2016 Senate Election
The 2016 Senate Elections were held on November 8, 2016 in conjunction with the House of Representatives, Presidential election, and 12 gubernatorial elections. Previously all three branches had been controlled by the Alliance Party for four years under the popular presidency of Charlie Dent. The Alliance Party had held control of the senate for 6 years. 35 of the 102 seats were up for election.

Six incumbents from the Alliance Party retired; Johnny Isakson of Georgia, Dan Coats of Indiana, David Vitter of Louisiana, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Mike Crapo of Idaho, and Tom Coburn of Oklahoma. All but the last two were succeeded by Laborers. Three incumbents from the Laborers Party retired; Barbara Boxer of California, Chuck Schumer of New York, and Bernie Sanders of Vermont. All three were succeeded by Laborers. This election saw numerous close elections, with 9 races being withing 5 points of each other. The election saw one of the largest freshman classes in American history with 17 freshmen senators elected, roughly half of the seats open.

This was the largest wave election since the election of 1952 where the new Alliance Party won 17 seats. The wave election was due to record high African-America turnout, which reached up to 74% in South Carolina and was 65% nationwide. There was also very high turnout among women and Latinos. This was due to Governor Nina Turner's surprise landslide victory against Senator Bob Corker. Turner's populist message energized African-Americans and poor whites, especially in the Southeast. This election also saw several women and minorities elected to the Senate, and an increase of SGM senators.


The freshmen Laborers senators were; Kamala Harris of California, Bill de Blasio of New York, Tim Ashe of Vermont, Ruben Gallego of Arizona, Desiree Charbonnet of Louisiana, Jason Kander of Missouri, Jennifer Shillling of Wisconsin, Pete Buttigieg of Indiana, Jim Gray of Kentucky, Marcia Fudge of Ohio, Patrick Murphy of Florida, Kasim Reed of Georgia, Stephen Wukela of South Carolina, Brad Miller of North Carolina, and Jeff Woodburn of New Hampshire.

The freshmen Alliance Senators were; Mick Cornett of Oklahoma and Judy Boyle of Idaho


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My thoughts after looking through this. I think you should delve deeper into how the Democrats and Republicans merged. When did the merger happen? Who was involved from both parties for the merger? Who within the parties were against it? What is their platform, if it isn't simply big tent and/or centrism? How was the party changed since 1960? Did the Laborers have huge landslides prior to the merger due to vote splitting? Are electoral laws different ITTL compared to OTL, potentially via Alliance politicians trying to sabotage the Laborers or vice versa?
I don't think it's all that plausible they would merge simply to stop the Laborers, and civil rights itself would have been a big sticking point between the merger, given that the merger was prior to 1960 and overall north/south divide as a whole. I would predict something closer to an electoral agreement where Republicans wouldn't run in the South, and vice versa for Democrats in the North/West.
Overall though, nice TL.
 
My thoughts after looking through this. I think you should delve deeper into how the Democrats and Republicans merged. When did the merger happen? Who was involved from both parties for the merger? Who within the parties were against it? What is their platform, if it isn't simply big tent and/or centrism? How was the party changed since 1960? Did the Laborers have huge landslides prior to the merger due to vote splitting? Are electoral laws different ITTL compared to OTL, potentially via Alliance politicians trying to sabotage the Laborers or vice versa?
I don't think it's all that plausible they would merge simply to stop the Laborers, and civil rights itself would have been a big sticking point between the merger, given that the merger was prior to 1960 and overall north/south divide as a whole. I would predict something closer to an electoral agreement where Republicans wouldn't run in the South, and vice versa for Democrats in the North/West.
Overall though, nice TL.

I’ve gone into the merger some when I talked about Harold Ickes, essentially what happened they agreed on economics but like the Laborers they agreed to just ignore civil rights. ITTL civil rights have a much harder time getting through with both parties being against them/ignoring them. I do plan to do a wiki box about the Alliance Party. They are radical centrist with a more conservative bend.
 
