Gov. Oldiesfreak1854 (R-MI)/Sen. John Thune (R-SD): 275 EVs (48% PV)Sen. L.D. Smith (D-CA)/Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA): 263 EVs (47% PV)Rep. Weatherboy1102 (I-SC)/Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT): 0 EVs (4% PV)After hotly contested nomination fights for both parties, the general election match is set up between two candidates whom many voters see as virtually identical aside from the R or D next to their names. On the Republican side, Governor Oldiesfreak1854 wins the GOP nomination after dispatching a series of more conservative challengers, including Senators Ted Cruz of Texas and Rand Paul of Kentucky. The Democrats give their nod to California Senator L.D. Smith, making him only the second Mormon after Mitt Romney to win a major party's presidential nomination. Weatherboy1102, a progressive white Democratic Congressman from a majority black district in South Carolina, runs for the Democratic nomination, but due to low polling and a lack of fundraising, withdraws before any contests to run as an independent. He receives the support of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, whom Weatherboy chooses as his running mate. Many progressives are disappointed, however, when Elizabeth Warren accepts an offer to be Smith's running mate, in which she urges the Democrats to unite for the general election.
Oldiesfreak and Smith are both moderates on social issues, prompting many party line votes and leaving swing voters confused over which one to support. However, this allows economic and foreign policy issues to take center stage more than usual. During the campaign, Oldiesfreak touts his high popularity and record of success and bipartisanship as governor, but stuns and chagrins many in the Republican base with calls for paid family leave and a new push to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. Smith and Weatherboy, fearing a loss of progressive voters, moderates, and suburban women, also endorse these measures, prompting Oldiesfreak to attack their efforts as "too little, too late" while highlighting his longtime support of these policies. The governor also proposes a large across the board tax cut, which Smith and Weatherboy both attack as "just a big giveaway to millionaires and billionaires." With Oldiesfreak and Smith largely matching each other in the debates and voters seeing little difference between them, the final result proves to be one of the closest presidential elections in history. Oldiesfreak wins a narrow 275-263 Electoral College majority with narrow victories in Ohio, Florida, and North Carolina; he also wins a razor-thin victory in the national popular vote, propelled by his inroads with moderate suburban voters in the Democrats' "top three" presidential states of California, Illinois, and New York. Smith's Mormonism helps him to carry the close western states, particularly Nevada and Colorado. Though he wins no electoral votes, Weatherman pulls in a large percentage of the vote in progressive strongholds such as Vermont, Minnesota, and Hawaii, prompting Democrats to accuse him of acting as a spoiler.
