AHC: A lasting regional third party in the US

What it says on the tin. Since some of the most successful third party performances for the presidency and in Congress have been regionally focused, could a lasting regional party develop? The closest OTL example I can think of would be the Farmer-Labor Party in Minnesota, but they were still absorbed by the Democrats.

One interesting possibility I can think of is a rump Progressive Party in California after 1912. Since Hiram Johnson was governor there and many Progressive senators and Representatives were from California, I could see it surviving for longer if it became inwardly focused.
 

Anaxagoras

Banned
Nixon wins in 1960, and you get the Dixiecrat Party easily enough.

Something like this. The most likely candidate would be a Southern pro-segregationist party. This would be pretty bad news for the country, although the Democrats would benefit greatly.
 
The only way this will work long-term is for this regional third-party to basically be an adjunct of one of the national parties. Foreign examples would be the Bavarian CSU and the German CDU, or the National Party and Liberal Party in Australia.

It's actually quite difficult to make this happen, though with some changes you could perhaps get Southern Democrats breaking off to form a Dixiecrat Party - maybe called the "States' Rights Democratic Party" (as in OTL 1948) or the "Conservative Democratic Party" which is in alliance with the national Republican Party.

The reason I say this is than in the US, the presidency plus FPTP makes a 2-party system basically inevitable. Unless a party can credibly contest the presidency it is very difficult for it to last long-term. The exceptions seem to be some state-based parties which themselves were informally allied with the Democratic Party (i.e. the Farmer-Labor Party of MN and the Progressive Party of WI).

Maybe you have a 2-party system between the Democrats and "the Alliance" (a.k.a. the Republican-Conservative-Democratic Coalition).
 
The only way this will work long-term is for this regional third-party to basically be an adjunct of one of the national parties. Foreign examples would be the Bavarian CSU and the German CDU, or the National Party and Liberal Party in Australia.

It's actually quite difficult to make this happen, though with some changes you could perhaps get Southern Democrats breaking off to form a Dixiecrat Party - maybe called the "States' Rights Democratic Party" (as in OTL 1948) or the "Conservative Democratic Party" which is in alliance with the national Republican Party.

The reason I say this is than in the US, the presidency plus FPTP makes a 2-party system basically inevitable. Unless a party can credibly contest the presidency it is very difficult for it to last long-term. The exceptions seem to be some state-based parties which themselves were informally allied with the Democratic Party (i.e. the Farmer-Labor Party of MN and the Progressive Party of WI).

Maybe you have a 2-party system between the Democrats and "the Alliance" (a.k.a. the Republican-Conservative-Democratic Coalition).

Wouldn't that be more akin to a two and a half party system? You have an alliance of two similar, yet different parties, who could split over certain issues, especially if the Republicans are more moderate than the Conservative Democratic Party. The Dems can become a liberal/progress/socialist as they like, and even with their conservative wing breaking off in the 1960's, would probably end up as the largest party in the US.
 
Wouldn't that be more akin to a two and a half party system? You have an alliance of two similar, yet different parties, who could split over certain issues, especially if the Republicans are more moderate than the Conservative Democratic Party. The Dems can become a liberal/progress/socialist as they like, and even with their conservative wing breaking off in the 1960's, would probably end up as the largest party in the US.

Sort of - but what I mean is that they'd run a common presidential candidate, generally form a single caucus in the congressional chambers. There would still be some ideological differences for sure, but the differences would be somewhat muted.
 
I agree with SlideAway -- a situation similar to the German CSU/CDU, where this "third party" basically just replaces one or the other at the state level and cooperates with one of the parties on the national level, seems like the most likely occurance.

But, you could probably have the regional party break away from it's former affiliate. For example, the Progressives totally replace the Republicans in California during the progressive era, continue to cooperate with the Republicans for the next few decades, and then start to drift away as the Republicans shift to the right. But then the problem becomes -- what happens to the CA Democratic Party? Do they just remain the state's conservative party, becoming to the national party what the Alabama Democratic Party is to the national party?

Unless of course the Progressive Party shifts with the national Republican Party.

You could even have, in such a case, the Republicans attempting to make inroads and basically becoming a third party in the state.
 

Jasen777

Donor
Something like this. The most likely candidate would be a Southern pro-segregationist party. This would be pretty bad news for the country, although the Democrats would benefit greatly.

The problem is that there's little reason for such a party after segregation is abolished by the feds, which seems very likely to happen at some point.

Under out system, any bloc strong enough to be a regional party is nearly inevitably going to be snatched up by one of the two major parties.
 
The only way this will work long-term is for this regional third-party to basically be an adjunct of one of the national parties. Foreign examples would be the Bavarian CSU and the German CDU, or the National Party and Liberal Party in Australia.
Here's a thought: maybe for presidential elections they have a combined ticket, where the presidential candidate comes from the bigger party and the vice-presidential candidate from the smaller party. Like how whenever the Coalition's in power in Australia, the Prime Minister is the Liberal leader and the Deputy Prime Minister is the National leader.

I wonder how the primaries would work in that case? Would the smaller party have primaries for who their supporters want to be vice-president? Would "closed" primaries be open only to their own members, or to members of the other coalition party too?
 
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