Alternate Electoral Maps III

Randomly generated House of Representatives. All house numbers are from the largest point in that states history.

115 Democrats
100 Republicans
13 Democratic-Republican

5 Federalist
3 VACANT
5 Anti-Jacksonian
3 Crawford Democratic-Republican
5 Jacksonian
1 Anti-Masonic
1 Independent Democratic
1 Opposition
1 Populist
2 Whig


Largest Party
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Second-Largest Party (if none state is colored in black)
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If you make a map where a candidate gets over 100% of the vote in certain counties, at least make a special colour for the over 100% counties

The darkest shade is >90%, and last time I checked 100% is >90%. also, obviously it's impossible for a candidate to get over 100% of the vote anywhere so it makes more sense to shade those counties in as >90% rather than some special shade for >100%.
 
Is it realistic that Kennedy would dump Johnson. I know they didn't like each other, but would it be a risk either is willing to take?
 
Is it realistic that Kennedy would dump Johnson. I know they didn't like each other, but would it be a risk either is willing to take?
Yes it is. He confided in his personal secretary he was probably going to do it. Plus Johnson had a corruption probe on him at that time, something Kennedy wouldn't have wanted to associate himself with
 
America’s liberal youth dreams are furfilled when Robert Kennedy wins the nomination in 68’. Bobby geniusly recreates the the dream team ticket of his late brother by selecting liberal icon Texas Senator Ralph Yarborough. A balance of north and south, nostalgia and change, Nixon spends endless nights awake, haunted by the prospect of being humiliated yet again by the Kennedy’s. In his desperation he goes as far as to conspire to commit treason and sabotage the delaciate peace negations in Paris ... hopeing to purseaded South Vietnam agree to reject Johnson’s peace plan and agree to negotiate a more favorable one once he becomes president... just weeks before the election the Kennedy campaign who have already been informed of Nixon’s nefarious actions, leaks the story to the Washington Post. And suddenly the middly Democratic leaning race becomes a landslide, Wallace also collapses in support after making a series of gaffs proposing the use of nuclear weponds to subdue the Viet Kong. In the end it’s not even close, while far from the landslides of 36’ or 64’, the modest nature of the results can mostly be attributed to republicans forgoing the presidential race , as opposed to voting for Kennedy.
Bobby and Ralph manage to win nearly 53.5% of the vote and 449 ECV to Tricky Dick’s 42.8% and 72 ECV.


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This is the antepenultimate episode in the series. After this, we will go to the last of the Midwest, and then have a well deserved Media Californian vacation.

The Seventh Party System: Part LXV
Map of the United States
Part I - Metropotamia
Part II - Alta California
Part III - North Carolina
Part IV - New Jersey
Part V - Adams
Part VI - Alabama
Part VII - Rhode Island
Part VIII - Sequoyah
Part IX - Assenisipia
Part X - East Florida
Part XI - Tennessee
Part XII - Kansas
Part XIII - Dakota
Part XIV - Arizona
Part XV - Delaware
Part XVI - Oregon
Part XVII - Ozark
Part XVIII - New Hampshire
Part XIX - Western Connecticut
Part XX - New York
Part XXI - Santo Domingo
Part XXII - South Carolina
Part XXIII - Baja California
Part XXIV - Chersonesus
Part XXV - Canal Zone Territory
Part XXVI - West Florida
Part XXVII - Missouri
Part XXVIII - Colorado
Part XXIX - Trinidad and Tobago
Part XXX - Pennsylvania
Part XXXI - Wisconsin
Part XXXII - Lincoln
Part XXXIII - Deseret
Part XXXIV - Platte
Part XXXV - Kiribati
Part XXXVI - New Mexico
Part XXXVII - Maine
Part XXXVIII - Alaska
Part XXXIX - Hamilton
Part XXXX - Mississippi
Part XXXXI - North Virginia
Part XXXXII - Bioko
Part XXXXIII - Hawaii
Part XXXXIV - Louisiana
Part XXXXV - Seward
Part XXXXVI - Illinoia
Part XXXXVII - Georgia
Part XXXXVIII - Columbia
Part XXXXIX - Maryland
Part L - Texas
Part LI - District of Columbia
Part LII - Vermont
Part LIII - Yazoo
Part LIV - Jefferson
Part LV - Virgin Islands
Part LVI - Washington
Part LVII - Puerto Rico
Part LVIII - Kentucky
Part LIX - Massachusetts
Part LX - South Virginia
Part LXI - Arkansas
Part LXII - Saratoga
Part LXIII - Connecticut
Part LXIV - Nickajack


