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Heliogabalus - Harold Stassen: The Determinator
Harold Stassen: The Determinator
1949-1953 Harold Stassen / Dwight H. Green (Republican)
def. 1948 Harry S. Truman / Alben W. Barkley (Democratic), Strom Thurmond / Fielding L. Wright (States’ Rights Democratic), and Henry A. Wallace / Glen H. Taylor (Progressive)
1953-1957 Estes Kefauver / W. Averell Harriman (Democratic)
def. 1952 Harold Stassen / Dwight H. Green (Republican)
1957-1958 Prescott Bush / George H. Bender (Republican)
def. 1956 Estes Kefauver / W. Averell Harriman (Democratic)
1958-1961 Prescott Bush / vacant (Republican)
1961-1965 Prescott Bush / Nelson Rockefeller (Republican)
def. 1960 Lyndon B. Johnson / John F. Kennedy (Democratic)
1965-1969 Robert F. Wagner Jr. / Herschel C. Loveless (Democratic)
def. 1964 Walter Judd / Thomas Kuchel (Republican) and Strom Thurmond / John Patterson (States’ Rights Democratic)
1969-1973 Philip Willkie / Richard Nixon (Republican)
def. 1968 Robert F. Wagner Jr. / Herschel C. Loveless (Democratic)
1973-1976 Gaylord Nelson / Scoop Jackson (Democratic)
def 1972 Philip Willkie / Richard Nixon (Republican)
1976-1976 Scoop Jackson / vacant (Democratic)
1976-1981 Scoop Jackson / Milton Shapp (Democratic)
def. 1976 Richard Nixon / Mel Bradford (Republican)
1981-1985 Harold Stassen / Nancy Kassebaum (Republican)
def. 1980 Scoop Jackson / Milton Shapp (Democratic)
Stassen is nominated in 1948 and defeats Truman. However, his presidency, which includes the Korean War, does not go as smoothly as he would like and he is narrowly defeated by Estes Kefauver in 1952. He initially tries to pull a Grover Cleveland in 1956, but finds himself lacking in support, and so he instead endorses the eventually nominee, Connecticut Senator Prescott Bush. Bush wins, but Vice President George H. Bender, who was chosen to appease the conservative faction of the party, dies in 1958 [just a few years before he did IOTL]. Additionally in 1958, Former President Stassen successfully runs for Governor of Pennsylvania, becoming the third president (after John Quincy Adams and Andrew Johnson) to hold elective office after leaving the presidency and the second person (after Sam Houston) to have been governor of two different states.
In 1960, Bush considers a number vice presidential picks (including even Former President Stassen, who puts himself up for consideration), but eventually chooses his friend, New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller. The choice of a fellow Northeastern liberal infuriates conservatives in the party and creates a severely unbalanced ticket, but Bush believes that he is popular enough to pull off reelection despite this and ensure that Rockefeller is nominated in 1964; he is right in his first assumption, but not the second. While Rockefeller is initially the frontrunner in the 1964 primaries, he faces a conservative backlash that culminates in the nomination of Representative Walter Judd of Minnesota. The Democrats, meanwhile, nominate New York City Mayor Robert F. Wagner. However, the Southern faction, dissatisfied by the civil rights legislation of the Bush administration and the similarly pro-civil rights Democratic platform, revolts and hoists the Dixiecrat banner once more, again nominating Senator Thurmond, who chooses Alabama Governor John Malcolm Patterson as his running mate. In the close election, Thurmond succeeds in preventing either candidate from receiving an electoral majority, causing the election to go to Congress. After a great deal of cajoling, the House votes in Wagner, even though Judd had narrowly won a popular plurality, in returns for concessions for the South on civil rights issues.
After a controversial election and a lackluster first term, the Republicans are set for victory in 1968. Stassen, who had served his maximum of one consecutive term as Governor of Pennsylvania and had been elected to the senate in 1962, has never fully given up on his goal of attaining a second term and seriously considers a run. However, he is talked out of it and instead endorses Rockefeller. The conservatives, meanwhile, coalesce around a number of candidates, but all are dumbstruck by upset victories in the primaries and convention by young Indiana Senator Philip Willkie, son of 1940 Republican nominee Wendell Willkie, who unseats Wagner.
