
Connecticut- Lowell Weicker
Delaware- William Roth
Florida- Lawton Chiles
Hawaii- Cecil Heftel
Indiana- Vance Hartke
Maine- Edmund Muskie
Maryland- Joseph Tydings
Massachusetts- Ted Kennedy
Michigan- Richard H. Austin
Minnesota- Walter Mondale
Mississippi- Charles Evers
Missouri- Jerry Litton
Montana- John Melcher
Nebraska- Frank Morrison
Nevada- Robert E. Rose
New Jersey- Harrison Williams
New Mexico- Joseph Montoya
New York- Bella Abzug
North Dakota- Quentin Burdick
Ohio- John Glenn
Pennsylvania- Jeanette Reibman
Rhode Island- John Chafee
Tennessee- Albert Gore, Sr.
Texas- George Bush
Utah- Frank Moss
Vermont- Robert Stafford
Virginia- Henry Howell
Washington- Tom Foley
West Virginia- Abstain
Wisconsin- William Proxmire
Wyoming- Gale McGee

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Governor Bumpers is quite popular. He is facing former National Federation of Women President Leona Troxell, a key player in the development of the Arkansas GOP. Bumpers is expected to win in a landslide.

RATING: SAFE DEMOCRATIC

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Governor Tribbitt inherited the financial woes of his predecessor when he was sworn in in 1973, and he has been ineffective in combating those problems. Congressman “Pete” du Pont, of one of the state’s most powerful families, has been nominated to oppose him.

RATING: LIKELY REPUBLICAN

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An outsider who successfully beat the establishment Democrat in the 1972 primary, Walker has been an ineffective Governor due to the personal animosity between Walker and the “Daley Machine,” as the Governor calls it. Walker very narrowly beat back a primary challenge himself. Meanwhile, the GOP is united behind popular moderate Congressman Donald Rumsfeld, and reporters have called Walker’s general election campaign a “death march.”

RATING: SAFE REPUBLICAN

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After losing his Senate seat in a narrow race in 1968, Birch Bayh made a political comeback in 1972, winning the Indiana governorship. However, he lost a rematch with Senator Ruckelshaus in 1974, raising concerns that Bayh was using his new position to attempt to get back into his old one. Indiana House of Representatives Speaker Otis Bowen has won the GOP nomination to face Bayh, while the incumbent has pledged not to run for Senate again until he leaves the Governor’s mansion.

RATING: TOSSUP

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Governor Eagleton was popular and the heavy favorite to win reelection until early September, when rumors surrounding his mental health began swirling. According to leaks, the Governor has sought out electroshock therapy for depression for years, including as Governor. The polls between Eagleton and the Republican nominee, John Danforth, have significantly tightened in recent weeks.

RATING: LEAN DEMOCRATIC

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Governor Judge has built up a strong personal brand and has governed effectively since his election in 1972, making his reelection all but certain.

RATING: SAFE DEMOCRATIC

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Most would say Governor McLane has done his job well since his upset victory as an independent in 1972. After switching to the Democrats to win in 1974, the moderate Governor McLane now faces a moderate Republican in State Rep. Sununu.

RATING: LEAN DEMOCRATIC

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With Governor Skipper Bowles term-limited, his lieutenant governor, Jim Hunt, is running to replace him. However, he faces a very strong challenge in moderate state Rep. James Holshouser. Hunt and Holshouser are good friends on a personal level, but have become political adversaries in this election.

RATING: TOSSUP

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Governor Link’s politics and policies have been all over the map, with socially conservative positions, fiscally moderate positions, and progressive economic policies. Whether this means he appeals to few voters or to many remains to be seen, as polling for North Dakota is not very reliable this cycle. North Dakota Public Service Commissioner Richard Elkin is the Republican nominee.

RATING: TOSSUP

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The Lt. Governor, Joseph Garrahy, has served eight years in that position, and now that Governor Noel is running for Senate, he is going for a promotion.

RATING: LIKELY DEMOCRATIC

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Popular three-term Democratic Governor Calvin Rampton has decided to retire. Scott Matheson, a lawyer working as the General Counsel for the Union Pacific Railroad Company, has won the Democratic nomination. Meanwhile, Utah Attorney General Vernon Romney (cousin of former Michigan Governor and presidential candidate George W. Romney) is the Republican nominee.

RATING: TOSSUP

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With Governor Thomas Salmon running for Senate, the election comes down to a race between Stella Hackel, the Treasurer of Vermont, and Richard Snelling, the Majority Leader of the Vermont House of Representatives.

RATING: LEAN REPUBLICAN

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A progressive activist of a Governor, Albert Rosellini is quite popular. Having already served two terms from 1957 to 1965, Rosellini made a comeback in 1972 and is looking for one more term, which the voters appear willing to grant him. He is facing a moderate-to-liberal Republican in County Executive Spellman, who is running on fiscal responsibility and environmental protection.

RATING: LIKELY DEMOCRATIC

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A popular governor and a member of the wealthy Rockefeller family, Governor Jay Rockefeller is a formidable foe for the West Virginia GOP. Republicans have nominated Cecil Underwood, the last Republican to hold the office of Governor in that state. Still, Rockefeller is seen as untouchable, as if his favorability fades, he has his enormous personal wealth to back up his campaign.

RATING: SAFE DEMOCRATIC

Keep me updated if minorities get their full constitutional rights of changing the South's repressive tactics in regards to voting, running for political office, etc.

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President Humphrey travels to Panama again to hammer out the final details of a canal agreement. Vice President Jackson is not thrilled with this; Jackson, unlike Humphrey, is against giving the canal to Panama and does not want this to become a campaign issue this late in the game.

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South Carolina v. United States is appealed to the US Supreme Court, and the Court agrees to hear it. Governor Westmoreland pleads with the Supreme Court to decide whether election observers are constitutional before the election.

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The Southern District of New York determines that there is not enough evidence to indict Richard Nixon in the case of the Flatiron breakin; however, there is also not enough evidence to clear him of wrongdoing. At the same time, H.R. Haldeman is sentenced to 5 years in prison.

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The second Presidential debate between Vice President Jackson and former Mayor Lindsay takes place at San Francisco's Palace of Fine Arts. It is moderated by NPR journalist Pauline Frederick.

Jackson performs somewhat better this time, appearing more energetic. While Lindsay is still seen as more engaging and personable, he is caught off guard by a question about whether his administration is responsible for New York City’s current financial predicament, and makes a gaffe wherein he momentarily forgets the Kashmiri Crisis is one of the world’s three most pressing crises (the other two being the Sino-Soviet standoff and the Southeast Asian famine).

Still, while definitely not Lindsay’s best performance, the former Mayor showed once again that he could mostly hold his own against the Vice President.

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President Humphrey and Maximum Leader Omar Torrijos sign the Torrijos-Humphrey Treaties. The first treaty, the neutrality treaty, officially makes the Panama Canal neutral territory, and indefinitely allows the United States to defend its neutrality. The second treaty will transition the canal over to Panamanian control at midnight on January 1, 2000.

---

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As the VP candidates prepare for their debate, Vice President Jackson and Mayor Lindsay continue to campaign. Lindsay, who had mostly been campaigning in New England, barnstorms New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Virginia, before moving on to the Midwest. Vice President Jackson is confident that he has locked up the South, and so he campaigns in the Plains, Mountain West, and then California.

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Senator Katherine Peden and Senator William Ruckelshaus debate at the Alley Theatre in Houston, Texas. James Hoge of the Chicago Sun-Times moderates.

The debate is rather uneventful. Both Senators are polite and reserved, and all of Hoge’s questions were answered in a measured and competent manner by both candidates. Consensus is that both Peden and Ruckelshaus are perfectly qualified to be Vice President, with the American people being very impressed by Senator Peden’s command of the issues.

---

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A black Federal Election Observer, B. Thomas Hawthorne, is assaulted by several white men in Gaffney, South Carolina. They called him, among other things, one of “Jackson’s thugs.” Several hours after the attack, Hawthorne dies at the Gaffney hospital.

Governor Westmoreland categorically denounces the attack, stating that while he “fervently disagrees with the FEOs being here in South Carolina, physical violence is not the answer.”

---

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Angry African-Americans and liberal whites protest the killing of B. Thomas Hawthorne. Counter-protesters also congregate, and some altercations occur.

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Mayor Herman Badillo announces that the City of New York has found a solution to the impending budget gap. Some of Badillo’s more ambitious programs will see their funding decreased, while the commuter tax (which Badillo calls the “Lindsay Tax,” as it was put into place by the GOP Presidential nominee and Badillo’s predecessor as Mayor) will be increased. Critics mostly praise Badillo for averting a fiscal crisis.

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Vice President Jackson and Mayor Lindsay debate for the final time, at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. ABC’s Barbara Walters moderates.

Jackson comes out of the gate swinging, hammering Lindsay on his administration of New York City and its budget during his two terms as Mayor. Lindsay deflects and blames the national economy and middle class migration out of the city, then tries to turn the subject to “our country’s future and the more important issues this election is about.”

Jackson was also forceful when the topic switched to foreign policy. “The Soviet domination of Eastern Europe will end under a Jackson Administration,” the Democratic nominee vowed. Lindsay immediately shot back with “at what cost? Europe must be free, but needlessly risking nuclear war is not the way to do so.” Many see Jackson’s “Soviet domination” comment as a worryingly bellicose statement, with some even calling it a gaffe.

