Here is the seventh installment in my alternate American election series.
Rhode Island is the smallest state in the whole Union, however one of the most important politically. Many pundits have called Rhode Island the "Alabama of New England," in the sense that similar to how Alabama is unlike the rest of the Deep South with actually competitive elections, so too is Rhode Island unlike the rest of Republican New England. This is mainly due to the heavily Labor city of Providence, as its surrounding metro which has a large population of poor minorities.
However unlike in Alabama where both sides have held government around the same number of times, in Rhode Island the Republicans have held control 2 out of 3 times, not as extreme as deep blue New Hampshire or Connecticut, but still heavily leaning Republican. The cause for this lean is the existence of FPTP districts in the senate, a heavily gerrymandered legislative bodies which has managed to survive despite the Conservative Revolution's democratizing reforms. These FPTP districts are also ingrained into the Constitution of Rhode Island, which requires a two-thirds majority in both chambers to be changed, so even in 1992 when the Labor party held slim majorities in both the House and Senate an amendment remained out of the question.
The final straw was broken in 2012 when even though the Labor party won the popular vote 51% to the Republicans 44% they still failed to gained a majority in the Senate. With the Senate of Rhode Island being elected only every four years, as is the case in most Northeastern states, the incoming four years of deadlock despite holding an absolute majority of votes left the people up in arms. Mass protests outside the Republican's office were held for the next six straight weeks demanding a reform of the senate to a more proportional system. As a result of these protests, a single issue party was formed called the Moderate Moose Party, aiming to unite centrist voters from both Labor and the Republican parties in order to change the senate to Mixed Member Proportional, a system already found in the Progressive state of Vermont.
In the election of 2014 the Moderate Moose Party managed to gain an impressive 12 seats, mostly from the greater Warwick area which was forming a swing area between Labor and the Republicans. Even though a Labor-MMP coalition held a large majority in the House the Republican senate turned to obstructionism to prevent them from passing any bills, hoping to discredit the MMP's legitimacy as a governing party.
This move backfired spectacularly in 2016, featuring the most immediate rise of a third party in Rhode Island's history. From a mere 12 seats the Moderate Moose Party managed to secure 30 seats in the House and 14 seats. Dozens of politicians across Southern and Eastern Rhode Island who had held their positions for decades had their political careers destroyed in an instant. For the first time since the founding of the Republican party over 150 years ago the Grand Old Party was reduced to less than a third of both House and Senate seats.
With the Moderate Moose Party having gone from nonexistent to the largest party in both chambers of the legislature in less than four years, and through their coalition with Labor held a super majority in the Rhode Island state legislature. Thus the so called "Moose Amendment" was quickly passed, letting Rhode Island become the second state in the Union to create a mixed-member proportional senate.
Government:
Moderate Moose Party - Formed in 2013 by centrists who were fed up with the archaic ways of the Grand Old Party their meteoric rise to power has made them the most successful third party created in the 21st century. While their number one position is the changing of the senate to a MMP system, the rest of platform includes "common sense" policies such as the decriminalization of marijuana, pension reform for government employees, the lowering of the corporate tax, and an increase of the capital gains tax.
Labor - One of the big two of Rhode Island, they have been pushed down to third place as most of their white catholic have moved to the MMP. At first most of the Labor hardliners were skeptical of the Moderate Moose Party's intentions, seeing their advocacy of pension reform and push for decriminalization of marijuana as signs that they want to become a branch of the Progressives. Nevertheless they remain grateful of their reform to the senate, with a Mixed Member Proportional system ensuring that the Republicans' gerrymanders are unable to inhibit the will of the masses.
Opposition:
Republicans - As in most of New England, the Republicans of Rhode Island leans to the left socially and to the right economically, supporting gun control and the right to free abortions while keeping taxes low and welfare at a minimum. Their embarrassing loss in both the House and Senate to super majority coalitions have left the Rhode Island Republican party into panic mode, with their leader John Fung resigning and the federal Republican party launching a major autopsy of the election to prevent the Ocean State from becoming another Vermont.
Greens - While not nearly as strong as they are in other states such as Maine or Massachusetts the Green Party of Rhode Island has still managed to carve out a solid base among college students and ecologically minded liberals, though the rapid expansion of the Moderate Moose Party has lost them a few seats.
Credit for the basemap goes to Wikipedia.