Labor Coalition
Republicans
Democrats and Social Credit
Hispanos Unidos and Allies

Political Positions of State Governments

====

Original DeviantArt Post Here

The state of Indiana is almost universally seen as the least democratic of all the states in the USA, even less so than its segregationist neighbor Sequoyah, having been controlled unceasingly by the United Democratic Republican party ever since 1977.

The history of Indiana, starting out as a white settler split off of the Native American Sequoyah territory after oil was discovered near modern day Indianapolis has forever been based around fossil fuels. For the first half of the 20th century oil was the state's number one export and when the Dust Bowl ruined the state's agricultural industry in the 1930s the oil industry became the state's only export. While oil was quite the lucrative venture itself it was not until the 1940s when new technologies were developed to allow for the exploitation of natural gas. And when one man named William Koch discovered America's largest natural gas reservoir in the Anadarko Basin the history of Indiana would be changed forever.

Buying up exclusive rights to the entirety of the Andarko Basin Koch's Indiana Standard Oil company soon became the richest fuel extraction company in the nation, surpassing even the Cherokee Corporation. With this multi-billion dollar wealth came unlimited power over the state of Indiana, as William Koch began to bribe both Democratic and Republican politicians in the state to give his company unlimited tax breaks for perpetuity. This meant that regardless of whether the Republicans or National Union backed Democrats won Koch continued to influence the state's government.

In 1967 William Koch finally died, leaving the company to his only son, Dennis Koch. Growing up a sheltered life in a state his father owned Dennis Koch soon became infamous for his narcissism and arrogance, and began to turn the state into even more of a Koch family fief. However, Koch saw the continuing centralization efforts of LBJ as an existential threat to the mini-fiefdom he had created within the state of Indiana, and so Dennis made sure to spend tens of millions of dollars flooding the airwaves with pro-Nixon propaganda.

While across most of the country the Democratic Coup by Wallace drove an irreconcilable split between the Democratic and Republican parties in the state of Indiana the two state branches had long been nothing but puppets for Koch's influence. As such, Dennis decided in the wake of the coup to create the United Democratic Republican party, with an official platform of defending both social conservatism and economic conservatism. But in addition to these goals it's true goal remained that of securing the Koch empire and embezzling countless millions of dollars to his company through punitive taxes on every other business. Thus, similar to the case of neighboring Sequoyah soon every major business within the state of Indiana became nothing more than a subsidiary of the Indiana Standard Oil company.

The two pariah states of Indiana and Sequoyah have ever since been in constant competition with one another, with the "apparent suicide" of a high ranking member within the Indiana Standard Oil company or Cherokee Corporation being a common occurrence. Dennis Koch himself is suspected to have lived most of his life within an old abandoned missile silo, with his last known public appearance to have been three years ago for his eightieth birthday. Koch's Indiana Standard Oil company is also alleged to be behind the deaths of dozens of environmental activists, including one series of mail bombings in 1996 that left 12 dead. This case was one of the rare instances in which the Indiana Standard Oil company ended up in court, with the trail concluding in 1998 when Koch settled with the government for $206 million in damages and compensation for each of the victims, coming out to be over $2 billion in total. As a result, ever since 1998 elections the United Democratic Republican party has taken up an abstentionist program and refuses to send any of its congressmen or senators to DC. With the state police of Indiana having been long since privatized and contracted out to the Indiana Defense Force, a subsidiary of the Indiana Standard Oil company, those who dare to criticize Dennis Koch are immediately subject to police harassment or arrest for "traffic violations", and all of the most outspoken critics of the Koch empire in Indiana have simply "disappeared". As a result of this totalitarian far right police state most multi state parties have long since given up attempting to run candidates in Indiana. Only the Ecological Native Alliance and Constitution continue to running in the state, allegedly on the payroll as paid opposition, a fact denied by both parties despite their persistent hesitancy to criticize either the United Democratic Republicans or the Indiana Standard Oil company very much.