Most viewers agree that Jackson was too negative during the debate, and that Lindsay won.

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The US Supreme Court decides 7-2 in South Carolina v. US that election observers do not inherently violate the Elections Clause of Article 1 of the Constitution. Chief Justice Marshall’s majority opinion states that FEOs must be nonpartisan and only deployed to “places that have demonstrated problematic behavior in the past.” Thus, under the Elections Clause and the Federal Campaign Act of 1975’s establishment of the Federal Elections Agency, the State of South Carolina loses the case and election observers will be allowed to continue.

---

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In the final days of the campaign, the two party nominees scramble to lock in the states they need to reach 270 electoral votes.

Vice President Jackson returns from campaigning on the West Coast to debate in Virginia, then heads out to the Midwest to make sure he wins the region, as he is expected to do with his strong support from labor unions. He spends Election Day in Ohio. His running mate, Senator Katherine Peden, campaigns across the South, culminating in a get-out-the-vote effort in her home state of Kentucky on Election Day.

Mayor Lindsay returns to the Atlantic Northeast, making stops in Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and Maine before finishing with a big rally in New York on the day of the election. Senator Ruckelshaus campaigned in the Midwest and Plains, before joining Lindsay in New York.

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“Good evening and welcome to CBS News coverage of Election Night 1976! I’m Walter Cronkite. Today tens of millions of Americans - almost 90 million of us - went to the polls to cast our ballots, either for four more years of Democratic control, or four years of a new direction. Vice President Jackson’s lead in the polls has steadily declined over the past few months, so don’t count Mayor Lindsay out just yet.

“Now, it’s 6 PM on the east coast, and polls have just closed in most of Indiana and parts of Kentucky. Both states are too early to call at this hour.”

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“It’s 7 PM here in New York, and polls have just closed in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Virginia, Vermont, and the rest of Kentucky and Indiana. We can make a handful of projections on the Presidential level: Vice President Jackson will win Georgia by about nine points. We can project that Vice President Jackson will also carry Kentucky by a similar margin. Kentucky, the home state of Jackson’s running mate, Katherine Peden, has fallen into their column tonight. One last call: Vermont is returning to its Republican roots: it has decided to vote for John Lindsay tonight. Florida is too early to call; Indiana, South Carolina, and Virginia are too close to call.”

---

JACKSON/PEDEN: 55%, 21 EVS
LINDSAY/RUCKELSHAUS: 44%, 3 EVS
OTHERS: 1%, 0 EVS
TOO CLOSE/EARLY TO CALL: 50 EVS
POLLS OPEN: 464 EVS

---

“In the Senate, we can make a projection: Indianapolis Mayor Richard Lugar has beaten Senator Vance Hartke in a landslide in Indiana. This is the first pickup of the night in what could be a very good night for the GOP in the Senate, even if it’s not a great night for John Lindsay. All it would take would be three GOP pickups to end the Democrats’ Senate supermajority. Additionally, it would only take 13 House pickups to end the Democrats’ supermajority in the lower chamber.

“Florida is too early to call, while Vermont and Virginia are too close to call at this hour.”

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“And finally, the gubernatorial elections in both Indiana and Vermont are too close to call.”

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“Polls have closed in three more states: Ohio, West Virginia, and North Carolina. We can call that Vice President Jackson has won the state of North Carolina. We can also predict the Vice President will be the victor in West Virginia. Ohio is still too close to call, but Jackson has a strong lead there as well, likely thanks to his strong union and blue collar support. It’s not looking good quite yet for John Lindsay.”

---

JACKSON/PEDEN: 55%, 40 EVS
LINDSAY/RUCKELSHAUS: 44%, 3 EVS
OTHERS: 1%, 0 EVS
TOO CLOSE/EARLY TO CALL: 75 EVS
POLLS OPEN: 420 EVS

---

“Robert Byrd was running unopposed for the West Virginia Senate race, so he is immediately re-elected. Ohio is too early to call at the moment. In Virginia, Governor Howell has beaten Harry Byrd Jr., becoming the next Virginia Senator; this also means Lt. Gov. Douglas Wilder will become the first African-American governor of Virginia. The other races are either too early or too close to call at this time.”

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“The North Carolina gubernatorial election is also too close to call, along with the other gubernatorial elections.”

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“Stay tuned for the 8 o’clock poll closings. Polls close in 15 states and in parts of five others, and we will surely have calls to make during that time. This is CBS News.”

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“I’m Walter Cronkite, and welcome back to CBS News coverage of Election Night 1976. It’s 8 PM on the east coast, and polls have just closed in a litany of states and in the District of Columbia. We are prepared to make a number of calls.

“Vice President Jackson has won Alabama. The Vice President will win the District of Columbia with roughly 80% of the vote. The state of Maryland and her 10 electoral votes will go to the Vice President of the United States. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts will also vote for Henry Jackson. The state of Maine as a whole is still too close to call, but Maine's first Congressional district will go to John Lindsay. Mississippi’s 7 electoral votes have been won by Vice President Jackson. Surprisingly, Missouri has been called early for the Democratic ticket, as Vice President Jackson is doing very well there tonight. John Lindsay has taken the state of New Hampshire; the moderate Republican mayor is basically a perfect fit for New England. The former New York City mayor has also won Oklahoma. Rhode Island and her 4 electoral votes have chosen Vice President Jackson. Tennessee has voted for Henry Jackson as well. And finally, a big win for the Vice President: Texas goes Democratic tonight, handing Jackson 26 electoral votes.

“Connecticut is too close to call. Delaware is too close to call. Illinois is too close to call. Kansas is too early to call. Michigan is too early to call. New Jersey is too close to call. Pennsylvania is too close to call. South Dakota is too early to call. The state of Maine and its second Congressional district are too close to call.

“Wait a minute, big news out of the South: after seeing the results out of the panhandle, we can project Florida will vote for Henry Jackson.”

---

JACKSON/PEDEN: 56%, 152 EVS
LINDSAY/RUCKELSHAUS: 43%, 16 EVS
OTHERS: 1%, 0 EVS
TOO CLOSE/EARLY TO CALL: 174 EVS
POLLS OPEN: 196 EVS

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“Focusing on the Senate, we can call Delaware for William Roth, a Republican hold. Likewise, Lawton Chiles has won easy reelection in Florida. Lawrence Hogan has won Maryland’s Senate election, defeating Senator Tydings by a surprisingly large margin. Edmund Muskie has won reelection in Maine by a wide margin. Ted Kennedy has also won a landslide reelection. John Stennis has won another term in Mississippi, but by a smaller than expected (though still large) margin. Harrison Williams has won reelection in New Jersey. GOP Congressman Robin Beard has beaten Senator Al Gore in Tennessee, the third Republican flip of the night. And Senator George Bush has won in a landslide in Texas.”

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“We can easily call the Illinois gubernatorial election for Congressman Donald Rumsfeld, who has destroyed Governor Dan Walker. We can also project that John Danforth has defeated Thomas Eagleton, and will become the next Governor of Missouri. Governor McLane has won reelection in New Hampshire. John Garrahy has won the governor’s mansion in Rhode Island.

“Also, we should have made this projection at 7:30, but we were having technical difficulties: Governor Jay Rockefeller has won an overwhelming reelection in West Virginia.”

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“Welcome back to CBS. It is 8:30, and polls just closed in Arkansas. Vice President Jackson has just won the state by double digits.

“Indiana, home state of John Lindsay’s running mate, Senator William Ruckelshaus, has gone to the Republican ticket by a shockingly narrow margin of just under two percentage points. We are also confident that John Lindsay will win the state of Maine as a whole, though results in the second district are still unclear at this time.

“Wait, we have some breaking news, some really good news for the Jackson camp: the Democratic ticket has carried Ohio and its 25 electoral votes. This state was absolutely critical for Jackson, and he has taken it. We can call South Carolina for the Jackson/Peden ticket as well.

“Stay tuned for the 9 o’clock poll closings, when 10 more states and parts of several others begin reporting results.”

---

JACKSON/PEDEN: 55%, 191 EVS
LINDSAY/RUCKELSHAUS: 44%, 31 EVS
OTHERS: 1%, 0 EVS
TOO CLOSE/EARLY TO CALL: 126 EVS
POLLS OPEN: 190 EVS

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“We can now project that Lowell Weicker has won his rematch with Senator Joseph Duffey in Connecticut, the fourth GOP flip of the night. And we’re also going to project that John Chafee has beaten Governor Noel in the Rhode Island Senate race, another GOP pickup. With this win, the Republicans will officially make a net gain of at least one seat tonight, though when all is said and done, Republicans will likely have won a few more seats than that.

“However, we can now make a major call for the Democrats: Ohio Senator John Glenn has won reelection. With his five-point victory over former Senator Bob Taft, Jr., Glenn has insured that if Democrats win the Presidency as they look set to do, they will have a Senate majority even if they lose every outstanding Senate race, which is highly unlikely.”

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“Dale Bumpers has won reelection in a massive landslide in Arkansas. We can project that Pete du Pont will be the next Governor of Delaware, the third gubernatorial flip of the night. We can also confirm that Governor Birch Bayh has very narrowly won a second term as Indiana governor, by less than one percentage point.”

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Looks like it's over. President Jackson!

I'm okay with this.

I'm assuming they're still counting votes in the Midwest ?

