AH Challenge:Harry Browne '96

The challenge is to get Browne of the LP up to 15% nationally in the 1996 election. An especially hard challenge is to get him to win '96.
 
Well, its been established that Ron Paul has some potential electoral appeal, and while it wasn't realized when he ran as the LP nominee in 1988, let's say he loses the 1988 LP nomination to Russell Means that year, and stays in the Congress. Then he runs again in 1992, albeit in the Republican primaries (Pat Buchanan stays out). After racking up big protest votes against G.H.W. Bush (somewhat bigger than what Pat did in OTL), he announces in June that he's running for President on the LP ticket. In July, H. Ross Perot dies of a heart attack, at the peak of his popularity (its a week before the Democratic convention, and he's coming in 1st place with about 40% of the vote in most national polls). Many Perot supporters, unwilling to return to the fold of the BiPartisan Party, wind up supporting Ron Paul (Perot had even mentioned Paul as a potential Veep on his ticket). Paul selects Harry Browne as his running mate. Paul and Browne both participate in the debates, much like Perot and Stockdale in OTL, due to their meeting the 15% national polling threshold. Paul does very well, but Browne really wows the nation, and many people wish he were at the top of the ticket, instead of Paul; he's like the Lloyd Bentsen of 1992 - when the Veep candidates are polled separately, Browne comes out more popular than both Al Gore and Jack Kemp. On Election Day, the Paul/Browne ticket receives 23% of the vote, and carries Alaska, Montana, New Hampshire, and three out of four of Maine's Electoral Votes, for 13 total (Clinton wins with an EC majority).

Harry Browne spends the next four year basically running for President, making himself as visible as possible, and raising funds. Bill Clinton and Bob Dole are both not at all popular (as was more-or-less the case in OTL, but Clinton is an even more polarizing figure*), while Harry Browne is well liked and respected by most voters, even ones who don't like his policies. After another tour-de-force performance at the debates, he wins the election. The popular vote is Browne 37%, Clinton 35%, and Dole 28%. Harry Browne carries Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Florida, Missouri, and every single state west of Missouri (including that strip from Texas to North Dakota), except for Utah (Bob Dole's only victory) and Hawaii. The Electoral College count is Browne 278, Clinton 255, and Dole 5.


*This is because Timothy McVeigh was so inspired by the 1992 Paul/Browne campaign, that he's too busy organizing support for Browne '96 to commit any felonies. Without a right-wing act of domestic terrorism on April 19th, 1995, Bill Clinton has a more difficult time recovering from the 1994 midterm debacle, lacking anything by which to rally the nation around his Presidency in united opposition towards.
 
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