The Campaign Trail: Post Your Maps!

[Former President tack50]

Managed to win as Gerald Ford in 1976 in normal while losing the popular vote by 22 000 votes:

Gerald Ford / Howard Baker: 304 EVs (48.98%)
Jimmy Carter / Walter Mondale: 234 EVs (49.01%)

https://www.americanhistoryusa.com/campaign-trail/game/782867

Basically played as a moderate in almost everything and didn't attack Carter much.

[Politician]

Ran as a libertarian Romney.

https://www.americanhistoryusa.com/campaign-trail/game/794472

[DabbingSanta]

Ran as a conservative Truman and lost big. Managed to get Thurmond to drop out.

Results:

Dewey  368 electoral votes   24,721,708   49.93%
Truman   163 electoral votes   21,004,251   42.42%
Wallace   0 electoral votes   3,783,533   7.64%

[Mr. Smith]

Ran as a liberal Dewey just for shiggles. Even Strom Thurmond did better.  It was beautiful.

Truman/Barkley: 459 ev, 52% pv
Thurmond/Wright: 38, 2.4% pv
Dewey/Stassen: 34 ev, 42% pv
Wallace/Taylor: 0, 2.8% pv

[Politician]

Deadlocked the college and came in 3rd as Douglas on Normal, did better then 98.5%:

https://www.americanhistoryusa.com/campaign-trail/game/806925

[Politician]

Crushed Bush as Dukakis/Gore on Normal:

https://americanhistoryusa.com/campaign-trail/game/808898

[Peanut]

Won a thin victory in normal as liberal!Kennedy in a Kennedy/Humphrey ticket. Tipping point (for an EC deadlock, not a Nixon win) was Missouri, decided by less than 1%

278-202-57

https://americanhistoryusa.com/campaign-trail/game/809023

[nerd73]

Went "Socially Liberal and Fiscally Conservative" as Al Gore. Actually worked out surprisingly well (in the electoral college, at least)

Al Gore/Evan Bayh: 315 EV, 47.9% PV
George W. Bush/Dick Cheney: 223 EV, 48.5% PV
Ralph Nader/Winona LaDuke: 0 EV, 3.3% PV


https://www.americanhistoryusa.com/campaign-trail/game/798563

[Peanut]

https://www.americanhistoryusa.com/campaign-trail/game/809702

Dewey defeats Truman! Upset Dewey on Impossible. Went full liberal, campaigned extensively in New York and Illinois. Closest, and tipping-point, was New York where I eked out a 0.53% victory. Polls up to the very last stretch showed Dewey leading in New York and Illinois. I briefly had a lead in both, but I lost it in the last poll, where Dewey was leading by 1 in NY and by 0 in IL.

[Peanut]

https://www.americanhistoryusa.com/campaign-trail/game/809722

Liberal Nixon/Rockefeller victory on Hard.

[DabbingSanta]

Ran as a very liberal Kennedy with Humphrey as his running mate and somehow pulled it off.

Results:

Kennedy   282 electoral votes   31,583,544   47.00%
Nixon  206 electoral votes      31,653,661   47.10%
Byrd   49 electoral votes   3,961,296  5.89%

Closest states:
Arkansas (Nixon and Byrd)
Missouri
Montana
Oregon
Wisconsin

[Orthogonian Society Treasurer]

Nixon/Reagan on impossible; ran as a hawkish, anti-abortion free-enterpriser who supported desegregation but opposes busing etc. Won the debate and successfully sabotaged the peace talks.

[Peanut]

Normally, when I have Ford beat Carter, it's winning the West plus IL, OH, PA, and WI. Today, I focused on NY instead, and the map is... weird. Certainly an interesting one.

Ford/Baker: 276
Carter/Mondale: 262

http://Https://www.americanhistoryusa.com/campaign-trail/game/812875

[Orthogonian Society Treasurer]

Won as Truman by the skin of my teeth on impossible.

Truman/Barkley - 266 EV, 48.2%
Dewey/Warren - 227 EV, 46.2%

[Bleach Blonde Bad Built Butch Bodies for Biden]

2000 - Won as Gore/Graham on Easy by emphasizing Clinton's legacy and promising universal healthcare. My last campaign stop was in Florida.

Gore/Graham - 324 EV, 50.0%
Bush/Cheney - 214 EV, 47.6%

Closest states were Nevada (5,206 votes) and Ohio (28,023 votes).