Keep in mind that the map is so far lining up with IRL 1976. I expect some gains for Lindsay, probably nowhere near enough to prevent a Dem victory but I doubt it'll be a landslide for Jackson.

Interested to see what the Exit Polls looked like determining how Americans voted including minorities, women, others, etc.,

But Jackson was favored quite heavily in some of the states still out to get him well over 270.

This timeline in my opinion belongs in the pantheon of Atlas timelines! I love it!

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“Welcome back to CBS News coverage of the 1976 elections, I’m Walter Cronkite. Seeing as the clock has just struck 9 on the eastern seaboard, ten more states have just closed their polls, along with portions of four others.

“Arizona has cast its ballots for John Lindsay, though he is a bad fit for the conservative state and is under-performing expectations. Lindsay has won that state by a little more than five points. Louisiana has overwhelmingly voted for Henry M. Jackson, which puts him over the 200 electoral vote mark. We can also project that both Michigan and Minnesota will vote for Jackson, no surprise due to his Manufacturing Belt union appeal. John Lindsay will win the state of Nebraska. Vice President Jackson has won the state of Wisconsin. Finally, Lindsay has carried the very Republican state of Wyoming.

“Oh, standby… I’ve been informed of three more calls we can make at this hour: John Lindsay has narrowly won Delaware, while at the same time, Vice President Jackson has won South Dakota and her four electoral votes. And the last call is that Maine’s second congressional district has narrowly voted for John Lindsay.

“Colorado is too early to call. Connecticut is too close to call. Illinois is too close to call. Kansas is too close to call. New Jersey is too close to call. New Mexico is too early to call. New York is too close to call. North Dakota is too close to call. Pennsylvania is too close to call. Virginia is too close to call.”

---

JACKSON/PEDEN: 54%, 247 EVS
LINDSAY/RUCKELSHAUS: 45%, 49 EVS
OTHERS: 1%, 0 EVS
TOO CLOSE/EARLY TO CALL: 152 EVS
POLLS OPEN: 90 EVS

---

“We can make two projections about the future control of Congress. First, the Democratic party has won at least 227 seats, well above the 218 needed for a majority in the House of Representatives. Depending on how other races fall, Democrats should prepared for, at best, a gain of three seats, or, in their worst case scenario, a net loss of no more than twenty-five seats. Regardless, Democrats will retain their control of the House of Representatives.

“For the other projection, we can call the Minnesota Senate race for the incumbent Walter Mondale, and with that, Democrats will retain control of the US Senate for at least another two years. We can also call that Bella Abzug has beaten William F. Buckley in the New York Senate race; like New York’s other Senator, Shirley Chisholm, Bella Abzug is an outspoken feminist progressive activist and Congresswoman. Quentin Burdick has won a landslide reelection in North Dakota. William Proxmire of Wisconsin has also won a landslide reelection. In some good news for the GOP, Malcolm Wallop has ousted Wyoming Senator Gale McGee, beating the Democrat by a wide margin and securing Republicans their sixth flip of the night.”

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“CBS can make the projection that Governor Arthur Link has won another term as Governor of North Dakota. In addition, we can also predict that James Holshouser, a Republican, will win the North Carolina gubernatorial election.

---

Who was elected NC Governor in 1972 from this TL ?

Skipper Bowles.

It's 1976 and New York's senators are a Jew and a Black woman. The two presidential candidates are progressives with integrity. How I wish this was our world!!

Meanwhile in several Southern states, the Old Guard is hell-bent on preventing & blocking change by using discriminatory tactics, diluting voting to prevent minorities, the elderly, etc., from participating in a free democratic process, racially-charged rhetoric.

How does Jackson do so well in the South?

Good question since it's been awhile since they had a Southerner in the White House.

Lindsay doesn’t enthuse southern whites at all, while black voters are exercising their newly-granted voting rights (though Lindsay is winning almost 30% of them), protected by the Federal Election Observers. Senator Peden, while not from the Deep South, has endeared herself to many southerners.

Overall Jackson is doing very well with union workers and poor-to-working-class whites, while also taking about 72% of the national black vote. Meanwhile upper-middle class whites and country club republicans love Lindsay, which is one reason why he’s doing so well in New England at the moment (being from the region doesn’t hurt).

#Analysis like this is as close as I’m going to get to posting actual exit polls.

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“This just in! The Associated Press has just called the state of Illinois for Vice President Henry M. Jackson, a state with 26 electoral votes. This puts Vice President Jackson at 273 electoral votes, three more than a majority; thus Vice President Jackson is now President-elect Jackson. Henry Jackson has been elected the 38th President of the United States, while Senator Katherine Peden has been elected the 41st Vice President of the United States. Katherine Peden has made history tonight; she will be the first woman to serve as Vice President in all of America’s 200 year history. President-elect Jackson and Vice President-elect Peden will have a Democratic Congress to work with; the trifecta which has existed for all of the Humphrey Administration will persist until at least 1979, though without a Senate supermajority and possibly without a supermajority in the House either.”

---

JACKSON/PEDEN: 54%, 273 EVS ✓
LINDSAY/RUCKELSHAUS: 45%, 49 EVS
OTHERS: 1%, 0 EVS
TOO CLOSE/EARLY TO CALL: 126 EVS
POLLS OPEN: 90 EVS

---

“We’re going live to CBS correspondent Dan Rather, who is at the Jackson/Peden campaign party tonight. Dan, what is the crowd - and the President-elect - feeling right now?”

“Thanks Walter. The crowd can only be described as ecstatic. Vice President-elect Peden has just finished speaking, and President-elect Jackson is getting on stage now. Let’s listen.”

“Tonight, the American people have sent a clear message: they want a strong America! They want a continuation of the policies of the past four years into the next four. They want better treatment of women and minorities, and hell, they want a woman Vice President! I’m humbled and honored to have been elected President of the United States tonight, and I hope to serve you well in the next four years and beyond, if you’ll have me…”

“Back to you, Walter.”

“Thank you, Dan. We’ve also received a tip that Mayor Lindsay called to concede about half an hour ago, before the official call of the election but after it became clear Lindsay was highly unlikely to win. Bill Moyers is at the Lindsay campaign headquarters. What’s going on down there, Bill?”

“Well, Walter, it’s a somber mood tonight here in New York. Mayor Lindsay didn’t take his home state, and it was clear from quite early on in the night that the upset the mayor needed just wasn’t going to happen. Senator Ruckelshaus, the running mate, is introducing Lindsay now- oh, here the mayor comes…”

“Thank you! Thank you! Well, we didn’t quite make it tonight… But while we didn’t win the election, democracy worked, and every time democracy works and there’s a peaceful transition of power, America wins. The entire free world wins! This campaign came farther than anyone guessed we would, and we’ve left our mark on not only our party but our country. We must continue to fight for the values we hold dead: fairness, civil rights and liberties, combating poverty, and fostering personal responsibility. The fight for these values goes on, it must go on, but for now, let’s give a congratulatory round of applause for our new President, Henry Jackson…”

“A strikingly conciliatory tone from Mayor Lindsay tonight. Back to you Walter.”

“Thanks, Bill. Stay tuned for more poll closings in just a few minutes.”

Can I get an F in chat for Hunt and Lindsay

F

I'm assuming the Dems have a supermajority on the US State Governorships.

Can't wait to see The West.

As my mom always says, when you assume, you make an ass out of u and me. :)

You’ll have to wait to see the rest of the gubernatorial results for 1976; election night isn’t over yet. Every gubernatorial election result since 1963 can be found throughout this and the previous two timelines.

Interested to see if Scoop wins by double digits.

Well that was an awfully quick call! I've had the feeling for a while that Jackson's hawkishness might mean the spectre of Goldwater's foreign policy might follow him through his presidency. Eager as always to see where things go next.

This TL is getting juicy.

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“This is CBS News, and I’m Walter Cronkite. It is 10 PM and polls have closed in four more states. The only new state which is not too close to call is Utah, which has gone decisively for Mayor Lindsay. However, we can make a series of other calls in states that were previously too close or too early.

“Kansas goes to John Lindsay. North Dakota will also be carried by the former New York mayor. Little by little, it appears Republicans are regaining the ground they lost to Democrats in the Plains during and following the Goldwater Administration. President-elect Henry Jackson has won the state of Pennsylvania; John Lindsay was not able to replicate Nelson Rockefeller’s 1964 victory in that state twelve years later. The rest of the states are still too close to call.”

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JACKSON/PEDEN: 53%, 300 EVS ✓
LINDSAY/RUCKELSHAUS: 46%, 63 EVS
OTHERS: 1%, 0 EVS
TOO CLOSE/EARLY TO CALL: 104 EVS
POLLS OPEN: 71 EVS

---

“The AP has called the Montana Senate race for Congressman John Melcher, who has won by double digits. Meanwhile, Congressman Orrin Hatch has unseated Senator Frank Moss in Utah, the seventh GOP flip of the night.

“In Vermont, we can finally call that Senator Stafford has narrowly won reelection. And in Pennsylvania, Arlen Specter has defeated State Sen. Jeanette Reibman for the open Senate seat in that state. In good news for Democrats, Senator Morrison has won another term in Nebraska.”

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“Governor Judge of Montana has won a landslide reelection tonight, while Utah is still too close to call. However, the newest results out of Vermont have given us the confidence to project that Stella Hackel, the state’s Treasurer, has won the election by less than one percent, and will be the next Governor.

