Post Random Maps Here 2.0.

[WestVegeta]

Kirsten Gillibrand/Martin Heinrich 297 EVs and ~51% popular vote

Donald Trump/Mike Pence 188 EVs and ~48% popular vote

53 toss-up EVs

I would nut over that ticket

[WestVegeta]

Here's my iCivics run.

The winner was Senator Nathan W. Blair (me), a Moderate Democrat from West Virginia whose populist-ish positions on retirement security, fiscal responsibility (with regard to large corporations), healthcare access (by way of a public option system, billed as "BlairCare"), and government transparency shot him to victory by taking the Rust Belt. Sizable turnouts in minority communities in Florida and (especially the Hispanic population) in Texas led to shocking gains there, as well.

Meanwhile, the Republican candidate ran on a fiscally-conservative but socially-moderate platform a la Mitt Romney, which, while praised for sticking to his guns, led to the dwindling population of conservative boomers to vote for the Democrat, who begrudgingly supported the legal right to abortion but advocated for "giving you every reason not to that the government can."

The selection of Sarah Patel, a former senator and Iraq vet-turned-UN Ambassador, as Blair's VP was credited with shoring support in minorities and a decent fraction of veterans.

Sen. Nathan Blair/Amb. Sarah Patel (D-WV/MO): 340 EVs

Gov. Steven Fisher/Sen. Maria Ramirez (R-VT/NV): 198 EVs

[WestVegeta]

Also, considering this is more or less how I'd expect my run for President against a moderate Republican to go before I played the game, I'm going to blame my shocking loss in CA for my (irl) criticism of Los Angeles for having oil rigs in McDonald's parking lots, yet having the nerve to rag on the Rust Belt for fracking (which I support)

[WestVegeta]

In real life, it's because I forgot to toggle the vote margins in KY, and in the game, I polled WV two weeks before the election (and it was trending R pretty hard before my media blitz), whereas with Kentucky, I was in the same situation but I polled it about five weeks before the election.

In the TL, I'm going to say that it was because I'd pissed off the (albeit a little smaller than now) coal miner demographic due to my co-sponsorship of a revenue-neutral carbon tax bill. However, this would take place in the 2020's or 2030's, so natural gas is (mostly, they'd learned from their mistakes and decided to use their gas revenue to diversify) what's driving KY, WV, TN, and rural PA and OH by that point, and the "revenue-neutral" part was being used to subsidize other aspects of those states economies, so they saw the (positive) results.

[WestVegeta]

Here's my iCivics run.

The winner was Senator Nathan W. Blair (me), a Moderate Democrat from West Virginia whose populist-ish positions on retirement security, fiscal responsibility (with regard to large corporations), healthcare access (by way of a public option system, billed as "BlairCare"), and government transparency shot him to victory by taking the Rust Belt. Sizable turnouts in minority communities in Florida and (especially the Hispanic population) in Texas led to shocking gains there, as well.

Meanwhile, the Republican candidate ran on a fiscally-conservative but socially-moderate platform a la Mitt Romney, which, while praised for sticking to his guns, led to the dwindling population of conservative boomers to vote for the Democrat, who begrudgingly supported the legal right to abortion but advocated for "giving you every reason not to that the government can."

The selection of Sarah Patel, a former senator and Iraq vet-turned-UN Ambassador, as Blair's VP was credited with shoring support in minorities and a decent fraction of veterans.

Sen. Nathan Blair/Amb. Sarah Patel (D-WV/MO): 340 EVs

Gov. Steven Fisher/Sen. Maria Ramirez (R-VT/NV): 198 EVs

I can see that game is not very fond of creating electorally sane maps.

No, no it is not. CA started out polling 60/40 Republican.

[WestVegeta]

Here's my iCivics run.

The winner was Senator Nathan W. Blair (me), a Moderate Democrat from West Virginia whose populist-ish positions on retirement security, fiscal responsibility (with regard to large corporations), healthcare access (by way of a public option system, billed as "BlairCare"), and government transparency shot him to victory by taking the Rust Belt. Sizable turnouts in minority communities in Florida and (especially the Hispanic population) in Texas led to shocking gains there, as well.

