AH Challenge: California as Mondale-Minnesota, McGovern-Massachusetts Analogue

Basically what the thread says.

With a POD no earlier than 1960, have California be the only state a major party carries in a presidential election up until the present. Bonus points if you can get it to happen more than once.

(If the Democratic Party is the party on the bad side of the landslide, they are allowed to carry the District of Columbia as well.)
 
Would Eugene McCarthy have carried California in 68 ? Would he have done BETTER than Humphrey, or worse ?

Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 
Watch me weave PODs like a drunken sailor:

August 22, 1988: A month after the Democratic convention ends, nominee Joe Biden collapses from an untreated brain aneurysm. He goes into a coma, throwing the election into chaos.
August 31, 1988: Dem VP nominee Gary Hart seemed to be the presumptive new presidential nominee, until today, when his affair with Donna Rice is finally uncovered -- and Rice is dead. Hart's poll numbers drop to almost zero overnight.
September 29-October 1, 1988: The Democrats finally re-convene for their second convention. Straw votes quickly eliminate Biden and Hart, but no one can agree on the replacements. Jesse Jackson rises to 33% of the vote, but NY, PA, and FL refuse to cast any votes for Jackson because of his infamous "Hymietown" remarks (some things are too good to be butterflied away). Ferraro, Dukakis, and Bentsen each hear their names called, but since it is now completely obvious that the Republicans will win, no one is eager to be the sacrificial lamb.
October 2, 1988: Desperate, the Democrats decide to go with the "Anybody but Bush" strategy, campaigning not for any candidate but simply against Bush. This plan infamously becomes known, however, as "Operation 1836", after the Presidential election it resembles: unable to compete against a popular Vice President, the Democrats simply put up a different candidate in every state and hope to throw the election to the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives.
November 8, 1988: Operation 1836 fails, and Bush cruises to victory. The one anomaly is Calfornia, which plumps for its popular governor, Harvey Milk.
 
1968

RFK lives and picks Ralph Yarborough as VP.

Reagan wins the '68 nomination (he is helped by the lingering belief that Nixon can't beat a Kennedy), and picks General Westmoreland for VP. Moderate Republicans defect to the new Progressive ticket, led by Nelson Rockefeller (who picks James A. Rhodes, Governor of Ohio).

Picking Happy Chandler instead of Curtis LeMay, Wallace sweeps the South (plus Oklahoma), except for Texas, which goes Democratic.

Wallace and Reagan split the conservative Republican vote in the Midwest with Rockefeller getting the moderate Republicans which leaves Democrats—despite hanging in no higher than 40%—with most of the states. In Washington & Oregon Rockefeller carries Democrats (instead of Democrats holding their base). In the North Wallace and Reagan compete for the blue collar Democrat/Republican vote with Rockefeller siphoning off the moderate Republicans—this leads to a near-complete Democratic victory with Rockefeller retaining the Republican base in NY, NJ, and NH as well as VP nominee Rhodes carrying Ohio for him.

Reagan's personal popularity keeps California in Republican hands.

Final tally is:
  • Republicans (Reagan-Westmoreland) — 40
  • Progressives (Rockefeller-Rhodes) — 105
  • American Independent Party (Wallace-Chandler) — 116
  • Democrats (RFK-Yarborough) — 274
 
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1968

RFK lives and picks Ralph Yarborough as VP.

Reagan wins the '68 nomination (he is helped by the lingering belief that Nixon can't beat a Kennedy), and picks General Westmoreland for VP. Moderate Republicans defect to the new Progressive ticket, led by Nelson Rockefeller (who picks James A. Rhodes, Governor of Ohio).

Picking Happy Chandler instead of Curtis LeMay, Wallace sweeps the South (plus Oklahoma), except for Texas, which goes Democratic.

Wallace and Reagan split the conservative Republican vote in the Midwest with Rockefeller getting the moderate Republicans which leaves Democrats—despite hanging in no higher than 40%—with most of the states. In Washington & Oregon Rockefeller carries Democrats (instead of Democrats holding their base). In the North Wallace and Reagan compete for the blue collar Democrat/Republican vote with Rockefeller siphoning off the moderate Republicans—this leads to a near-complete Democratic victory with Rockefeller retaining the Republican base in NY, NJ, and NH as well as VP nominee Rhodes carrying Ohio for him.

Reagan's personal popularity keeps California in Republican hands.

Final tally is:

  • Republicans (Reagan-Westmoreland) — 40
  • Progressives (Rockefeller-Rhodes) — 105
  • American Independent Party (Wallace-Chandler) — 116
  • Democrats (RFK-Yarborough) — 274

It's 1968 and the Republicans implode :eek:. Holy electoral climax! That'd make an interesting TL.
 
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