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“As the last polls of the Lower 48 close, we can call Hawaii for President-elect Jackson. Mayor Lindsay has won Idaho in a landslide; Idaho was the closest state in 1972, when, like every other state, it went to President Hubert Humphrey. Washington state, where President-elect Jackson is from, will easily go to its favorite son. California and Oregon are too close to call.

“We can make a few more calls on the Presidential level, however. We are confident enough to say that John Lindsay has won Colorado, taking the state with 49.9% of the vote to Henry Jackson’s 47.3%. With 99% reporting and only a little more than 5,000 votes separating the two candidates (a margin of about 0.4%), we can call Connecticut for John Lindsay. Iowa is too close to call, though with 53% in, Jackson has a lead of about 30,000 votes, or around 1.5%. Montana is obscenely close at this hour; with 61% in, Jackson leads by about 53 votes. Not 53% of the vote, 53 individual votes. The AP has just called the state of Nevada for John Lindsay, who has beaten the President-elect there by about 4 points. And with 98% of the vote reported in New Jersey, John Lindsay’s 15,000 vote lead (half a percentage point) looks insurmountable, so we are calling New Jersey for Lindsay, putting him above the 100 electoral vote mark.

“Less than a thousand votes separate the candidates in New Mexico, so that race is too close to call at this time. It appears Henry Jackson has won Mayor Lindsay's home state of New York by around 4 points. Virginia, usually reliably Republican except for a fluke vote for Faubus in 1964 and the overwhelming Democratic landslide in 1972, is returning to its Republican roots and voting for John Lindsay tonight. And that’s the state of the Presidential election right now...”

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JACKSON/PEDEN: 53%, 354 EVS ✓
LINDSAY/RUCKELSHAUS: 46%, 114 EVS
OTHERS: 1%, 0 EVS
TOO CLOSE/EARLY TO CALL: 67 EVS
POLLS OPEN: 3 EVS

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“...moving on to the Senate, George Brown Jr. has run away with the California Senate election, crushing former Governor Finch by double digits. Senator Cecil Heftel has won reelection handily in Hawaii. And Senator Tom Foley has easily won a term of his own at the same time that the man he replaced is ascending to the Presidency.

“We can also project that Raul Hector Castro has narrowly defeated Senator Jack Williams in Arizona, so far the only Democratic flip of the night. We are also confident enough to call Michigan’s open Senate seat for Secretary of State Richard Austin, who will become the first African-American to represent Michigan in the US Senate. The Missouri Senate election is still too close to call, though Congressman Litton has a narrow lead with 93% of the vote in. Senator Paul Laxalt has narrowly won a third term in Nevada. In New Mexico, the AP has projected that former NASA astronaut Harrison Schmitt has defeated Senator Joseph Montoya. It’s been a good night for the GOP in the Senate, much better than in 1974 or in tonight’s Presidential election, but some races have left Republicans disappointed, and Democrats will retain their filibuster-proof majority until at least 1979, though they have lost their supermajority.”

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“As for the governors’ races, Albert Rosellini has won another term as Washington’s governor, his second consecutive and fourth cumulative term. We can also project that Vernon Romney will flip the Utah governorship to the GOP, the Republicans’ fifth gain of the night and the second member of the Romney family to be elected Governor of a US state.”

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Hope the Conservative wing of the party comes back after this defeat

The George Bushes, Paul Laxalts, and Spiro Agnews of the world are likely not unhappy with the result, and are undoubtedly thinking about '80.

Hopefully this continues America's realignment to a more European and left of center political spectrum.

This is Rosellini's 4th term as WA St Governor ?

Who would’ve thought a Goldwater presidency would be great for the left? :P

Actually John Lindsay losing could change that big time.


Paul Laxalt 1980 or Jack Kemp 1980

Jackson would have to make some serious missteps for that to happen

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“It’s a new day on the East Coast. In other parts of the country, some states still have not been called. At CBS, we can call California for President-elect Jackson. We can also call Iowa for the President-elect, putting him over 400 electoral votes. And finally, Oregon will also go to President-elect Jackson. Montana and New Mexico are still both too close to call.”

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JACKSON/PEDEN: 53%, 413 EVS ✓
LINDSAY/RUCKELSHAUS: 46%, 114 EVS
OTHERS: 1%, 0 EVS
TOO CLOSE/EARLY TO CALL: 8 EVS
POLLS OPEN: 3 EVS

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“Missouri’s Senate race can finally be called; with 99% of the vote in, Jerry Litton has been elected the next Senator from Missouri with 49.97% of the vote to Kit Bond’s 49.81%. This keeps Stuart Symington’s Senate seat in Democratic hands for at least six more years.”

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“Polls have officially closed everywhere in the country, and we can make the final calls in the Presidential election. In Alaska, President-elect Jackson has won by around six points. In Montana, we’re going to call President-elect Jackson the victor there, but it will likely go to a recount, as the margin is around 120 votes at the moment, or a margin of 0.04%. And finally, New Mexico looks to have gone to John Lindsay by about 870 votes, or 0.21%.

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JACKSON/PEDEN: 53%, 420 EVS ✓
LINDSAY/RUCKELSHAUS: 46%, 118 EVS
OTHERS: 1%, 0 EVS

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“And with those calls, the election is settled. For CBS News, I’m Walter Cronkite. Goodnight.”

Interesting to see what the transition will look like.

11/3/1976 by GLORIA STEINEM

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       On November 2nd, America did the unthinkable: elected a female Vice President.

   Katherine Graham Peden - diminutively called "Katie" by some - is the popular, populist Kentucky Democratic Senator who is now the 41st Vice President (elect) of the United States of America. After narrowly winning her 1968 election and then winning again in 1974, Vice President Henry Jackson chose Senator Peden as his running mate in August, making her the first female Democrat (and second woman ever) nominated for a federal executive office at the DNC. A vocal proponent of policies like the comprehensive universal childcare law that went into affect several years ago, upholding a woman's right to choose, and passing the ERA, Peden will undoubtedly be a much-needed voice for American women upon her ascension to the Vice Presidency.

   But lest you think all of the woes afflicting American women will simply go away after Peden is sworn in on January 20th, I’ve got some news for you. Men have been in the business of oppressing women for millennia, and that will not stop simply because one woman got her foot in the door of the United States Executive Branch. From equal pay for equal work to abortion rights, women are still waging battles for equality across the nation, and Peden won't be able to change that no matter how hard she tries...

Continued on page 14.

On Raul H. Castro: I'm assuming that since he's elected to the United States Senate in 1976, AZ Secretary of State Wesley Bolin (D) would ascend to the Governorship in this TL ?

PS: Looking forward to seeing the opening of the HHH Presidential Center in this TL.

No.

Senator Barry Goldwater won the 1968 presidential election, and Governor Jack Williams appointed himself to the senate seat he was vacating. Wesley Bolin became governor at that point, and won a term of his own in 1970. Castro was the 1974 gubernatorial nominee, but he lost narrowly to Evan Mecham, who is the current governor (and a controversial one at that).

This timeline diverges from our own in 1963. A lot has happened since then that’s had ripple effects.

I miss the POV posts…are there going to be some more of those?

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Presidential historians will no longer be able to say "President Jackson" without the possibility of causing some confusion; now they will have to distinguish between "A. Jackson" and "H. Jackson."

The Presidential election of 1976 was closer than some polls showed after the conventions, but Vice President Jackson still won by a little over six points, outperforming the final polls. Lindsay was able to bring a lot of moderate New England Republicans back under the GOP banner, while doing surprisingly well in the South due to a fair amount of black support; Lindsay was expected to lose the region by a landslide, but did not significantly underperform Goldwater’s 1968 performance in the region. Meanwhile, President-elect Jackson did very well in the Manufacturing Belt, running up larger than average margins in states like Minnesota, Ohio, and Michigan. Jackson also did well on the West Coast. Jackson’s victory of a number of large states made his national win wide, but not particularly deep; despite his lopsided win of 78.1% of the electoral college vote, the President-elect only won 52.6% of the popular vote. A number of those states were won by a somewhat narrow margin.

The House elections saw little excitement; Republicans gained 14 seats, an underwhelming performance. One bright point for the GOP is that they robbed Democrats of their supermajority, though they only did so by two votes. Speaker Albert retired, and as such, Majority Leader Phillip Burton is expected to become the next Speaker of the House.

The GOP made gains to the tune of seven seats in the Senate, though they lost several winnable elections, like those in Missouri and Michigan. Nevertheless, the map was atrocious for Democrats, who were defending 27 seats to the GOP’s six, and so GOP gains were virtually assured. The Democrats lost their supermajority in the upper chamber as well, though their filibuster-resistant majority is still in tact. With both the majority and minority leaders retiring, Howard Baker is expected to be the next Senate Minority Leader, while Robert Byrd may be the next Majority Leader.

And finally, in the governors’ races, Democrats were defending literally every state. Republicans made gains of five seats amid bad governance in Illinois and a health scandal in Missouri.

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After President Humphrey returns from one last trip to Panama, the Senate ratifies the final versions of both treaties. The Torrijos-Humphrey Treaties go into effect.

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Senator Edmund Muskie (D-ME) announces he will run for Majority Leader, running to the left of Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV). This surprise announcement shakes up the race, as many progressives and some moderates are concerned about Byrd’s past conservatism and Ku Klux Klan membership.

