Realistic West Wing Presidential Elections 2002 and 2006

[Agonized-Statism]

Jed Bartlet refers to how he wins the Dakota's on election night, and Louisiana goes his way too! Remember to scene when Toby Ziegler informed Bartlet he & Andrea were expecting children! Sam Searborn tells the President he's running for Congress from California's 47th! Indiana would have gone for Bartlet-Hoynes too, due to Bartlet's connection with Notre Dame! The Santos-Vinick map is revealed on night Leo McGarry dies!

The point of the thread is to create realistic versions of those elections.

[Schiff for Senate]

I still could never understand how Santos, a Congressman from Houston, was able to carry Texas, when Hoynes, a Texas Senator, wasn't.

This!!

In 2002, Bartlet/Hoynes won the Dakotas and Nebraska, and yet they somehow lost the 'red bastion' of Texas, despite Hoynes being a popular former senator from there. But just four years later, in a very close and significantly more polarized race, a little-known Houston-area congressman is able to flip the state Democratic? What? The only explanation even remotely possible is that it went Republican very narrowly in 2002, and between 2002 and 2006 saw a lot of demographic change. Furthermore, Santos exploded turnout in the Houston metropolitan area among Democrats. Thus, TX narrowly shifted leftward to support him.

[Schiff for Senate]

The West Wing's electoral maps are so ridiculous.

They were.  It's wierd; for the relative realism of the political issues and how they play out in White House vs. Congress fights, at least in the first few seasons, the writers really didn't consult anybody who knew anything about electoral results.  I'm also pretty skeptical that Bartlet could have won states like Tenessee, Arkansas and Louisiana even with John Hoynes' help, not to mention the Dakotas, against Ritchie.  Strange stuff.

Sometimes I wonder if the person in charge of West Wing's maps just decided to randomly colour the states without a clue about their politics - it's the only way to explain what happens in elections there.

[Schiff for Senate]

Who would be Santos' 2010 opponent?  I presume not Vinick again because he would prsumably still be at State.  Would it be Haffley, the former President Walkin who filled in for Bartlet during the Zoey kidnapping, or Russell, former Republican congressman and majority leader in the Senate?  Man, I'm a nerd.

Pretty sure Bob Russell was a Democratic congressman from Western Colorado who became Bartlet's VP after Hoynes' resignation, and who battled Santos for the Democratic nomination in 2006.

[Schiff for Senate]

I was recently looking at Presidential maps from the 2002 and 2006 Presidential Elections on the West Wing, and I was thinking to myself, Jed Bartlet winning North Dakota? That can't be right. Or Matt Santos winning South Carolina? I'll post both election maps, and I'd like for you to post 'realistic' outcomes for the 2002 and 2006 West Wing Presidential Elections. Thanks Rockefeller Republican.

2002 Presidential Election:

Jed Bartlet/John Hoynes (D) 423 EV
Robert Ritchie/Jeff Heston (R) 115 EV

*Note: EV totals are the ones from the West Wing

2006 Presidential Election:

Matt Santos/Leo McGarry (D) 272 EV
Arnold Vinick/Ray Sullivian (R) 266 EV

Assuming Bartlet was really popular, I don't think this map is that unrealistic (ignore the electoral votes for each state as I was unable to change the EV setting once I added it on here):


2006. Less colourful, but more realistic. In this, Vinick actually narrowly wins (since we're keeping it real):