Meanwhile, the Republican candidate ran on a fiscally-conservative but socially-moderate platform a la Mitt Romney, which, while praised for sticking to his guns, led to the dwindling population of conservative boomers to vote for the Democrat, who begrudgingly supported the legal right to abortion but advocated for "giving you every reason not to that the government can."

The selection of Sarah Patel, a former senator and Iraq vet-turned-UN Ambassador, as Blair's VP was credited with shoring support in minorities and a decent fraction of veterans.

Sen. Nathan Blair/Amb. Sarah Patel (D-WV/MO): 340 EVs

Gov. Steven Fisher/Sen. Maria Ramirez (R-VT/NV): 198 EVs

I can see that game is not very fond of creating electorally sane maps.

No, no it is not. CA started out polling 60/40 Republican.

Vermont is a glaring example as well. No "Moderate Republican" versus "populist democrat" scenario would result in Vermont going Republican.

The game set my opponent as a Republican for Vermont, I tried to makes as much sense out of it story-wise as I could.

[WestVegeta]

Nov. 3, 2020

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand/Gov. John Bel Edwards (D-NY/MO)- 343 EVs

President Donald J. Trump/Vice President Mike Pence (R-NY/IN)- 195 EVs

[WestVegeta]

Nov. 3, 2020

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand/Gov. John Bel Edwards (D-NY/MO)- 343 EVs

President Donald J. Trump/Vice President Mike Pence (R-NY/IN)- 195 EVs

North Carolina?!

sh**t, I forgot to change the color over. My bad, NC should have gone red.

[WestVegeta]

Sen. Amy Klobuchar/Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-MN/OR)-341 EVs

President Donald Trump/Vice President Mike Pence (R-NY/IN)-197 EVs

[WestVegeta]

Election Night 2028

Sen. Kamala Harris/Sen. Richard Ojeda (D-CA/WV)

Gov. Trey Hollingsworth/Sen. Mia Love (R-IN/UT)

[WestVegeta]

Hopping on the randomizer train

Gov. Daniella Cortez (R-CA)/Sen. Mitch Ryker (R-MN) - 331 EVs

Sen. Corey Daniels (D-GA)/Sen. Riley Mitchell (D-MI) - 207 EVs

[WestVegeta]

Is this just 2016 but reversed?

[WestVegeta]

An Alternate 2016

Gov. Brian Sandoval (R-NV)/Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN): 272 EVs

Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT)/Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ): 266 Evs

2016 saw the most competitive primary season in recent memory as officials on both sides made their case to be President Obama's successor. On the Republican side, the field started out at a whopping 16 candidates. However, it was not long until the contest thinned down to Donald Trump, Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz, Chris Christie, John Kasich, and Brian Sandoval. After the first few debates, Kasich and Bush dropped out, having lost the "sensible, moderate governor" niche to the much more youthful and charismatic Sandoval. Another point in the Nevadan governor's favor was the "Robot Rubio" debate gaffe, in which Marco Rubio sputtered and repeated the same phrase over and over. After Rubio's poor performance days before the New Hampshire primary, it became clear that his spot as the "young, charismatic Latino", already contested by Sandoval, had slipped away. The senator from Florida followed Bush and Kasich in dropping out, though unlike the other two, he declined to endorse Sandoval, privately considering him to be too moderate.

Trump's bombastic personality surprisingly made him the frontrunner early on, but after a disappointing second place showing behind Sandoval in New Hampshire (and being a close third to Cruz), The Donald dropped out, citing that his heart "just wasn't in it anymore". The sore loser threw his weight behind Christie, who agreed to take up his mantle as the "telling it like it is" candidate.

Meanwhile, the Democratic primary was getting increasingly heated. What was once thought as former Sec. of State Hillary Clinton's race to lose was complicated by the late entrance of Vice President Biden. While Clinton and Biden traded jabs and were at each others' throats, pulling from the same pool of voters, the progressive faction found its champion in Bernie Sanders. He wasn't gaffe-prone and ineffectual in office like Biden, and he didn't have the baggage of Hillary. His "democratic socialist" agenda appealed to disenfranchised Rust Belt ancestral democrats and college-age millenials alike, and he began to eke out a lead as neither Clinton nor Biden would drop out.