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President-elect Jackson announces that George Ball will be departing from the Department of State at the end of the Humphrey Administration, and announces that U.N. Ambassador Sargent Shriver will be the President-elect’s choice to be the next Secretary of State.

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The parties in the House of Representatives vote on their nominees to be the leaders of the incoming 95th Congress.

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The parties in the U.S. Senate choose their nominees to lead the Senate through the 95th Congress. Senator Muskie wins 33 votes to become the next nominee for Majority Leader, besting Robert Byrd, who won 29 votes.

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Jackson announces recently-reelected Nebraska Senator Frank B. Morrison will be the nominee for Secretary of Agriculture.

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UN Secretary General Max Jakobson is easily selected for a second term over Luis Echeverría Álvarez.

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A private jet carrying Australian media mogul Rupert Murdoch crashes shortly after taking off from Idlewild Airport, exploding upon impact. Murdoch, the pilot and co-pilot, and 12 others were aboard; there were no survivors.

Murdoch is survived by his wife and four young children.

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President-elect Jackson announces his pick for Attorney General is former Kennedy Justice Department official Nicholas Katzenbach. Katzenbach was Robert Kennedy's right hand man throughout the JFK administration, and he will be replacing Ramsay Clark, who is departing.

Jackson also announces that economist Juanita Kreps will be the nominee to be the next Treasury Secretary.

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Retiring Senator Philip Hart dies of melanoma. Governor Levin appoints his elected successor, Richard Austin, to the now-vacant Senate seat.

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Virginia Governor Henry Howell tenders his resignation. He will be sworn into his Senate seat on the 3rd. Lt. Gov. Douglas Wilder is sworn in as the first black Governor of the state that was once the seat of the Confederate States of America.

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The 95th Congress is officially sworn in. They get to work starting the process of drafting a healthcare overhaul bill, and start confirmation hearings on Jackson's Cabinet nominees.

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Vice President-elect Peden officially tenders her resignation from the Senate. Governor Julian Carroll appoints Lt. Gov. Thelma Stovall to the now-vacant Senate seat, and schedules a special election for the same day as the other November 1977 elections.

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Senator Frank B. Morrison is confirmed as Secretary of Agriculture, a position he will assume on January 20th. In the meantime, he resigns from Congress. Governor Exon appoints freshman Rep. John J. Cavanaugh (D-NE-02) to the vacant Senate seat, which is considered odd because Cavanaugh had only served six days in the House of Representatives (after serving four years in the Nebraska Unicameral). A special primary is scheduled for April 1, while a special general election is to be held on November 8.

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President Humphrey gives a televised farewell address from the Oval Office. He thanks the American people for being willing to have him serve as their President, calling it "the honor of a lifetime." He lauds the Humphrey Administration's many accomplishments, and encourages those who approve of him to "keep demanding progressive change from your government; progress will not be made without you."

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On his last day in office, President Humphrey issues an unconditional pardon of all people who dodged the draft during the Vietnam War. Humphrey says it is "time to move on from that difficult period in our nation's history, and give those who made that perhaps-regrettable decision to dodge the draft a second chance."

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Keeping my fingers crossed Mecham gets impeached & removed from office in AZ.

January 20, 1977 was a chilly day, with a temperature that felt like it was in the teens. The special guests on the East Portico wore multiple layers of coats, as did the 7,500 onlookers who had amassed in front of the east front to watch their new President get sworn into office.

Associate Justice of the Supreme Court Shirley Hufstedler, the first woman to be appointed and confirmed to the highest court in the land, was chosen to swear in Katherine Peden, the first woman to ever be elected Vice President.

"I, Katherine Graham Peden, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God."

Cheers arose from the crowd as the 41st Vice President finished her oath. Now, it was time for Henry Jackson's oath. As is mostly the norm, Chief Justice Thurgood Marshall administered the soon-to-be 38th President's oath.

"I, Henry Martin Jackson, do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. So help me God."

Receiving the customary "congratulations, Mr. President" and a handshake from the Chief Justice, President Henry M. Jackson stepped up to the podium and prepared to give his first address to the people of America.

"My fellow Americans, today is the day we take the successes of the past four years and start to expand them...

"...the America of tomorrow is an America that provides for its citizens while letting them have the space to be their own people. It's an America where no veteran is in poverty, where no child is without ample food, and where no American has to worry that an unexpected medical expense will rob them of their financial security...

"...we have been a nation in the grips of complex progressive social change over the past two decades, and while that must continue, we must also create progressive economic change in this country as well. We should put unemployed and underemployed Americans to work and improve our nation's infrastructure while we're at it!

"...America's image around the globe has taken a hell of a hit since 1971, and the previous administration did some much needed cleanup. But if 'cleanup' is defense, it is now time to go onto the metaphorical offensive, reinforcing American prowess and dominance over Communism on the world stage!"

"...so, America, I am confident that, together, we will overcome the barriers to our success and build upon our nation's prosperity so we shall all share in it. Thank you!"

President Henry Jackson and First Lady Helen Hardin Jackson then escorted former President Hubert Humphrey and former First Lady Muriel Humphrey to what was once Marine One; the ritual is more of a photo-op than anything else. As the Humphreys flew to Andrews Air Force Base (and subsequently back to their home state of Minnesota), Jackson rode in the presidential state car (a 1972 Lincoln Continental) down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House.

Outgoing President Humphrey created a media controversy when he invited newly-elected, openly gay California Assemblyman Harvey Milk to the inauguration. Milk attended the inauguration, to the delight of some and the discomfort of many.

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This is likely the last time the East Front of the US Capitol will hold Presidential Inaugurations, considering in 1981, it was moved to the West Front (which was the right thing to do).

 Are we going to See the entire Jackson administration in this chapter or is it going to cut off in 1978.   Either way I’m really excited to see more and I Hope to see More POV segments especially for Scoop

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Upon his inauguration, President Henry Jackson radiated hope. He was confident that his Administration would be a continuation of the wildly successful presidency of Hubert Humphrey, except Jackson wanted to finish what Humphrey started on healthcare and be tougher on foreign policy. His first initiative was to make good on his promises to the American people regarding health insurance.

The Office of the Vice President had been working with Congress for quite some time on a draft of Jackson's vision for healthcare reform. So, when many of those Vice Presidential staffers (who had, in 1973, mostly come from Jackson's Senate office) made the transition to the West Wing, the plan came with them, allowing for Jackson to immediately have Senator Tom Foley (D-WA) and Congressman John Kerry (D-MA-05) introduce the bill into Congress. The American Universal Heathcare Act of 1977 was met with opposition from conservatives and some liberals, such as Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA), who didn't think it went far enough. The AUHA would create a national marketplace where insurers would be required to sell their plans, plans that would be regulated by the federal government. The plan passed the House with 264 votes. In the Senate, Senators Kennedy and Bernard Sanders (D-VT) amended the bill to include a government-run option put onto the national marketplace, a requirement that people with so-called "pre-existing conditions" be protected from losing their coverage, and a penalty for those who opt not to have health insurance through either their employer or the marketplaces. This plan passed the Senate, and the House cast 247 votes in favor of reconciling the differences. President Jackson signed the healthcare bill on February 8, 1978.

In addition to healthcare, President Jackson also pushed for welfare reform, passing the Social Security Amendments of 1977, which created the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program to provide income to poor elderly and disabled people, and relaxing the eligibility standards for the food stamp program. President Jackson signed the Mondale-Hawkins Full Employment Act in 1977, which attempted to preempt the slowing economy by creating thousands of government jobs and steered the economic policy of the United States towards combating rising inflation.

President Jackson asked Congress to pull education out of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare and make it its own Cabinet department. The Department of Education was created on February 12, 1977, and Housing Secretary Patricia Roberts Harris was made the first Secretary of Education. Former Cleveland Mayor Carl Stokes replaced Harris at Housing, while Claude Pepper remained Secretary of Health and Welfare.

While Jackson staunchly supported civil rights for black Americans and women, he was mostly indifferent to gay rights. On the one hand, he did not personally support homosexuality, but on the other, he believed that discrimination of all kinds were bad and made America weaker. Regardless, gay rights groups, headed by California State Assemblyman Harvey Milk, gained traction during his administration, mostly in retaliation to Anita Bryant's "Save Our Children" organization repealing gay rights ordinances in cities across the country. At an October press conference a gay rights activist threw a pie in Bryant's face, causing her to have an outburst in which she used anti-gay slurs, said God does not love gay people, and said that all gay people deserve to die. Her outburst galvanized gay rights activists and hurt her cause among social liberals and many social moderates; however, she nevertheless came to be seen as heroic by social conservatives.

NASA, no longer working with the Soviet space program, launched its first solo missions in the form of the Voyager I and II probes. There were also two manned missions to the Moon. President Jackson announced that he would like to see an “international coalition” establish a base on the moon by 1985, in addition to President Humphrey’s goal of a manned mission to mars by 2000. Preparations were also made for several more unmanned missions to Mars and two more

Moving on to world events, the world was shocked and saddened when Pope Paul VI died on September 8, 1977. The Papal conclave to choose his successor began on September 27, and produced a new pope the following day. Cardinal Sergio Pignedoli was selected as the 263rd Pope, taking the Papal Name Boniface X.