In fact, a number of parties in the past have been exposed to be nothing more than paid opposition, from the Communist Party of the United States of America, to most recently the Agriculture and Development party. With so many paid off opposition parties and constant propaganda praising the benevolence of the United Democratic Republicans, despite the fact that under UDR governorship Indiana has became a state with one of the lowest HDI levels of all American states, it is no wonder that Koch's party held on to their two thirds majority in the house for the 2018 elections. And to make matters worse, the Senate of Indiana is designed in such a way that all the districts are First-Past-The-Post with staggered elections every two years. Under such conditions the UDR consistently holds over three quarters of the seats in the senate, and in this 2018 election managed to gain 88% of the seats. So it remains unlikely that the state of Indiana will ever escape the grasp of Dennis Koch's iron fist.

Government:
United Democratic Republicans - The natural governing party of Indiana, they are the political mouthpiece of Dennis Koch and rule the state on his behalf. And with Dennis Koch being a well known "race realist" and fervent critic of the "gay agenda" all LGBT folk and people of color know to steer clear of this fascist state.

Opposition:
Constitution - The party of the Christian right, their adjacent political beliefs is one likely reason why the Indiana Defense Force continues to allow the party to operate within the state without harassment.
New Alliance - A social democratic party that claims to fight for the working class against the UDR's economic liberalism, many suspect they are little more than controlled opposition for the UDR, though nothing definitive has been proven yet.
First People's Party - The main party for Native Americans across the nation, they are a very centrist party that often doesn't even actively campaign. Yet they continue to gain seats that represent the Native American minority of Indiana, and have been active in the state legislature for passing motions to condemn the actions of the Native American Party for Industry.
Know-Nothing - A right wing party which claims to know nothing but their country, they also seem to know nothing about most other political issues besides their burning hatred of immigrants.
Commonwealth Land Party - A self described center left party which claims to fight for Georgist principles and the abolition of all taxes except a land rent, they do nothing within the state legislature but push for a land rent bill that never gets passed.
Anti-Robotic Party - A party started just last year by a former member of the Agriculture and Development party, their political platform on standing against robots which they claim have replaced the entire federal government has mysteriously won them a seat in both the House and the Senate despite their lack of any other political positions.
Communist League of America - The only communist party to hold seats in the Indianan legislature since the discovery that the CPUSA was paid opposition, they claim to be anti-revisionists who are different from the CPUSA in that they are not paid opposition and genuinely want to fight for revolution, despite their continual reluctance to ever do anything besides throw meekly criticism of UDR policy.
White Patriot Party - An openly white supremacist party, they continue to demand for an ethnostate within the state of Indiana and several people have been killed by their organization in mass lynchings which the WPP prefers to call "expressions of free speech" and "self-defense."
Natural Law Party - A "Transcendentalist Meditation" party which claims to fight for progressive policies through their use of healing crystals, their party leader currently sits in federal prison for child sex trafficking.
National States' Rights - A supposedly "centrist" and "classical liberal" party which also wants a state's right to an ethnostate, in practice they are indistinguishable from the WPP, except that for the fact that the WPP doesn't deny that the Holocaust ever happened.
Agriculture and Development - A agrarian right wing populist party which claims to fight for farmers, just last year their party leadership was discovered to have been on the payroll of the Indiana Standard Oil company, and while they deny these accusations strongly they also have decided to not run candidates this year and their sole senator has announced he does not plan to run for reelection.