As the Republican primaries continued, it became a battle between four different self-proclaimed "Washington outsiders": Paul, Cruz, Christie, and Sandoval. Out of those four, Christie became the first to bow out, as despite he and Sandoval having similar backgrounds, the Nevadan was more popular based on charisma alone. Thus, the Republican primary became a battle between the libertarian, (tea party) conservative, and moderate wings of the party. The three battled over every delegate they could get their hands on. As it became more clear that Sanders would be the Democratic nominee, Rubio knew deep down that a moderate would stand the best chance of wresting the presidency from the democrats, as Bernie's progressivism/populism hybrid picked up steam. He decided to endorse Governor Sandoval, and a series of conservative endorsements followed for the Nevadan. A string of solid victories in April, May, and June propelled Sandoval, a man perviously labelled by party insiders as to moderate to amount to anything nationally, to the nomination.

As the convention drew near, polls showed that Sandoval's fiscal conservatism and social centrism appealed to Americans across the board, but he was neck and neck with the Senator from Vermont.

To gain conservative support, Sandoval announced that Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee would serve as his running mate. Corker brought legislative and foreign policy experience to the ticket, a choice which was lauded. Sanders made a similar move to gain the affection of establishment Democrats by choosing Cory Booker of New Jersey, an obvious contrast to the old, white Sanders.

The race was nearly a dead heat for almost all of the time leading up to the general election. In the debates, Sandoval's charisma and level-headedness was a perfect foil to the fiery passion of Sanders.

On November 8th, the closest election since 2000 took place. Sanders unexpectedly increased white working class turnout for the Democrats, netting him Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. However, Sandoval increased Latino and Asian turnout for the Republicans, a feat attributed to his centrism, Mexican heritage, and his pro-free trade (ardent support of NAFTA, but he did emphasize that he planned on renegotiating the TPP) and (relatively) immigrant-friendly policy proposals. As a result, the race in states such as California and Massachusetts were surprisingly close, though they did go to Sanders.

Nevada turned out to be the state to win, though through increased Latino turnout and the favorite son effect, Governor Sandoval won the state, and thus the presidency.

On January 20th, 2017, Brian Sandoval was sworn in as the forty-fifth President of the United States, and the first Hispanic individual to hold that office. In his inaugural address, the newly-minted President laid out a centrist-leaning agenda, promising to stand firm against entitlement cuts, while ushering in a new era of prosperity via pro-growth policies and a more streamlined immigration process (which riled up the paleocon portion of his party). Sandoval ushered in a new, more moderate and internationalist era of the GOP, and saw a broadening of the GOP base to include Hispanics and Asians, whom he (and the GOP) would win in later elections.

Should I make this into a fully-fledged TL?

[WestVegeta]

This is based on a meme, but slightly edited.

Is this loss?

[WestVegeta]

Dirtbag Center: The Shameless, Self-Insert Election of Nathan Blair, Lord of the Technocrats

November 3rd, 2048. A Tuesday.

Gov. Nathan Blair (D-WV)/Sen. Priya Gujarati (D-MA): 348 EVs

Sen. Ron Perez (R-MI)/Sen. Katherine Dougherty (R-ID): 190 EVs

[WestVegeta]

November 3, 2020

Pres. Donald Trump (R-NY)/Vice Pres. Mike Pence (R-IN): 270 EVs

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA)/Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH): 268 EVs

November 5, 2024

Sen. Cheri Bustos (D-IL)/Sen. Joaquin Castro (D-TX): 367 EVs

Sec. Nikki Haley (R-SC)/Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO): 171 EVs

November 4, 2028

Pres. Cheri Bustos (D-IL)/Vice Pres. Joaquin Castro (D-TX): 412 EVs

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY)/Gov. Fred Thomas (R-MN): 126

[WestVegeta]

The result of a future realignment. Democrats are technocratic proponents of a mixed economy system, but reject socialism or redistribution. Republicans resemble paeloconservatives. Signs of the old order exist: Democrats are statistically likely to be a few shades darker than Republicans, DC is still safe D and the upper southern states are still more Republican.

Cities that were once strongly R, now strongly D: St. Georges UT, Yuma-Bullhead City-Flagstaff AZ, Carson City, Pueblo and Colorado Springs CO, Ft. Meyers FL. Boise isn't ultra safe D but does swing that way.