1977 was a test of the new administration’s foreign policy. The famine in southern Asia had started to lead to small leftist groups popping up in the region, though they did not gain major traction at first. However, both of India’s communist parties made gains in the 1977 elections, even as the election overall was a landslide for the Janata alliance. President Jackson took a harder stance in the escalating Cold War conflict, especially since his Soviet counterpart, Mikhail Suslov, did the same. The USSR under Secretary Suslov cracked down on dissent in eastern Europe, and in retaliation, President Jackson announced that the United States would enact a grain embargo against the USSR, hoping to weaken the Soviet economy and food supply.

North Africa and the Middle East were also foreign policy challenges. In July, Iraq was thrown into a few days of turmoil when a man, allegedly a Syrian national, shot Iraqi President Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr in the chest, badly wounding (but not killing) the man. Vice President Saddam Hussein, who had already begun to grow his influence in the Iraqi government, took control of Iraq for the months al-Bakr remained hospitalized, and began a massive military buildup supplemented by a mandatory draft.

Also in July, Egypt invaded Libya, after Muammar Gaddafi declared that all Egyptians in Libya must return to their home country or face possibly imprisonment. This followed years of Egyptian suspicion that Gaddafi was planning to overthrow the Egyptian government, suspicion that lead to heightened tensions and border skirmishes. After five days of fighting, President Jackson and the other Arab nations asked Egyptian President Anwar Sadat not to go ahead with a planned full-scale invasion of Libya, which Sadat agreed to if the Libyans signed a ceasefire agreement. Gaddafi yielded, and the war ended on July 26 - the day the Egyptians planned on invading.

While tension built up in the Middle East, President Jackson attempted to cool tensions in Kashmir. On his first international trip, Jackson attended an April summit in Srinagar with Chairwoman Jiang of China, Indian Prime Minister Morarji Desai, and Pakistani Prime Minister Ali Bhutto. President Jackson claimed to have made “substantive progress towards lasting peace,” but Chairwoman Jiang used the summit to hold backroom meetings with Prime Minister Bhutto. The outcome of these secret meetings would later prove Jackson’s statement false. Tensions only rose in the region, with China and India armed with nuclear weapons and Pakistan making strides towards functioning nuclear weapons themselves.

The final major foreign policy event of the year was on November 19th. What was intended as a gesture of goodwill turned into tragedy when Egyptian President Anwar Sadat travelled to Jerusalem to meet new Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin for the first time. While Sadat was there, an Israeli nationalist detonated a car bomb near Sadat’s motorcade, tossing the President’s vehicle onto its side and engulfing it in flames. Sadat was killed instantly, and newly-sworn-in President Hosni Mubarak promised revenge on Israel. Declaring war on November 23rd, Egypt started to invade their neighbor, and were initially successful. Egyptian planes bombed several Israeli Air Force bases, knocking roughly 40% of Israel’s airplanes out of commission for the time being. However, Israel’s superior ground forces, supplemented by “advisors” from the US military, pushed Egypt’s army out of Israel and back into Sinai. By this time, the rest of the Egyptian army (which had been stationed near the Libyan border) moved into the region, and trench warfare began on the Sinai peninsula. The United States gave men and supplies to Israel, while the Soviet Union supported Egypt in much the same way.

While the other Arab nations stayed out of the Egypt-Israeli War, the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) was outraged at US support for the Israelis. Hence, they declared an oil embargo against the United States on December 5th, which caused oil prices to skyrocket in an “oil shock.”

President Jackson wasn’t the only President making news in 1977. President Goldwater's Presidential library finally opened in Phoenix in March of 1977, which was followed in September by the breaking of ground on the Hubert H. Humphrey Presidential Library and Museum in Minneapolis. Seeing as it was unlikely that Humphrey would live to see the building completed (it was finished in 1979), a celebratory ceremony was held at the groundbreaking instead, where the former President greeted many of the friends he'd made in politics over the course of his quarter-century long career. President Humphrey died six weeks later, on October 29, 1977. An estimated two hundred thousand Americans came to pay their respects while Humphrey’s body laid in state in the Capitol Rotunda.

In addition to the passing of President Humphrey, another important US political death occurred in 1977: Senator John McClellan (D-AR) died on November 28. Governor Dale Bumpers appointed Congressman Bill Clinton (D-AR-03) to serve out the rest of his term, ending on January 3, 1979. Senator Clinton announced his intention to seek a term of his own in 1978 after an appropriate amount of time had past since McClellan’s passing.

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Don’t stop this is so good

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If problems started to arise for President Jackson in 1977, then 1978 was the year that they came to a head.

Though the Egypt-Israeli War ended in an Israeli victory in late January after the IDF regrouped and overwhelmed Egyptian forces, the Arab oil embargo against the US did not end when the war did. As a punishment to the US for supporting Israel, OAPEC voted to continue the embargo. This hurt the economies of both the OAPEC nations and the United States. Seeing as the US economy was already slowing, the oil embargo was a punch to the gut.

Despite the White House’s defiant rhetoric and President Jackson’s signature on an executive order to open up more land for oil drilling, the price of gasoline skyrocketed and supplies began to run low. Americans struggled to get to work as cars frequently ran out of gas due to fuel rationing. Anger grew as American wallets began to hurt. While the economies in the Middle East began to slump as well, most of the pain was felt by the middle, working, and lower classes, not the wealthy leaders of the global oil cartel who controlled the supply and price of that precious black liquid.

President Jackson, for his part, at least tried to do something to help the economy. In addition to the aforementioned executive order to increase oil drilling, Jackson’s administration started a campaign to attempt to get the public to conserve energy, lowered the speed limit on federal highways to 55 miles per hour, increased funding for nuclear power plants, increased the budget for Amtrak and other mass transit systems, and, with Congress’s approval, dumped several hundred million dollars into research and development of new alternative renewable energy sources. Jackson also promoted solar power by having photovoltaic solar panels installed on the roof of the White House. However, none of this stopped the economy, which was already slowing down, from declining sharply; after two consecutive quarters of negative economic growth, the US economy officially entered recession in July of 1978.

While most of President Jackson and Congress’s political willpower was focused on the energy crisis in 1978, there were a few other domestic accomplishments. The unoriginally-named Minimum Wage Act of 1978 increased the minimum wage for the first time since the Kennedy Administration, from $1.50 an hour to $3.00 an hour. The wage applies to all workers in all industries. While President Kennedy had created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 1965, it had been neutered in that year by the need to appease Southern Democrats to get the larger Civil Rights Act passed, and in subsequent years by President Goldwater; the Civil Rights Act of 1978 gave the EEOC more power to investigate and prosecute claims of workplace discrimination. President Jackson also vetoed a deregulation of the airline industry proposed by conservatives in Congress, on the grounds that it would lead to cheaper flights and potentially more oil consumption at a time when oil was scarce and needed elsewhere. These three actions strengthened Jackson’s already strong support from labor unions.

Another initiative that President Jackson wholeheartedly supported was the District of Columbia Voting Rights Amendment, which passed the House in March and the Senate in August. It read as follows:


Three states - New Jersey, Michigan, and Ohio - ratified the Amendment by the end of 1978. The legislatures of ten additional states were considering ratification.

President Jackson also okayed a new type of reusable space vehicle engineered by NASA known as the “space shuttle.” With the Soviets electing to go their own way with regard to space exploration (and with Secretary Suslov asking for the Soviet space program’s budget to more than double), Jackson viewed continued space exploration as an imperative in beating Communism. A new space race had begun.

Back on Earth, the stability of the world order was starting to deteriorate. For decades, the world was locked into a bipolar system, with the US on one side and the USSR on the other. The Sino-Soviet split and the rise of the non-aligned movement in the 1950’s and 60’s complicated that order, but the US still had a “capitalism vs. communism” mindset - a bipolar system - under President Jackson. It turns out, that worldview was ill-equipped to deal with the situations in Central America, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia.

Ever since the declaration of the Monroe Doctrine in 1823, the United States saw Central America as within its sphere of influence - and no one else’s. So when, as President Jackson saw it, the outside influence of Communism came knocking on Nicaragua’s door in the form of the Sandinistas, it caught the attention of the White House and the Pentagon. In early January, anti-government newspaper publisher Pedro Joaquín Chamorro Cardenal was assassinated, allegedly by the Somoza regime. Anti-government protests, at times violent, started all over the country. The protests in the capital turned to riots, and the Sandinistas stepped up their guerilla war against the Somoza regime. Meanwhile, President Jackson publicly denounced the government’s alleged murder to the American press, but gave aid to them behind the scenes.

In the Middle East, tensions flared after Iraqi President al-Bakr died in a hospital after being shot by a Syrian national months before. Newly-sworn-in President Saddam Hussein, who had been the de facto leader of Iraq for several years at this point, had quickly amassed a large army. Hussein declared to the angry Iraqi public that he had evidence that al-Bakr’s death was in fact an “inside job,” an assassination orchestrated by Syrian President Hafez al-Assad. Thus, Iraq invaded Syria in late February, and caught al-Assad off guard. As the Syrian militia was dealing with the Muslim Brotherhood’s Sunni insurgency at the time, they were caught off guard, and Saddam’s military invaded with a speed that shocked the world. By November, al-Assad surrendered, and in December Saddam announced the foundation of the Socialist Arab Republic, the name of the unified Iraq and Syria. The Jackson Administration was in a state of shock regarding the speed at which these events played out. The US began supporting its regional allies more, as the President railed against the “relentless creep of socialism throughout the world” in foreign policy speeches.

