1988: President Walter Mondale vs. Jack Kemp

[Suburbia]

After Bob Dole's loss to President Mondale in 1984, Democrats are eyeing a fourth consecutive term in the White House.

Republicans turn the page to New York Rep. Jack Kemp as their choice to take back the White House in '88. Who wins?

[dw93]

Lean Mondale if the economy is as good as it was in our timeline. If butterflies change that, Kemp.

[Adjective-Statement]

A Mondale presidency is difficult keeping in mind the fall of the New Deal Coalition in 1968 and the global financialization trend of the 1970s and '80s. Carter won because his moral, Christian, small-town outsider image and deregulatory policies (avoiding inflation, balancing the budget, limiting spending, anti-national health insurance) fit the zeitgeist- he could have won again had things gone better, but he would succeed as basically a Blue Reagan, and the New Dealer establishment and moniker would be out by 1984. Mondale would be an anachronism and Kemp would likely come in to steal this Reaganless Reagan Revolution out from under the Democrats in 1984 instead. However, assuming Mondale gets lucky and Dole drops the ball:


President Walter Mondale (D-MN) / Vice President John Glenn (D-MN)
Congressman Jack Kemp (R-NY) / Fmr. Senator Paul Laxalt (R-NV) ✓

The Farm Crisis complicates things with a paleocon Republican movement, felt strongly in the 1986 elections and almost causing trouble for Republicans in the 1988 primaries before Pat Buchanan endorses Kemp.