[Peanut]

In a huge upset, Bryan defeats McKinley by a rather big margin! Markets unstable! Laborers ecstatic!

https://www.americanhistoryusa.com/campaign-trail/game/816869

Congressman William Jennings Bryan/Governor Horace Boies: 318 EV, 53.3%

Governor William McKinley/Senator Garrett Hobart: 129 EV, 45.8%

[ON Progressive]

Gore/Graham 2000 on Normal

Al Gore/Bob Graham - 320 EV, 49.13%
George W. Bush/Dick Cheney - 218 EV, 47.95%
Ralph Nader/Winona LaDuke - 0 EV, 2.62%

https://www.americanhistoryusa.com/campaign-trail/game/817199

[Kingpoleon]

https://www.americanhistoryusa.com/campaign-trail/game/818209

Better than 98.1%. Not bad...

[ON Progressive]

Did an 1896 campaign as Bryan/Matthews on normal difficulty.

For campaign strategy, I pressed the wrong button because mobile and only hit SF on the West Coast, but swept those states anyway. I did a speech in NYC, and went all-in on the Midwest, especially since I picked the Governor of Indiana as my running mate. This paid off quite well in the end.

Policy wise, I focused on silver coinage hard. I went moderate hero on tarriffs, pro-government ownership of railroads, pro annexation of Hawaii, and supported a split the Indian Territory into white and Native states.

Closest states were MN (McKinley by 436), MI (McKinley by 1374), and WV (Bryan by 1971). I did better than 88.1% of campaigns with Bryan on normal difficulty.

Ex-Rep. William J. Bryan (NE)/Gov. Claude Matthews (IN) - 295 EV, 52.2%
Ex-Gov. William McKinley (OH)/Garrett Hobart (NJ) - 152 EV, 46.9%

https://www.americanhistoryusa.com/campaign-trail/game/819390

[GM Team Member and Deputy PPT WB]

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Republican operatives, upon hearing of the "Southern Revolt" from the Democrats due to Bryan's comments, declared to McKinley that "The election has already been decided. Bryan has lost much of the south's support, and is likely to scramble and save himself there rather than focus on the midwestern strongholds."

As it turns out, they were wrong:

William Jennings Bryan/Horace Boies: 260 EV, 47.9%
William McKinley/???: 187 EV, 46.9%
John Palmer/???: 0 EV, 5.1%

[President of the great nation of 🏳️‍⚧️]

God damn it, North Carolina.

[YPestis25]

1988: Massachusetts Miracle

Michael Dukakis/Al Gore 277 EV 45,066,889 49.09%
George Bush/Dan Quayle 261 EV 45,639,667 49.72%
Lenora Fulani/Various 0 EV 673,861 0.73%
Ron Paul/Andre Marrou 0 EV 419,139 0.46%

Played as Dukakis/Gore on impossible. Ran to the middle on just about every issue, and tried to hammer Bush. Only won Michigan by 18,000 votes, Colorado by 20,000 votes, and Montana by 4,000 votes. Interestingly, Louisiana was the closest state, and it went to Bush by a grand total of 74 votes! Also of note is that no state gave either candidate more than 60%, though D.C did give Dukakis 76% of its votes.

https://www.americanhistoryusa.com/campaign-trail/game/823765

[Former President tack50]

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Republican operatives, upon hearing of the "Southern Revolt" from the Democrats due to Bryan's comments, declared to McKinley that "The election has already been decided. Bryan has lost much of the south's support, and is likely to scramble and save himself there rather than focus on the midwestern strongholds."

As it turns out, they were wrong:

William Jennings Bryan/Horace Boies: 260 EV, 47.9%
William McKinley/???: 187 EV, 46.9%
John Palmer/???: 0 EV, 5.1%

Actually, one of the things I've been trying to do with that scenario is try to create a no electoral majority scenario in 1896 through that choice just to see what happens. Thing is, I either win regardless as Bryan or McKinley wins a landslide.

Here's one attempt where I actually rejected the first civil rights question and waited for a second one, then I got no extra questions as they are randomized. (so no civil rights). Bryan wins the popular vote but loses the election:

https://www.americanhistoryusa.com/campaign-trail/game/824150

William McKinley           232   6,859,139   48.98
William Jennings Bryan   215   7,007,057   50.03

I wonder if it's possible at all to get no electoral majority. Get too much of the vote and you win, get too little and you lose a landslide.

[Politician]

Ran as a #populist Obama and actually won while losing the popular vote. Rural whites do matter!

https://www.americanhistoryusa.com/campaign-trail/game/829527

[GM Team Member and Deputy PPT WB]

An amazing win for Truman. Best Dewey did was in VT with 59.8%.

and because I felt like it, here's the senate map:

Dem: 57 (+12)
Rep: 43 (-12)

Changes:
MA: John I. Fitzgerald ELECTED
MI: Frank E. Hook ELECTED
NJ: Archibald S. Alexander ELECTED