The Alliance Party is an political party founded as a merger between the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. The idea for a united party against the growing Laborers Party had first began around 1932 after Fiorello H LaGuardia's landslide presidential victory that year. However serious consideration began in 1940 after Henry Wallace's election to the presidency. Fmr. Governor Owen Brewster petitioned Republican chairman, and representative from New Mexico, Waldorf Astor to go into a power sharing negotiations with the Democrats. Astor initially rebuffed the idea as reactionary since Brewster just lost a narrow election to democratic Governor Louis J Brann with a laborers Candidate making up the difference. However after being rebuffed Brewster began a public campaign against the Laborers and changed his message from power sharing to a merger. After the Laborers surprise victory in the 1942, Brewster's idea's became very popular, and the Democrats and Republicans agreed to not run candidates against each other, and whoever got the most votes from their party's primary would be the candidate endorsed by both parties. While this did lead to the Democrats and Republican gaining seats in both chambers in 1944, the Laborers still controlled the federal government and could easily pass legislation. Brewster was now joined by Senator Absalom Robertson, Senator Spressard Holland, Senator Henry F Ashurt, Governor Phil M Donnelly, Governor Fred Aandahl, and numerous representatives. The advocates in congress formed the Alliance Caucus and their movement's slogan was "Alliance for Business, Alliance for Security, Alliance for America". However some feared that a merged party would be overrun by segregationists. Former Senator Arthur R Gould, from Brewster's homestate Maine, issued a statement shortly before his death calling the Merger Movement "An Alliance for the Klan". Representative William L Dawson and Senator Harold Ickes were also heavily critical of the Merger Movement for the same reasons, but the public were more in favor of the Mergers then the Anti-Mergers. The Anti-mergers were mostly republicans, however there was a small faction of democrats lead by Huey Long. In 1947 the chair of the democrats and republicans began serious talks about a temporary alliance to win the presidency. On December 6 1947 they announced they would be nominating a joint ticket. At the convention republican Owen Brewster was propelled to the nomination by the Merger Movement, and he picked democrat Governor Clarence Meadows. After Brewster won he turned what was supposed to be temporary into a permanent party around opposing the soviet union, small government, and pro-business policies.

Almost immediately segregation became an issue. Brewster chose to ignore the issue claiming he would focus on issues of greater importance, but claimed he would look into it at a later date. This began the tentative agreement in the Laborers Party and the Alliance Party to ignore segregation, sometimes called "the Second Gag Rule". As a result it became unofficial policy for the alliance party ticket to have a southerner on the ticket. This was essentially a rule until the 1980s when segregation ended. However this practice is still very common.

The party became the party they are under the Ford Administration. Ford perused a very business friendly agenda, while following a moderate social agenda. This was very similar to Dent Administration. The modern party is self described radical centrists, with large federalist and conservative factions. There also exists a sizable liberal faction, from which Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Diane Feinstein have belonged to. However the majority of the party describe themselves as centrists. They typically perform well among suburbanites and the wealthy. Many of whom are very opposed to President Turner.


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My laptop died and it won’t be fixed/replaced for two weeks. So I won’t be able to post anything till atleast then, probably after. Sorry for the delay
 
I have been working on this some more! I finally have time to post and nature (for now) is letting me! I plan to post some nice updates in the near future
 
I like it, @leecannon_ ! An America where socialism has a chance is always an America I love!

Do you want to expand beyond the USA?

I do some, the majority of the focus will be on us politics and us history but there will be some posts about foreign leaders and some world history. The world isn't too different as the Laborers only started having an impact on the world stage around the cold war.

Also it isn't hard socialist, its a more Henry Wallace, Bernie Sanders kinda party. The Unity Party is a more John Kasich, HW Bush kinda party. Although right now they are struggling with a lot of hardcore social conservatism, which manifests itself in groups like Americans for Safety, and The House Social Stability Caucus, both of which are younger than 20 years old
 
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Is there a list of Presidents for this TL?

I have a tentative list for myself that I may try and solidify and make into a full fledged thing

Do minor parties exist in this TL? How relevant are they?

Some do exists, but they are about as relevant as they are in OTL, the two most notable are;

Christian Democracy Party;
Originally founded in the spirit European Christian Democrats in 1955, it quickly moderated on the more socialist aspects and emphasized more on the morality aspects of it and became the leading right-wing party in America, it reached its zenith under Pat Robertson in the 1988 election. Robertson gained national attention for his stinging attacks against outgoing President Ford's moderate social stances and Biden's attention to the AIDS crisis calling it an "obsession with helping those who god has rightly condemned", and was a fierce opponent against all attempts to speed up integration. It gained 17% of the vote that election, largely in the deep south with Robertson coming second in Oklahoma and elected Jim Johnson to the House in Arkansas, though he would be defeated by Unity Carol Rasco in 1990. This is the last time a third party served in congress. The CDP has struggled to regain national importance after Pat Robertson retired from politics in 2010, and has only two state house members, one in Louisiana and one in Georgia. Although it has seen a very recent uptick in interest with the election of Nina Turner causing a segment of Unity seeking a strong stance against her administration.

Progressive Democrats Party;
The party started in 1944 as a splinter of the old racists Democratic Party in South Carolina, calling them selves The Progressive Democrats Party, to elected Blacks to public office. It has since become a broad tent minority interest party. It was lead most prominently by Bayard Rustin in the late 60s and through the 70s where he worked to merge it with the Partido Popular Aztlán. Other prominent leaders include Jesse Jackson and Cesar Chavez. It has struggled to gain national attention and mainly existed and the political extension of the Civil Rights movement. It suffered massive division in the 80s over the AIDS crisis where the party rejected the idea that they should worked with the SGM community and as a result the Queer Democrats Party were founded, and who would later dissolve with most of their members becoming Laborers. The party has continued to floundered, never gaining more than 5% with their own candidates. It is currently lead by Ben Jealous and in 2016 endorsed Laborers Nina Turner for president and saw its largest vote share as a results, nearly 9%.
 
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