Willkie's presidency, however, does not go much better and he is unseated by environmentalist Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson. Nelson passes a number of liberal policies, but he is assassinated in 1976, leaving the office to his vice president, the liberal hawk Henry "Scoop" Jackson. Jackson appoints New York Governor Milton Shapp to the vice presidency, making him the first Jewish person to hold the office. The assassination of Nelson destroys the strategy of Former Vice President Richard Nixon, who has just finished clearing the field in the Republican primaries. Nixon decides to take a risk by choosing "traditionalist conservative" academic-turn-politician, Senator Mel Bradford* as his running mate, hoping to enthuse conservative Republicans and possibly attract non-interventionist liberals and moderates put off by Jackson's interventionism. However, this backfires as Bradford overshadows Nixon, drawing controversy for his strongly conservative beliefs and occasional contradiction of his running mate, all while culminating his own loyal base. Nixon unsurprisingly loses by a large margin.
Scoop Jackson is sworn in for a second term in 1977 with a clear mandate from the people, but he soon draws controversy by getting involved in the civil war in Thailand between the government and a strong communist insurgency, which escalates into a full-blown invasion and an increase in tensions with both the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China. The controversy over the war turns many liberals away from Jackson, despite his progressive domestic policies, while Senator Mel Bradford, a conservative isolationist, managed to pit himself as the polar opposite of Jackson. Desperate to stop Bradford and seeing this as his last chance to run again, Governor-turned-President-turned-Governor-turned-Senator Harold Stassen announces his candidacy for the 1980 Republican nomination. Stassen's first term has by this point been vindicated by history and he has largely made a new name for himself in the time since through his extensive public service record, but the seventy-two-year-old former president is still seen as a relic of the past by most. Nonetheless, as he gains in the polls and shows no signs of wanting to drop out, much of the Republican establishment falls behind him. Many in the increasingly conservative party fail to see how Stassen, a liberal internationalist, is much different than Jackson, but he manages to win the nomination by portraying Bradford as an unelectable extremist. Stassen choses Nancy Kassebaum (who was, coincidentally, the daughter of 1936 Republican nominee Alf Landon) as his running mate, creating excitement at the prospect of the first female vice president, and wins the general election by a large margin. With thirty-two years between his first and second terms, he has created a record that is unlikely to be broken; being forty-one years old at the time of his first inauguration and seventy-three at the time of his second, he also holds the records for both the youngest and oldest president.
*I tried to find a conservative isolationist for Stassen to go up against in 1980, but that turned out being much harder than it sounds since it was in the period between the fall of the Old Right and the rise of prominent paleoconservatives, so I decided to butterfly in Mel Bradford going into elective politics.
1949-1953 Harold Stassen / Dwight H. Green (Republican)
def. 1948 Harry S. Truman / Alben W. Barkley (Democratic), Strom Thurmond / Fielding L. Wright (States’ Rights Democratic), and Henry A. Wallace / Glen H. Taylor (Progressive)
1953-1957 Estes Kefauver / W. Averell Harriman (Democratic)
def. 1952 Harold Stassen / Dwight H. Green (Republican)
1957-1958 Prescott Bush / George H. Bender (Republican)
def. 1956 Estes Kefauver / W. Averell Harriman (Democratic)
1958-1961 Prescott Bush / vacant (Republican)
1961-1965 Prescott Bush / Nelson Rockefeller (Republican)
def. 1960 Lyndon B. Johnson / John F. Kennedy (Democratic)
1965-1969 Robert F. Wagner Jr. / Herschel C. Loveless (Democratic)
def. 1964 Walter Judd / Thomas Kuchel (Republican) and Strom Thurmond / John Patterson (States’ Rights Democratic)
1969-1973 Philip Willkie / Richard Nixon (Republican)
def. 1968 Robert F. Wagner Jr. / Herschel C. Loveless (Democratic)
1973-1976 Gaylord Nelson / Scoop Jackson (Democratic)
def 1972 Philip Willkie / Richard Nixon (Republican)
1976-1976 Scoop Jackson / vacant (Democratic)
1976-1981 Scoop Jackson / Milton Shapp (Democratic)
def. 1976 Richard Nixon / Mel Bradford (Republican)
1981-1985 Harold Stassen / Nancy Kassebaum (Republican)
def. 1980 Scoop Jackson / Milton Shapp (Democratic)
Stassen is nominated in 1948 and defeats Truman. However, his presidency, which includes the Korean War, does not go as smoothly as he would like and he is narrowly defeated by Estes Kefauver in 1952. He initially tries to pull a Grover Cleveland in 1956, but finds himself lacking in support, and so he instead endorses the eventually nominee, Connecticut Senator Prescott Bush. Bush wins, but Vice President George H. Bender, who was chosen to appease the conservative faction of the party, dies in 1958 [just a few years before he did IOTL]. Additionally in 1958, Former President Stassen successfully runs for Governor of Pennsylvania, becoming the third president (after John Quincy Adams and Andrew Johnson) to hold elective office after leaving the presidency and the second person (after Sam Houston) to have been governor of two different states.