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Credit for the base map goes to Chicxulub.
Update produced by MoralisticCommunist and posted here with permission
 
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1964 Election:
John F. Kennedy/Terry Sanford (Democratic) 377 Electoral Votes; 54.1%
Barry Goldwater/John Tower (Republican) 161 Electoral Votes; 45.4%
I don't see any way that Barry Goldwater would have done this well. even if you remove the fact that the nation was in mourning over JFK's assassination in 1964, Goldwater was still a spectacularly awful candidate who was seen as a right-wing radical by a large swath of the electorate. and I can't see how Goldwater would have done substantially better against JFK than he did against LBJ irl considering Kennedy was also quite popular and much more charismatic than LBJ.
 
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the conservative revolution is strangled in its cradle and far right neoliberalism remains shut out of government... Askew and Harris offered America a positive hopeful message of “ Make America Great Again “ and asked the public “ Are you better off today then you where four years ago ?” Promising a much needed descilation in the Cold War, and a garentee that the peace keeping UN mission in the Iranian civil war will not become a Second Vietnam War
 
I don't see any way that Barry Goldwater would have done this well. even if you remove the fact that the nation was in mourning over JFK's assassination in 1964, Goldwater was still a spectacularly awful candidate who was seen as a right-wing radical by a large swath of the electorate. and I can't see how Goldwater would have done substantially better against JFK than he did against LBJ irl considering Kennedy was also quite popular and much more charismatic than LBJ.
looking back, yeah you're exactly right on that one. I will make a revision shortly
 
I don't see any way that Barry Goldwater would have done this well. even if you remove the fact that the nation was in mourning over JFK's assassination in 1964, Goldwater was still a spectacularly awful candidate who was seen as a right-wing radical by a large swath of the electorate. and I can't see how Goldwater would have done substantially better against JFK than he did against LBJ irl considering Kennedy was also quite popular and much more charismatic than LBJ.
Well actually the idea of him being a radical came around after the Kennedy assassination. People blamed the far right for causing the assassination and the term "radical" was in. Also many polls showed Kennedy as incredibly unpopular in Midwest and Deep South. Goldwater also performed poorly irl cause he felt he was destined to lose after the Kennedy Assassination. This caused him to not campaign
as much and not making any efforts to appeal to the moderates in the party. Would he have won? No. Would he have done better than irl? Absolutely.
 
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1992 Election:
Jerry Litton-Nick Begich (Democratic) 326 Electoral Votes; 42.75%
George H.W. Bush-Dan Quayle (Republican) 37.69%
Ross Perot-James Stockdale (Independent) [Unchanged]

Jerry Litton

After winning the Senate Primary in 1976, Litton faced a tough general election campaign. Although a popular candidate in his own right, He was up against the also popular State Attorney General John Danforth, the Republican nominee. National Democrats came to Litton's defense however, and through lots of funding, Litton very narrowly defeated Danforth. Litton would receive a minimal majority, right at 50.00% of the vote, versus Danforth with 49.43%. Danforth would launch a rematch campaign in 1982, but Litton defeated Danforth by a wider margin this time. Danforth would launch a run for Governor after this in 1984, defeating Litton's 1988 Senate opponent, John Ashcroft, in that primary. Litton would defeat Ashcroft too. Having forgone presidential runs in 1984 and 1988, Litton finally decided to run in 1992. Litton would face a tough primary challenge once again, this time by Arkansas Governor William J. Clinton. Clinton however, was dogged by allegations of infidelity and corruption, which Litton used to his advantage to win his way to the nomination. For a running mate however, Litton would go with a choice that surprised many and was seen as a risky move, but was still respected nonetheless.

