2004: Jerry Brown vs George W Bush

[Canis]

Discuss with maps

[America's Sweetheart ❤/𝕿𝖍𝖊 𝕭𝖔𝖔𝖙𝖞 𝖂𝖆𝖗𝖗𝖎𝖔𝖗]

Discuss with maps

Same as OTL but Brown flips Ohio and New Mexico and wins the election.

[Lechasseur]

Brown loses. I don't think he would have been electable at national level. If Kerry lost, I really do not see how Brown would have won, being even more liberal and on top of that being very ''oddballish'' and mavericky.

I could see Brown flipping New Mexico (they seem to like that type of politician, he kind of reminds me of a Democratic Gary Johnson), but I think Bush holds on to all of his other states and flips Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and New Hampshire at least and wins pretty solidly.

[Agonized-Statism]

President George Bush (R-TX) / Vice President Dick Cheney (R-WY) ✓
Fmr. Governor Jerry Brown (D-CA) / Senator John Edwards (D-NC)

Too eccentric for 2000s Jesusland. Just one ad with any of the comments that earned him his reputation in the 1970s and it's over. Anecdotally, I've heard older (homophobic) California Republicans claim he's gay. I don't know if that was a widespread rumor from political rivals in the state when he was governor the first time, but if it was, it would be weaponized. Also, he would have been lacking in foreign policy, nor I do see his opposition to free trade agreements playing very well. Protectionist candidates like Perot actually did poorly in Rust Belt states until Trump came along, which I assume to be an effect of quickening decline brought on by the Great Recession and a campaign directly targeting those voters. The Reagan consensus still held in 2004, though.