"You can't buy a person. But you sure can rent one for a while."--Doris Duke https://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/…/28/1085641716411.html
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_H._R._Cromwell for background on James H[enry] R[oberts] Cromwell.
In 1940 Cromwell got 44.1 percent of the vote against W. Warren Barbour (R)'s 55.1 in the race for US Senator for New Jersey. https://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=267930 Cromwell had been US minister to Canada before he decided to run for the Senate. See https://web.archive.org/…/www.empireclubfounda…/details.asp… for his March 14, 1940 address to the Empire Club in Toronto. Apparently he had caused some controversy in the US by his "un-neutral" statement of his opinion that "the Allies were fighting for the perpetuation of individual liberty and freedom." In the Empire Club speech, he vigorously defends this opinion.
Suppose Cromwell had won? According to https://web.archive.org/…/2…/http://www.serianni.com/wh1.htm he was a "devoted New Dealer." His stepfather told him, "It's a good thing you married the richest girl in the world [Doris Duke] because you will get very little from me. I made my fortune and I am going to squander it myself; not your friend Roosevelt."
I'm not sure what the POD for Cromwell winning would be--given his marriage, he presumably wasn't lacking for funds (and he wasn't exactly poor himself, despite his stepfather's determination to squander his own money). Maybe there is some scandal involving Barbour. We could then have Cromwell as FDR's running mate in 1944--OK, two wealthy northeastern liberals on one ticket might be too much, but after all, New Jersey was a closely contested state.
http://psephos.adam-carr.net/countries/u/usa/pres/1944.txt
Cromwell and Duke were divorced in 1943. (Later Duke married Dominican playboy Porfirio Rubirosa.) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doris_Duke Maybe if Cromwell had won and was talked about as a presidential possibility, they might have stayed married (if Duke was sufficiently intrigued about the idea of becoming First Lady). Of course they might also have been more likely to stay married if their daughter Arden, born in 1940, had lived more than one day.
(There has been some dispute as to whether Doris Duke was ever a great beauty. See http://www.artnet.com/Magazine/features/mason/mason6-2-1.asp for an early photo, and decide for yourself...)
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