Henry Patterson Edwards was born in Detroit, Michigan on September 24th, 1874, to Sheila Lois Patterson, who worked as a primary school teacher, and William Murtha Edwards, who had briefly fought in the Civil War. His earliest known ancestor, Charles Johnson, moved from England to the United States in 1703.
Edwards attended primary, secondary and high schools in Detroit, with former classmates saying he was a knowledgeable yet unremarkable student. From his adolescence, Edwards was involved in politics, becoming a progressive, and voting for William Jennings Bryan in 1896 and 1900. In 1906, Edwards joined the GOP and voted for Taft in 1908, but later joined the Bull Moose party and campaigned for Theodore Roosevelt in 1912.
However, Edwards was content with the Wilson Administration and won election to the State House as a Democrat in 1914. He became known as an opponent of corruption and champion of the working class - a reputation he held for the rest of his life.
Four years later, Edwards ran for the US Senate, defeating Truman Handy Newberry by 647 votes. As a Senator, Edwards focused on economic policy, unsuccessfuly proposing a minimum wage, Social Security, unemployment insurance, banning child labor, and other left-wing reforms. In 1924, Edwards was re-elected to the Senate by a 54-44 margin. He became a proponent of banking reform, saying a failure to curb speculation would cause a disaster. After 1926, Edwards planned a presidential run.
Edwards formally announced his presidential campaign on March 3rd, 1927. His announcement speech focused on the economy, saying America wasn't as prosperous as it seemed due to a farm crisis, stock market speculation, and growing income inequality. Edwards' visit to Mississippi after the 1927 flood increased his national profile, with the Senator becoming a standard-bearer of American progressives.
During the 1928 Democratic National Convention, Edwards was nominated in the 8th ballot after William Gibbs McAdoo's endorsement, and when Edwards chose to make Al Smith his running mate.
During the general election, Edwards campaigned as a progressive who focused on estabilishing programs such as farm subsidies, public pensions for the elderly, a minimum wage, unemployment insurance, and public works projects. He tried, mostly unsuccessfully, to win over progressive Republicans by pointing out Coolidge's conservatism. The Edwards campaign effectively employed radio advertising in swing states. Herbert Hoover, on the other hand, promised to continue the economic boom of the Coolidge years and called Edwards a socialist. However, the Senator narrowly pulled through.
Edwards' cabinet was dominated by progressives from both parties, whom he worked with. In 1929, he signed several bills estabilishing Social Security, farm subsidies, federal unemployment insurance, public works such as bridges and highways, reductions in tariffs, and separating commercial banking from speculative investment banking, protecting the former and not bailing out the latter. In 1929, the stock market crashed, with the Edwards Administration continuing and expanding its current policies in attempt to deal with the ensuing recession. However, the 1930 midterms were a conservative wave, with Edwards allies losing primaries or general elections to conservatives in key races. However, in early 1932 Edwards managed to successfully repeal Prohibition, in spite of previously supporting it.
In 1932, Smith was dumped from the ticket and replaced by his successor as Governor of New York, Franklin D. Roosevelt.
With most major prairie Republicans neutral or supportive of the President, and Coolidge and Hoover sitting out, former Vice President Charles G. Dawes was nominated over William Borah. France campaigned on tax cuts, reducing foreign intervention, and reforming Edwards' programs to actually help people rather than having them rely on the government. The President called for a continuation of his current policies. A radio debate was held, with Edwards being the winner, and the economy was slowly recovering.
During Henry Edwards' second term, a wealth tax, minimum wage, Board of Public Health, tariff cuts, housing projects and Department of Education were implemented. However, days before some of these projects were to be struck by the Supreme Court, Edwards bribed 5 of the 6 conservative justices into not doing so. One of them regretted taking the bribes and told Chief Justice Charles Hughes, who publicly exposed the President. Edwards was impeached by the House of Representatives in 1934, but the proceedings collapsed in the United States Senate. Edwards later regretted bribing the judges.
Vice President Roosevelt had taken an active role in the Edwards Administration. In spite of being publicly silent over the Supreme Court bribery scandal, he later criticized his boss' actions, and said the scandal wouldn't happen if Roosevelt was running things. FDR announced his presidential campaign on December 30th, 1935, easily winning the Democratic nomination on the promise of continuing Edwards' economic policies while stamping out corruption and mismanagement. Roosevelt campaigned by airplane and radio, with the press not reporting his polio.
The Governor of Kansas, Alf Landon ran as a moderate, promising to reform welfare, reduce taxes, clean up Washington DC, and abolish the Department of Education (which was still controversial). Landon was an ineffective campaigner who rarely travelled, and the economic recovery secured FDR's win.
As of 2022, the US President is Cory Booker, who was elected over John Cornyn in 2016 and Marco Rubio in 2020, with the Vice President being Elizabeth Warren.