Nick Begich

Nick Begich faced a tough reelection campaign in 1972, facing off against State Senator Don Young. Through heavy campaigning however, Begich survived. Young attempted a rematch in 1974, but lost yet again to Begich. Begich would continue to serve as a representative for another 4 terms. Then in 1982, Begich won the Democratic nomination for Governor. Begich would go onto win the general election as well. Begich ran for reelection in 1986, and would win solidly. In 1988, Begich ran for President, but dropped out before the primaries due to lack of proper funding. Begich was unable to run for a third term as Governor in 1990 and was forced out in December of that year. However his 1988 run gave him national attention, just what he needed to get picked by 1992 Democratic Presidential nominee Jerry Litton to be his running mate. Together, Litton and Begich would defeat the Incumbent President George Bush and Incumbent Vice-President Dan Quayle.

[Follow-up coming soon]
 
America as Portugal


America was under the right wing Nixon Dictatorship from 1953 to 1974 under which the Republicans were the only legal party, a drastic step taken in an effort to safeguard American liberty from the communist threat. By the 70’s the economy had cratered sowing anger among the formally complacent white middle class. Additionally the governments near genocidal treatment of blacks, Jews, and gay Americans finally sparked the Magnolia Revolution of 1974. Jewish writer Bob Woodward’s escape from the Everglades Detention Facilitates and subsequent publishing of the horrific conditions was the spark that ignited the revolution. America spent the better part of the later 70’s and early 80’s taking on the gargantuan task of recreating a Democratic multiracial democracy. By the 1990’s America was a thriving social democratic state which had moved significantly left of even its most liberal pre dictatorship days under the left firebrands Robert Todd Lincoln, Hiram Johnson or Henry Wallace. Gender equality was a major force in politics in the early 2000’s with the Equal Rights Amendment requiring all political parties nominate a minimum of 50% women for federal Elections. The American Right having been so horrible discredited by Nixon’s crimes against humanity was relicated to the lunatic fringe for most of the post dictatorship era. Warning signs became apparent by the end of the 2010s, so much radical change had sparked a great unease among many younger non-college educated American white men, who’s lack of social mobility and feelings of emasculation brew a deep hatred of women and nonwhites. Its just a matter of time until this malicious hatred manifest itself into a powerful political force...



Elizabeth Warren

Socialist Party

252 Seats


Pramila Jayapal

Unitary Democratic Coalition

29 Seats



Gloria La Riva

Left Bloc

45 Seats



Amy Klobuchar

Social Democratic Party

180 Seats


Mary Landrieu

People’s Party

12 Seats



Kshama Sawant

Communist Party

1 Seat



Jill Stein

Green Party

1 Seat


Sarah McLachlan

Party for Universal Rights

10 Seats


FUCK THIS!

Tucker Carlson

8 Seats

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The Elephant & The Bull Moose: 1996

2000

In early 1997, things looked promising for Richards' second term. After the UK elected Tony Blair as its new Prime Minister, the two of them asserted that 'a new golden age for the special relationship' was at hand, and she pledged that once the agreement for a peace settlement being worked towards by the British and Irish governments was agreed, the US would encourage companies to invest in Northern Irish communities. While anti-internationalist Americans were angered by this and only a few companies took her up on the offer at first, this backing contributed towards a generally positive view of Richards abroad and to the ratification of the Good Friday Agreement the following year.

On top of this, the American economy was booming, in no small part thanks to the Dot-com bubble, which saw investment into fledgling online businesses rapidly increase and sizeable profits emerging for many companies. One would think this prosperity might actually mean the Democrats could have broken the trend of the so-called 'six-year itch' and avoided suffering losses in that year's midterms, but it was not to be. Conservative critics of the government's fairly interventionist economic policy, most notably the Chair of the Federal Reserve Alan Greenspan, advocated for tax cuts and low interest rates to accentuate the bubble, which Richards claimed during a speech would amount to 'prematurely pricking the bubble and destroying its positive effect'. However, voters were by and large unconvinced, especially since taxes had been steadily increasing since Richards took office despite her efforts to keep them fairly low, and in the 1998 midterms the Republicans increased their House and Senate majorities.

