alternatehistory.com

I think this fits here.

Crossroads of Destiny

No, there were indeed elections and opposition before 1888, I just literally ran out of obscure people to dig up for this list (I was building this from down and towards the POD, you see)

(Also, this isn't an actual TL I thought of. This is actually just a convertion of the history of a PI election game, titled Crossroads of Destiny, into an OTL president list. But you can still enjoy it as a president list.)

1861-1862: Abraham Lincoln*/Hannibal Hamlin (Republican)

1862-1865: Hannibal Hamlin/Henry L. Dawes (Republican)

1865-1869: Hannibal Hamlin/Edward Everett (Republican/Constitutional Union)

1869-1877: Henry L. Dawes/Salmon P. Chase (National Union)

1877-1878: Joseph E. Johnston+/Clement Vallandigham (Democratic)

1878-1881: Clement Vallandigham/George S. Boutwell (Liberal Freedom/Populist)

1881-1885: John B. Page/Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte (National Union)

1885-1889: Isaac P. Gray/James A. Weston (Conservative)

1889-1890: Isaac P. Gray+/Ulysses S. Grant (Conservative)
1888 def.: Nelson A. Miles/John Sherman (Democratic-Republican)

1890-1893: Ulysses S. Grant/William E. Cameron (Conservative)

1893: Ulysses S. Grant*/J. P. Morgan (Democratic)
1892 def.: John L. Beveridge/Stephen W. Dorsey (Progressive), Alexander Stephens/Thomas Edison (Conservative), Oliver Ames/John Sherman (Republican)

1893-1901: Nelson A. Miles/John Sherman (Progressive/Republican)
1896 tickets: Nelson A. Miles/John L. Beveridge (Progressive), John Sherman/Thomas Edison (Republican), David M. Clough/Oliver Hudson Kelley (Conservative), William J. Northen/David Gardiner Tyler (Southern), Peter J. McGuire/Kurt Eisner (Labor)

1901-1903: Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte II+/John Sherman (Republican)
1900 def.: Oliver Hudson Kelley/Eugene Hale (Conservative), John L. Beveridge/Adlai Stevenson (Progressive), Kurt Eisner/Peter J. McGuire (Labor)

1903-1905: John Sherman/Thomas Edison (Republican)

1905-1909: Oliver Hudson Kelley/Miles B. McSweeney (Conservative)
1904 def.: John Sherman/Thomas Edison (Republican), Theodore Roosevelt/James Wilson (Progressive), Robert Van Wyck/Caroline Scott Harrison (Independent), Peter J. McGuire/Kurt Eisner (Labor)

1909-1917: John D. Rockefeller/Joseph B. Foraker (Conservative)
1908 def.: Charles Joseph Bonaparte/Henry Ford (Republican), Theodore Roosevelt/William Jennings Bryan (Progressive), Robert Van Wyck/John A. Johnson (Liberal), Eugene V. Debs/Peter J. McGuire (United Left)
1912 def.: Henry Ford/Charles Evans Hughes (Republican), Theodore Roosevelt/Eugene V. Debs (Progressive), Nelson A. Miles/Albert B. Cummins (Independent)

1917-1921: Henry Ford+/James Weldon Johnson (Republican)
1916 def.: Richard J. Reynolds Jr./Joseph B. Foraker (Conservative), Robert M. La Follette Sr./James Wilson (Progressive), Eugene V. Debs/Peter J. McGuire (United Left)
1920 def.: Woodrow Wilson/William Stephens (Conservative), Robert M. La Follette Sr./Henry Cabot Lodge (Progressive), Charles Schenck/Hiram Johnson (Nationalist), Victor L. Berger/Eugene V. Debs (United Left)

1921-: James Weldon Johnson/Robert M. La Follette Sr. (Progressive-Republican)
1924 def.: John M. Slaton/Carl Milliken (Conservative), William Joseph Simmons/Woodrow Wilson (Ku Klux Klan), Charles Schenck/Hiram Johnson (Nationalist), Robert Van Wyck/Calvin Coolidge (United All-American), Rosa Luxemburg/Victor L. Berger (Social Democratic), Henry Cabot Lodge/Norman Thomas (People's)

+ - president died in office from natural causes
* - president assassinated in office

Some highlights of the period:

• The Civil War continues until 1867.
• President Dawes leads a successful Reconstruction.
• President Johnston's short reign coincided with the beginning of the worst recession in American history. He is not viewed lightly.
• President Vallandigham becomes an opium addict after the pressure of dealing with the economic crash.
• All elections from 1896 to 1904 go to Congress.
• The Great War goes on from 1904 to 1911, and the US joins in 1907, after a skirmish between the German and American navies.
• The US joins the "Council of Nations", and thanks to the efforts of President Ford, basically becomes the leader of the free world 20 years earlier.
• After President Ford's death to a stroke, James W. Johnson becomes the first African-American president in history. This doesn't make the KKK happy and they attempt to burn the White House down as a result. It fails.