Collaborative Presidential Elections - New

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1984

CIA Director George Bush (R-TX)/ Governor Lamar Alexander (R-TN)- 293 Electoral Votes 50.67%
Senator "Ted" Kennedy (D-MA)/ Governor Jerry Brown (D-CA)- 47.94%
Others-1.39%
 
President Carter's second term was about the same as his first. The economy was still rocky in the following 4 years. The Republican Primary Ultimately consisted of George Bush on an "I told you so" mission against those who voted against him 4 years earlier in the Republican Primary. His main opponents were Harold Stassen, Bob Dole, and Phil Crane. None managed to gain much traction and Bush won all but 2 states. On the Democrats side Ted Kennedy, Jerry Brown, and Walter Mondale fought for votes. But ultimately, Kennedy won narrowly thanks to votes from the Northeast.

As the General Election approached George Bush chose Governor Lamar Alexander of Tennessee as his Vice Presidential Nominee while Ted Kennedy chose Jerry Brown. A realignment appeared likely by September as Kennedy/Brown lacked enough popularity to hold the competitive swing states in the south. At the debates Bush continually hammered the 2 Democrats on the economy while they returned shots reminding America of Watergate and the continual troubles which plagued the nation in Nixon's and Ford's time. Polling showed a close race up until Election Day. Kennedy had slightly been over polled and Bush won America's mind over and brought back the GOP to the White House. The closest state, as in the last election was Pennsylvania. Only this time there was 17,000 votes between candidates.

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Why would Bush pick Harold Stassen in 1984? The man has not held office since 1943!

Fixing it. Didn't research enough on Stassen to realize he'd been gone from office so long.

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I'll claim next.

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1840
The early portion of President White's term was somewhat uneventful. Him and the Democrats controlled Washington and yet had to continually deal with the somewhat hard minded and bitter Nationalists. Legislation was passed but the margins were never extremely in favor of the Democrats and the American people began to gain a distaste for Washington politics. The Democrats were thrown out as a results in the midterm of 1838 and gridlock worse than previously ensued. Former President John Quincy Adams had been reelected to the Senate and began to somewhat improve the Nationalist's standing on Capital Hill. The White House on the other hand began to take a somewhat standoffish view of Congress and the President signed little Legislation that was passed.

The American people began to become somewhat more polarized as the Presidential election began to near with some blaming "Veto-Hughie"  for the lack of an effective national government while others turned towards the "Rascal Congress". Turnout was exected to b extremely high and both sides began preparing.

The Nationalists were initially torn between former Vice President Henry Clay and Senator Daniel Webster. However, they looked largely upon their previous failure under Harrison and saw a lack of support for the mid-section of America so Clay was handily given the nomination. He chose Webster, igniting protests from the few Southern members of the party.

The Democrats very enthusiastically renominated President White and Vice President Van Buren. They were so confident in a presidential win much of their resources was put in local races such as the House and Governorships. However, tragically, President White passed away suddenly and the newly sworn in Martin Van Buren was placed on top of the ticket. He lacked the enthusiasm that White garnered and attempted to counter it by placing another former Vice President John C. Calhoun on his ticket. Calhoun was somewhat reluctant but agreed to do so but announced he would only serve 1 more term as Vice President.

The Nation voted in Clay/Webster with clear regional divergences emerging. Over a single state's border results were drastically different. Even Van Buren's home state of New York joined New England in voting for Clay-Webster, although it was somewhat narrow. The Democrats were now out of office after 1 term for the 2nd time since their party's inception.

Former VP Henry Clay/ Sen. Daniel Webster 196 EVs (53.45%)
President Martin Van Buren/ Former VP John C. Calhoun 98 EV's (46.52%)
Others 0 EVs (0.03%)

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1848

Whereas Clay's 1st term largely contained few diplomatic actions, his second contained many. He negotiated the Oregon border with Britain and both sides agreed, somewhat reluctantly, to extend the pre-existing border between the 2 nations all the way to the Pacific. Many northerners felt betrayed by the "Claitor" who had annexed all of Texas and half of Oregon. In order to prevent the South from seceding however, Clay believed it was both necessary and fair.

War with Mexico soon followed after several border incidents and America pummeled the larger nation and took much of the land to the Southwest. The Nationalists did as the Democratic-Republicans had done with the war of 1812 and turned it into a national movement. The Democratic Party, already weak from several presidential losses began to tumble and made huge losses in the midterms, the United party however, made many gains.

Vice President Webster quickly ruled out running and wished to return to the Senate. This left the nomination wide open and in the ensuing power grab 2 names stood above all others: Winfield Scott and Zachary Taylor. Both men were fresh War heroes with extremely high popularity and so the nomination was close. However, at the Convention Scott narrowly beat out Taylor who put on a brave face and reconciled with his military counterpart. For his Vice Presidential Nominee Scott decided to go with what appeared to be balanced and chose the new, moderate member of the party Lewis Cass as his Vice Presidential Nominee.

The Barn-burners, led by the retired Martin Van Buren, refused to end their stint as a party and made it clear the Northern and Southern factions of the Democratic Party would not be unified for quite some time. At their convention they announced a moderate approach to slavery and moved to the center on many issues in order to win over border states. They christened themselves the United Party to show that they wanted to keep the Union together at almost any cost with a moderate approach to slavery. They nominated a quasi-Van Buren William L. Marcy who chose the moderate John Tyler as his Vice Presidential Nominee.

Whereas the Barn-burners moved closer to the center the Democrats moved further to the right. They were quickly becoming a regional party and so they embraced a much more pro-slavery, southern, approach to their platform. To embody their new found sense of Conservatism the Democrats nominated the state's rights champion John C. Calhoun who dutifully chose Senator John McKinley as his Vice Presidential Nominee.

The campaign was brutal and the border states were heavily contested. General Scott narrowly triumphed in the Electoral College but dominated the Popular Vote due to extremely high total in the Northeast. The National was to continue its rule under "Scott and that goddamn Democrat in sheep's clothing". Many Nationalists still were suspicious of Cass' true political leanings.

Winfield Scott [NA-NY]/ Lewis Cass [NA-MI] 151 EVs (53.33%)
William L. Marcy [UN-NY]/ John Tyler [UN-VA] 65 EVs (24.23%)
John C. Calhoun [DE-SC]/ John McKinley [DE-AL] 74 EVs (20.44%)
Mr. William Garrison [LI-NY]/ Mr. James Birney [LI-MI] (2.01%)