Cities that were once strongly D, now strongly R: Seattle WA and all suburbs and neighbors thereof, Portland-Astoria OR, anywhere in Alaska that was ever D, Great Lakes metros that were trending R as early as the 2010s. Hamilton County OH now regularly votes left of Cuyahoga. The Twin Cities metro in MN is reasonably competitive.  Madison WI isn't exactly conservative, but it's a city that's seen better days.

What about NOVA?

Around what year do you think this takes place?

[WestVegeta]

Nov. 3rd, 2048

Sen. Nathan Blair (Federalist-IN)/Gov. Elise Stefanik (Federalist-NY): 295 EVs

Pres. Emma Gonzalez (Democratic-FL)/Vice Pres. Anthony Bustos (Democratic-IL): 243 EVs

[WestVegeta]

2020 Democratic Primary: Dark Horse Edition

Rep. Cheri Bustos (D-IL)

Gov. Tom Wolf (D-PA)

[WestVegeta]

2006

Rep. Matthew Santos (D-TX)/Chief of Staff Leo McGarry (D-MA): 271 EVs

Sen. Arnold Vinick (R-CA)/Gov. Ray Sullivan (R-WV): 267 EVs

2010

Fmr. Gov. Ray Sullivan (R-WV): 300 EVs

Pres. Matthew Santos (D-TX): 238 EVs

2014

Sen. Samuel Seaborn (D-CA): 305 EVs

Pres. Ray Sullivan (R-WV): 233 EVs

[WestVegeta]

2016

Vice President Joe Biden (D-DE)/Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY): 274 EVs

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL)/Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ): 264 EVs

2020

Gov. Charlie Baker (R-MA)/Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC): 315 EVs

President Joe Biden (D-DE)/Vice President Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY): 223 EVs

2024

President Charlie Baker (R-MA)/Vice President Tim Scott (R-SC): 336 EVs

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH)/Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA): 202 EVs

2028

House Majority Leader Tim Ryan (D-OH)/Gov. Julian Castro (D-TX): 273 EVs

Vice Pres. Tim Scott (R-SC)/Sen. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL): 265 EVs

[WestVegeta]

2020: By the Skin of his Teeth

President Donald Trump (R-IN)/Vice President Mike Pence (R-IN): 279 EVs

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY)/Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN): 259 EVs

2024: A Time for Recovery

Governor John Bel Edwards (D-LA)/Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA): 354 EVs

Sec. of State Nikki Haley (R-SC)/Gov. Kris Kobach (R-KS): 184 EVs

2028: A Coalition under Construction

President John Bel Edwards (D-LA)/Vice Pres. Kamala Harris (D-CA): 350 EVs

Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE)/Gov. Patrick McHenry (R-NC): 188 EVs

2032: Settling In

Vice President Kamala Harris (D-CA)/Sen. Pete Buttigieg (D-IN): 305 EVs

Sen. Carlos Curbelo (R-FL)/Gov. Justin Amash (R-MI): 233 EVs

2032: Republican Rehabilitation

Gov. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL)/Gov. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-WA): 277 EVs

President Kamala Harris (D-CA)/Vice President Pete Buttigieg (D-IN): 261 EVs

[WestVegeta]

Probably Phil Bredesen vs. Bill Haslam vs. the head of the Tennessee Greens, knowing you

[WestVegeta]

Probably Phil Bredesen vs. Bill Haslam vs. the head of the Tennessee Greens, knowing you

Actually, wrong!

As a serious guess, Brian Sandoval vs. Hillary Clinton vs. Elizabeth Warren (assuming Green is a progressive third party, not a tossup)

[WestVegeta]

Probably Phil Bredesen vs. Bill Haslam vs. the head of the Tennessee Greens, knowing you

Actually, wrong!

As a serious guess, Brian Sandoval vs. Hillary Clinton vs. Elizabeth Warren

Yes.

BTW, I didn't even know Tennessee had a Green Party

You've got solid taste, I had an abandoned TL idea where Brian Sandoval, easily one of my favorite politicians, ran in 2016. And I didn't know that TN had Greens either, I was just joshing you based on your fetish for Tennessean politicians.