As with her first term, the post-midterm part of Richards' second term went markedly better. During early 1999, NATO intervention (chiefly by the Americans and British) in Kosovo helped lead to the agreement of the Kumanovo Treaty and ended the Kosovo War, a further boon for Richards on the world stage, and the emergence of the Y2K problem made the Republicans' playing on the Dot-com bubble look foolhardy. Ultimately, of course, this passed without much incident, but there was one way in which the year 2000 would cause problems: the bubble bursting. While Greenspan had been contemplating a run for President due to his raised profile, these issues caused him to abandon it.

Instead, the Republicans turned primarily to moderates untainted by this affair; the main frontrunners were former Governor of Tennessee and Secretary of Education Lamar Alexander and Arizona Senator John McCain, though more conservative figures like Indiana Senator Dan Quayle also entered the race, with fairly limited success. Alexander ultimately came out on top thanks to his unusually frugal campaign tour appealing to fiscally conservative Republicans and garnering him positive press during 1999 and 2000 and his fairly low profile allowing him to avoid controversies, such as that which befell McCain when he spoke out against the removal of a confederate flag in South Carolina.
After winning the primary, for a decent regional balance Alexander picked Ohio Representative John Kasich, a fellow moderate with whom he enjoyed a positive working relationship, to serve as his running mate.

On the Democratic side, the main frontrunner was Vice President Kerry, with only a few figures critical of the Richards administration like former Nebraska Senator Bob Kerrey and actor-director Warren Beatty even really making much noise about running against him. Securing the nomination by March, the real question was who he would pick to be his running mate. A few different options were available to him, but it was generally felt he should have a Southerner on hand to appeal to that region's voters, especially given Alexander's presence at the top of the Republican ticket. The two main figures he considered were Governor of Georgia Roy Barnes and Senator Al Gore of Tennessee, eventually picking the latter not only because he could prevent the Volunteer State voting for a Republican favourite son, but also in the hopes that he could point to his role in building the infrastructure of the internet and attack Greenspan for helping make the bubble for its industry burst.

This latter tactic seemed to work well at first, but in one of the most notable moments of the campaign, Alexander remarked at a rally in Louisville that 'someone needs to tell the Vice President he's not running against Alan Greenspan, he's running against Lamar Alexander!', which severely undercut its effectiveness on voters. On top of this, Alexander's efforts to point to his healthcare reform plans and claims that they would cut costs without cutting accessibility or quality chimed with many voters, although Kerry fought back strongly by campaigning with the popular President Richards, having her hit the campaign trail in her native Texas repeatedly, and drawing attention himself to Alexander's decision to allow the accreditation of schools run by creationists, seeking to undermine Alexander's efforts to portray himself as centrist.

It was unclear, come election day, who would come out on top, but most felt it was likely to be Alexander. In the event, however, it turned out to be even closer than expected.


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Alexander/Kasich (Republican): 284 EVs, 47.63%
Kerry/Gore (Democratic): 254 EVs, 47.62%

By 9,421 votes out of over 105 million cast nationwide, Alexander had won, and he won the Electoral College thanks to an extremely narrow victory in Michigan. It was a surprise to some analysts that the South did not really swing much to the Republicans in 2000, as only Florida and Kentucky flipped to the Republican column. Most of the Democrats' losses were on the west coast, thanks in no small part to a strong performance from Green candidate Ralph Nader, who capitalized on the anti-neoliberal sentiments of protesters after the previous year's riots during the WTO conference in Seattle, and in the Midwest thanks to Kasich's presence on the Republican ticket. While Kerry did challenge the Michigan result to see if a recount would give him a victory, when it did not he conceded on Friday the 10th, two days after the initial results were completed.