This “relentless creep” spread in Asia too. While the cold war between India, Pakistan, and China continued (and as Pakistan successfully tested a crude nuclear bomb due to a series of new breakthroughs), the famine in Southeast Asia finally pushed many people to support drastic measures. In September, the Cambodian government fell to Communist revolutionaries led by Pen Sovan, who promised that Cambodia’s food and wealth would be shared among all, including the peasants and farmers who were hit hardest by the famine. Cambodia joined Vietnam and Laos as Communist Indochinese countries, while protests continued in Thailand, Burma, and Malaysia. Communist movements also gained steam in India and Indonesia, which felt the effects of the famine but at a lesser scale.

Focusing back on American politics, 1978 was an eventful year. Senators Lee Metcalf (D-MT) and James Allen (D-AL) died and were replaced with Paul G. Hatfield and Albert Brewer, respectively. Meanwhile, Senator Strom Thurmond (R-SC) found himself in the middle of a massive political scandal early in the year. Senator Thurmond travelled to Los Angeles for “personal matters” in late 1977, and the staunch segregationist was secretly photographed interacting rather intimately in public with an African-American woman about twenty years his junior. When this news made its way back to his home state of South Carolina, rumours started instantly. Who was the woman? Was Thurmond having an affair? Reporters tracked down the woman and identified her as 52 year old Essie Mae Washington-Williams, a teacher in the LA school system. While both Washington-Williams and Thurmond remained mum on the issue at first, reporters discovered in 1978 that Essie was Storm’s illegitimate daughter. Washington-Williams acknowledged this fact, though Thurmond did not. However, the Senator decided to retire in 1978 to let “the next generation of leadership take hold in South Carolina.”

Besides these events, the big political news of 1978 was the midterm elections. By November of 1978, the oil embargo and unstable world events had tanked the economy, and inflation, oil prices, and unemployment soared. President Jackson’s approval rating was underwater and Republicans had a clear polling edge over the President’s party. Republicans, however, were split. On the one hand, veterans from John Lindsay’s 1976 campaign, lead by former campaign manager and chairman Roger Stone, founded the Moderate Republican Political Action Committee. Designed to exploit loopholes in campaign finance laws to support Republicans in the mold of Rockefeller and Lindsay, MRPAC backed candidates like Elizabeth Dole, Charles Evers (running as an independent in a three-way race), and Manuel Lujan Jr. in their Senate races, along with Sandra Day O’Connor, Houston Flournoy, and Elliot Richardson in their gubernatorial races.

Meanwhile, Senator Spiro Agnew (R-MD), believed to be preparing a 1980 Presidential run, travelled across the country to support candidates more aligned with the conservative worldview. Senate candidates John Buchanan Jr., Gordon Humphrey, and William Westmoreland got Agnew’s stamp of approval, and he also gave fiery stump speeches for gubernatorial candidates Philip Ruppe, Alexander Haig, and Ron Paul. By the time all was said and done, Senator Agnew was the most in-demand Republican speaker, eclipsing Senators George Bush and Paul Laxalt, Governor Chuck Grassley, and even the party’s most recent Presidential nominee, John Lindsay.

Another polarizing issue was California Proposition 6, or the Briggs Initiative. The Briggs Initiative would ban gay people from working in any public school in the state, mandating their firing if they should come out of the closet. While public opinion was initially mixed (it was associated with Anita Bryant, who was not the most popular figure after her outburst in 1977), a large number of politicians from both sides of the aisle voiced the opinion that Prop. 6 went too far. Prop. 6 opponents included Governor Unruh, Senators Brown, both of the major party nominees for the 1978 California gubernatorial election, Vice President Reagan, and Presidents Goldwater and Jackson. Activists in San Francisco and openly gay State Assemblyman Harvey Milk played major roles in shifting public opinion on Prop. 6 as well.

The Mississippi Senate race was thrown into turmoil when the Republican nominee, Rep. Jon Hinson (R-MS-04), was publicly outed as gay in the general election. This provided a boost to both Independent Republican Charles Evers and Democrat Maurice Dantin. However, Dantin was little-known and Hinson retained some support, so the race was seen as extremely unpredictable.

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Woah this is a mess. The Iraq-Syria situation would be VERY worrying for Israel, it'd probably start a military preperation to defend against Hussein.

Wouldn't control of the House be Likely D if the tipping point seat (i.e. #218) is in the likely D category? (187+39 would mean Dem control, while 187 wouldn't. See also: 126+12+7+27+37+39 is GOP control, 126+12+7+27+37 isn't)

I'm not a math person (like at all) but if the odds of Republicans winning a tossup is 50% and the odds of them winning a Lean D race is 45% (and a likely D is 40%), then the odds of them winning every single tossup is 1.85%, the odds of them winning every Lean D race is 1.22%, and the odds of them winning 9 likely D races (to get them to 218 seats) is 4.44%. The odds of doing all three of those combined is 0.001%. Thus, the odds of the Republicans flipping the house are pretty low, hence the rating of Safe Democratic.

Now, the likelihood of Democrats maintaining the House is not in fact 99.999%, because races are not truly random probability and are, arguably, connected in a way, but the odds of a Republican takeover are slim nonetheless.

Again, I'm bad at math, and I probably made a mistake. If so, correct me. And as always, thank you for reading and for the input. :)

MacKay in '78? I feel like Eckerd could win in a favorable midterm. He was one of the first Republicans people were comfortable voting for around here

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“Good evening, from CBS Evening News, I’m Walter Cronkite, and this is election night 1978. With a failing economy, long gas lines, and uncertainty growing around the world, tonight will serve as a kind of referendum on the first half of President Jackson’s term in office - and potentially a preview of what is to come in 1980. Polls have the Democrats down, but the accuracy of such polls remains to be seen.

“It is now 6 PM on the east coast, and polls have just closed in parts of Kentucky and Indiana. We have some clear results out of Kentucky, but we have a policy of not projecting a result until all polls have closed.”

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“Welcome back. Polls have just closed in the rest of Indiana and Kentucky, all of Georgia, South Carolina, Virginia, and Vermont, and parts of Florida. In the Senate, we can project that Senator Walter Huddleston of Kentucky has handily beat State Senator Guenthner, a hold for the Democrats. In Georgia, Senator Jimmy Carter has won in a landslide. The races in South Carolina and Virginia are too close to call."

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“As for the gubernatorial elections, polls are now closed in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and Vermont. Florida is too close to call. Governor Busbee has won a landslide reelection in Georgia. Both South Carolina and Vermont are too close to call at this hour.”

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“Welcome back to CBS News coverage of Election 1978. Polls have closed in North Carolina, Ohio, and West Virginia. Senator Nick Galifianakis of North Carolina has won reelection by roughly 10 points, by our estimates. In West Virginia, the race between Senator Jennings Randolph and former Governor Arch A. Moore is a nail-biter. The other races are too close to call as well.

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“As for the gubernatorial elections, Ohio is another example of a nail-biter on display tonight. Governor Rhodes is seeking a fourth term, but whether or not he will get one is far from certain, as this race is too close to call.”

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“Stay tuned to CBS News for more poll closings as we near the highly-consequential 8 PM hour…”

I thought it was the Sandinistas who were against the Somozas. The Contras fought the Sandinistas and were backed by the US

No, you’re right! It was a typo; sometimes, when I do a lot of research on something quickly before writing, I mix things up (I previously made a similar mistake wherein I confused the leaders of the Labour and Tory parties in the UK). Whoops. Good catch, it’s been fixed. :)

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“Welcome back to CBS News coverage of the 1978 midterms. I am Walter Cronkite, and as of just a couple of seconds ago, polls have closed in the states of Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, the Florida panhandle, Illinois, parts of Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Maryland, parts of Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, parts of South Dakota, Tennessee, and parts of Texas.

“First, the state of the House: Republicans are performing well, but it is much too early to tell how things will shake out in the lower chamber.

“In the upper chamber, we can make several projections based off the 8 o’clock poll closings. Despite running a poor campaign, Charles Percy has crushed insurgent Alex Seith in Illinois. In New Hampshire, Senator John King, a defense hawk and strong ally of President Henry Jackson, has won reelection. In New Jersey, unpopular Senator Clifford Case, who only narrowly beat back a primary challenger, has been toppled by U.S. Congressman Andrew Maguire, who leads by almost 20 points and will be the first flip of the night. Senator Ed Edmondson will win reelection in Oklahoma. Senator Claiborne Pell of Rhode Island has easily won reelection as well. Tennessee has decisively voted to send Howard Baker back to the Senate for another term. The other Senate races are currently too close or too early to call - wait, we can actually project that Governor William Westmoreland of South Carolina has won the Senate election in that state and will succeed retiring Senator Strom Thurmond. This seat was an important hold for the Republicans, and tonight it has been held.”

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“Now onto the races for governor. Bill Baxley has easily won another term in Alabama. State Senator Buddy MacKay has won the election in Florida, and will be the next Governor. Governor Donald Rumsfeld, a potential GOP Presidential hopeful, has ridden a landslide to a four year term as Illinois’s chief executive. Congressman Paul Sarbanes has flipped Maryland back to its traditionally Democratic roots by eight points. Meanwhile, Massachusetts is a mirror image of Maryland, as Elliot Richardson has beaten incumbent Governor Dukakis and has flipped Massachusetts back to the GOP by eight points. Edward Beard has won the election in Rhode Island. The other elections are either too close or too early to call at this time.”