In 1960, Bush considers a number vice presidential picks (including even Former President Stassen, who puts himself up for consideration), but eventually chooses his friend, New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller. The choice of a fellow Northeastern liberal infuriates conservatives in the party and creates a severely unbalanced ticket, but Bush believes that he is popular enough to pull off reelection despite this and ensure that Rockefeller is nominated in 1964; he is right in his first assumption, but not the second. While Rockefeller is initially the frontrunner in the 1964 primaries, he faces a conservative backlash that culminates in the nomination of Representative Walter Judd of Minnesota. The Democrats, meanwhile, nominate New York City Mayor Robert F. Wagner. However, the Southern faction, dissatisfied by the civil rights legislation of the Bush administration and the similarly pro-civil rights Democratic platform, revolts and hoists the Dixiecrat banner once more, again nominating Senator Thurmond, who chooses Alabama Governor John Malcolm Patterson as his running mate. In the close election, Thurmond succeeds in preventing either candidate from receiving an electoral majority, causing the election to go to Congress. After a great deal of cajoling, the House votes in Wagner, even though Judd had narrowly won a popular plurality, in returns for concessions for the South on civil rights issues.
After a controversial election and a lackluster first term, the Republicans are set for victory in 1968. Stassen, who had served his maximum of one consecutive term as Governor of Pennsylvania and had been elected to the senate in 1962, has never fully given up on his goal of attaining a second term and seriously considers a run. However, he is talked out of it and instead endorses Rockefeller. The conservatives, meanwhile, coalesce around a number of candidates, but all are dumbstruck by upset victories in the primaries and convention by young Indiana Senator Philip Willkie, son of 1940 Republican nominee Wendell Willkie, who unseats Wagner.
Willkie's presidency, however, does not go much better and he is unseated by environmentalist Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson. Nelson passes a number of liberal policies, but he is assassinated in 1976, leaving the office to his vice president, the liberal hawk Henry "Scoop" Jackson. Jackson appoints New York Governor Milton Shapp to the vice presidency, making him the first Jewish person to hold the office. The assassination of Nelson destroys the strategy of Former Vice President Richard Nixon, who has just finished clearing the field in the Republican primaries. Nixon decides to take a risk by choosing "traditionalist conservative" academic-turn-politician, Senator Mel Bradford* as his running mate, hoping to enthuse conservative Republicans and possibly attract non-interventionist liberals and moderates put off by Jackson's interventionism. However, this backfires as Bradford overshadows Nixon, drawing controversy for his strongly conservative beliefs and occasional contradiction of his running mate, all while culminating his own loyal base. Nixon unsurprisingly loses by a large margin.
Scoop Jackson is sworn in for a second term in 1977 with a clear mandate from the people, but he soon draws controversy by getting involved in the civil war in Thailand between the government and a strong communist insurgency, which escalates into a full-blown invasion and an increase in tensions with both the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China. The controversy over the war turns many liberals away from Jackson, despite his progressive domestic policies, while Senator Mel Bradford, a conservative isolationist, managed to pit himself as the polar opposite of Jackson. Desperate to stop Bradford and seeing this as his last chance to run again, Governor-turned-President-turned-Governor-turned-Senator Harold Stassen announces his candidacy for the 1980 Republican nomination. Stassen's first term has by this point been vindicated by history and he has largely made a new name for himself in the time since through his extensive public service record, but the seventy-two-year-old former president is still seen as a relic of the past by most. Nonetheless, as he gains in the polls and shows no signs of wanting to drop out, much of the Republican establishment falls behind him. Many in the increasingly conservative party fail to see how Stassen, a liberal internationalist, is much different than Jackson, but he manages to win the nomination by portraying Bradford as an unelectable extremist. Stassen choses Nancy Kassebaum (who was, coincidentally, the daughter of 1936 Republican nominee Alf Landon) as his running mate, creating excitement at the prospect of the first female vice president, and wins the general election by a large margin. With thirty-two years between his first and second terms, he has created a record that is unlikely to be broken; being forty-one years old at the time of his first inauguration and seventy-three at the time of his second, he also holds the records for both the youngest and oldest president.
*I tried to find a conservative isolationist for Stassen to go up against in 1980, but that turned out being much harder than it sounds since it was in the period between the fall of the Old Right and the rise of prominent paleoconservatives, so I decided to butterfly in Mel Bradford going into elective politics.
- Heliogabalus
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