Despite the contentiousness among the public about the closeness of the election and the allegations of fraud in Michigan allowing Alexander to win it, the President-elect not only allowed his acceptance speech to be delayed until the recount in Michigan ended, but was conciliatory in his tone, declaring he wished to be 'a President we can all be proud of, and someone who will represent not only the American people who voted for me, but everyone who didn't vote for me.'

Having lost to him by the closest of margins,
and given his party controlled both Houses of Congress and was chomping at the bit to reverse some of the liberalization of the Richards administration, many liberals remarked that was easy for him to say. But the contention between his supporters and opponents would set the scene for the tumultuous period that accompanied the dawn of the 21st century.
 
I just made another American Federation TL map.

*

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The Republic of Dakota is one of the more unusual states of the Federation politically, and despite being a relatively small country has produced some of the most colorful figures in American politics. Its political system also stands out as a rather unusual one: while the House of Delegates, the upper legislature that is elected every five years, is a proportional chamber where districts of roughly equal size elect three members each, the lower legislature, the House of Representatives, gives the right to elect one Representative to each county (the local government subdivisions of the Republic), allowing a second representative to every county with more than 20,000 residents and adding more on for every 10,000 people. Many outside the Republic consider it extremely unfair how disproportionate this makes the districts- for example, the residents of Slope County get as much representation with 727 residents as about 15,000 people in Fargo (which has worsened as that city's population has grown in recent years)- but the major parties have generally not done a huge amount to oppose this since it benefits each of them in numerous ways.

Additionally, in recent years, more pressing issues have emerged in Dakota, as negotiations between it, Canada and Kootenai over the profits from the oil boom as a result of fracking have become the most intense political issue in the state. The oil boom helping to strengthen Dakota's economy in contrast to the economic downturn across the country under popular Chancellor of the House of Representatives Kevin Cramer was key in the landslide victory of his party, the Republicans, in the 2012 election after more narrowly taking office in the 2008 election. This was something of a surprise given that, in both 2010 and 2015, the centrist to centre-left Non-partisan League (NPL) led in the House of Delegates by Tim Johnson won the upper chamber fairly comfortably; however, Johnson's status as a moderate who has generally not vocally opposed fracking and instead spoke out in favour of the funds it raises being used to invest in public services has made him a fairly well-liked Prime Minister, and some have speculated that the Republicans' huge victory was at least partially tied to coinciding with the Presidential election, won by incumbent John Hoeven in a landslide.

In that sense, the 2016 elections were considered a real acid test for the Republicans. The NPL leader in the HoD, Heidi Heitkamp, criticized corruption from the Cramer administration and the unpreparedness of many counties for the influx of workers they recieved as a result of the oil boom. Two parties criticized fracking programs, the Indigenous Party, generally focused on Native American rights and led by Chase Iron Eyes, and the Green Party, which has collective leadership; the former focused on the disregard for their lands and the latter on the environmental costs of fracking. By contrast, the Libertarian Party, led by Joseph Porambo, advocated for further tax cuts and fracking than the Republicans would pledge, and several Independent candidates ran in Republican-inclined districts, the most notable candidate being former Prime Minister Larry Pressler.

While it was initially unclear which party would come out on top on election night, the Republicans soon surged ahead due to unfavorable returns for the NPL in the northwestern 'oil country', although they did make sizeable gains in the east. What remained uncertain until the very late returns was whether a hung Delegation would occur, due to the Libertarian and Independent gains further eating into the Republican majority. In the end, however, the Republicans won a majority of 32, significantly less than 2012 but still enough to govern alone easily.

As a result, despite aggressive protests from environmentalists, Native American activists and critics claiming the government is unprepared for an eventual oil bust, Cramer's re-election prospects for 2020 seem to be pretty good.
 
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Here's a fun riddle; describe how this county map happens in any Presidential election between 1980 and 2008. bonus points if you can guess the exact state map too.
 
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