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“Hello, I’m Walter Cronkite. Polls have just closed in Arkansas, where we can project that recently-appointed US Senator William Clinton will win a full six-year term of his own without issue. We can also project that Maine Congressman David Emery has flipped that state’s Senate election to the Republicans, defeating Democratic Senator William Hathaway. Senator-elect Emery’s win also negates Senator-elect Maguire’s flip of the New Jersey race to the Democrats. No other races can be called at this time.

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“As for the Arkansas gubernatorial election, Governor Bumpers has won another term handily. Governor Mitchell of Maine has won reelection as well.”

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On the list on the previous page you said John Sarbanes. I assume you meant Paul

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“Welcome back to CBS News midterm coverage. More results are available now that polls have closed in more states. In Colorado, Senator Floyd Haskell has lost to Republican Congressman James P. Johnson of the Fourth District. Louisiana Senator McKeithen has easily won reelection. Senator Frank Kelley of Michigan has romped to a ten point victory over his Republican opponent, while Senator Orville Freeman, a former Kennedy Cabinet member and friend to the late President Humphrey, has won reelection by an even larger margin in Minnesota. State Senator Clint Roberts has beaten former Peace Secretary George McGovern for the South Dakota Senate race. Stanley Hathaway has kept the Wyoming Senate seat in GOP hands. The other races in states where polls just closed are too close or too early to call.

“However, there are a few races we can call that were previously outstanding. Senator Joe Biden has won a narrower-than-expected victory in Delaware. Rep. John Kerry has beaten embattled Senator Edward Brooke in Massachusetts, a flip for the Democrats. And - this is big news - Congressman John H. Buchanan Jr. will be the next Senator from Alabama, a shocking flip for the GOP in what was previously a solidly Democratic state. And that’s not the only shocker: Congresswoman Ann Bedsole has won the special Senate election in Alabama, meaning that the GOP has flipped not just one but both of the Senate seats in this “solid south” state. This will certainly be seen as a victory for Spiro Agnew and his more conservative Republicans. This will also guarantee that the GOP will make at least one gain, and the Democrats’ filibuster-proof supermajority looks all but certainly dead tonight.

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“Moving on the gubernatorial elections. Al Quie will be the next Governor of Minnesota, having defeated Lt. Gov. Rudy Perpich. Former Congressman John McCollister has made a comeback to become the Governor of Nebraska, another GOP flip. Robert Kennedy has landslid himself to a third term in New York, which will help him immensely if he plans to run for President in 1984, as he is widely expected to. G. T. Blankenship will be the next Governor of Oklahoma. Lowell Hansen has won in South Dakota. Congressman Bob Kasten has won the Wisconsin gubernatorial election, making that state the sixth GOP flip of the night, against one flip for the Democrats.

“We are also in a position to call a few more previously outstanding elections. Congresswoman Ella Grasso has won in Connecticut, a much-needed hold for the Democratic party. Congressman James Cleveland has won in New Hampshire, the seventh GOP flip. Alexander Haig, a darling of the Agnewites in the GOP, will be the next Governor of Pennsylvania. Former Rep. Jack Edwards will hold the South Carolinian governorship for the Republicans as Governor Westmoreland heads to the Senate. It’s not all bad news for Democrats, however, as Governors Jake Butcher of Tennessee and Stella Hackel of Vermont have both won reelection tonight.”

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“It’s 10 PM on the East Coast, and that means more results in the races for the next American government. The new races are too early to call, too close, or both.

“We can project, however, that former Governor and presidential candidate A. Linwood Holton will win the Senate election in Virginia, unseating Senator William Spong. Additionally, shockingly, Charles Evers, a moderate Republican, has narrowly beaten two conservatives (one Democratic, one Republican) in the Mississippi Senate race, becoming the first black Senator from the state since Reconstruction. Roger Stone is surely rejoicing at this news. While Evers is an Independent, he has made it very clear he will caucus with the Republicans. And finally, Congresswoman Elizabeth Dole has won the Senate election in Kansas, making her and her husband Bob the first husband-wife pair of simultaneously-serving US Senators.”

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“Things look grim for Democrats in the gubernatorial elections. Governor Grassley has easily won reelection in Iowa. And David Towell will defeat his longtime rival John Bilbray and become the next Governor of Nevada.

“In Ohio, Governor Rhodes has defeated Dick Celeste, and in Michigan, Phil Ruppe has flipped the state government to the Republicans. Congresswoman Sandra Day O’Connor, who primaried legally and ethically challenged Governor Evan Mecham, has defeated Bruce Babbitt to become the next Governor of Barry Goldwater’s home state, Arizona. And finally, in Texas, fiscal conservative social liberal Ron Paul has won the governorship over businessman Dolph Briscoe, the GOP’s 11th flip of the night.”

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PAUL ‘80

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“As the clock strikes 11 on the East Coast, polls are closing on the West Coast. We can project that, following results out of a number of California congressional districts, the Democratic Party will maintain control of the House of Representatives. Democrats are taking a battering tonight, as Republicans are overperforming expert expectations, but it will not be enough to rob Philip Burton of the Speaker’s gavel. However, with dynamic new members like Reps.-elect Dick Cheney (R-WY-AL) and George W. Bush (R-TX-19, son of Senator George Bush), the next Congress will be more Republican than other recent Congress.

“Moving on to the Senate, we can project that the Oregon Senate race will be won by the incumbent Democrat, Senator Robert Duncan. In addition, we can make another major projection: Senator Paul G. Hatfield of Montana has been elected to a full term of his own, meaning that the Democratic Party will maintain control of the United States Senate until at least 1981 due to Vice President Peden’s tie breaking vote. We can also project that former Governor Arch A. Moore, Jr. has beaten Senator Jennings Randolph in West Virginia, and will become the first Republican to win a full term in the Senate from the Mountain State since W. Chapman Revercomb in 1942. In Texas, Congressman Charlie Wilson has narrowly defeated Congressman James Collins, and will hold the seat for the Democrats. Oh, and in New Mexico, Congressman Manuel Lujan Jr. has defeated Senator Jack Daniels for the ninth GOP flip tonight (seventh net gain). The remaining races are still outstanding.”

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“In California, Houston Flournoy, a liberal Republican, has won the gubernatorial election. Governor George Ariyoshi of Hawaii has won another term in office. State Rep. Butch Otter will be the next Governor of Idaho, yet another flip for the GOP. Former Congressman Ed Foreman will be the next Governor of New Mexico, a hold for the Republicans. Good news for the Democrats: President Humphrey’s Chief of Staff, Gary Hart, has managed to flip the Colorado governor’s mansion to the Democrats tonight. Governor Vanderhoof will be a one term Governor. Governor Robert Bennett of Kansas has won reelection. The election in Oregon is too early to call, while the election in Wyoming is too close to call.

“Another projection we can make out of California is that Proposition 6, also known as the Briggs Initiative, has been voted down overwhelmingly. ‘Yes’ looks to have barely broken 30% of the vote, a startling result for an initiative that started with public support and a major victory for gay rights activists.”

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“It’s a new day in eastern America, and this election is not over yet. We can project that Congresswoman Virginia Smith has defeated incumbent Democratic Senator Philip Sorensen in Nebraska, flipping yet another Senate seat to the GOP. This is the tenth flip for the Republicans tonight, against two for the Democrats. Some good news for the Democrats, however: Senator Dick Clark has narrowly won reelection in Iowa, a key hold for the President’s party. The Idaho election is too close to call.

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“Wyoming’s incumbent Democratic Governor Edgar Herscheler has very narrowly won reelection, defeating State Senator John Ostlund. With Herscheler’s win, the Democrats have denied the Republicans a fourteenth gain, though that may be temporary, as the gubernatorial election in Oregon is too close to call at this time.”

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“Welcome back to CBS News, this is Walter Cronkite with results out of the last state to close their polls: Alaska. Don Young will remain the representative from Alaska’s at-large congressional district. There are still races outstanding, but it appears Republicans will gain a minimum of 45 seats, and a maximum of 52 seats, which would leave them with a minimum of 192 seats and a maximum of 199. The GOP over-performed expectations tonight across the board, including in the House.

“In the Senate, we can call Alaska’s race for Senator Ted Stevens, who has won reelection in a landslide. We can also project the results of the Idaho Senate election; it appears that Congressman Orval Hansen has defeated incumbent Senator William Davis 50.3% - 49.5%. There are still votes left to be counted, but we at CBS believe that Hansen’s lead is too steady for Davis to overcome. This was the final outstanding race, and it means that the GOP has gained a net of nine Senate seats tonight.

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“Governor Jay Hammond has crushed his Democratic and independent opponents and will remain Alaska’s governor. As for Oregon, it looks as though Governor Robert Straub has narrowly won a second term in office. This leaves the GOP with eleven more governors than they had before; the Republicans will control a majority of states once their new governors-elect are sworn in.”

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“Thank you for tuning into CBS News. Good night.”

How will the new house look like

Oof

John Sarbanes pulling an Ethan Sonneborn is based.

Well this has mostly been fun but also I'm going to college and need to focus 100% of my time on that, and I'm burnt out. Here's this.

Ah well, thanks for the fun ride and best of luck in college! One question though, back in one of the first posts, you said something like that the main theme of the story would become apparent around the time President X did Y or Z. What point would that have been?

I hope you continue this at some point in the far future, but for now it's been a great read and a good time.

...sniff...first Camelot Anew...and now this....