WI: President Henry Ford

NKVD

What if Henry Ford, a man who Adolf Hitler regarded as his "inspiration," became President of the United States?
 

Snowstalker

I also wrote a stillborn timeline about this.

I planned for Ford to become a fascist dictator and join the Axis after being elected in 1932 (FDR conveniently dies in September)
 

Historico

I think this is a much more feasible POD, than people recognize. Back in 1918, Henry Ford ran for a Senate Seat in Michigan as yes a Nominee for the Democratic Party.

The 1918 election to fill one of Michigan's U.S. Senate seats proved to be one of the most bitter and costly contests of that era. Its spending excesses prompted widespread calls for campaign finance reform.

To bolster his party's slim Senate majority, President Woodrow Wilson convinced automaker Henry Ford to run in the Michigan Democratic senatorial primary. Trying to improve his chances of victory, the super-rich Ford also entered that state's Republican primary. Although he lost the Republican contest to industrialist Truman Newberry, Ford captured the Democratic nomination and set out to crush Newberry in the general election. In Newberry, Ford had a tough opponent with similarly unlimited financial resources. Making effective use of campaign advertising, Newberry charged Ford with pacifism, anti-Semitism, and favoritism in his efforts to help his son, Edsel, avoid military service in the First World War.

Newberry narrowly defeated Ford who came within 4,500 votes of winning, out of more than 400,000 cast statewide, but charges that he had intimidated voters and violated campaign-spending laws limiting the amount of personal funds candidates could spend on their races clouded his claim to the seat.
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So getting him his first elected office is relativley easy, getting such a powerful personality such as his to hold off from running in three election cycles (1920, 1924, and 1928) is pretty hard. If he can't wait I think 1920 is his best shot, if LaFollette runs a stronger campaign in the Industrial Belt, and could split enough Republican Votes, to garner a Democratic Victory. If not that, then he has to wait till '32 and at age 70, so he will have to hit the ground running to push through a new brand of Fordism.
 

Mikestone8

Historico said:
I think this is a much more feasible POD, than people recognize. Back in 1918, Henry Ford ran for a Senate Seat in Michigan as yes a Nominee for the Democratic Party.


So getting him his first elected office is relativley easy, getting such a powerful personality such as his to hold off from running in three election cycles (1920, 1924, and 1928) is pretty hard. If he can't wait I think 1920 is his best shot, if LaFollette runs a stronger campaign in the Industrial Belt, and could split enough Republican Votes, to garner a Democratic Victory. If not that, then he has to wait till '32 and at age 70, so he will have to hit the ground running to push through a new brand of Fordism.
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Or change the President.

If Hughes wins in 1916, but still takes America into the War as Wilson did, then Ford is running as a candidate of the opposition party. Midterms being what they are, he very likely gets in.

If ex-president Wilson is ruled out by health problems, Ford could be the Democratic nominee in 1920, and, if the Hughes Administration has made itself even half as unpopular as the Wilson one did, he should have every chance of winning.
 
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