AHC: Make Grant Lose 1872

By all means, 1872 should have looked bleak for the President. He had failed to get his pet project of annexing the Dominican Republic passed and had split the party in the process to such an extent that the rival Liberal Republican faction was running against him. The Democrats even endorsed the Liberal Republicans to avoid splitting the anti-Grant forces. Yet Grant won an overwhelmingly victory over the Liberal Republicans. In hindsight, it seems like an election that couldn't be lost. The Democrats were too unpopular due to the stain of the war, and Grant was too popular. So your challenge is to figure out how to make Grant lose the election of 1872.
 
No thoughts? I presume the first thing is that Greeley can't be the nominee. Would someone like Sumner possibly win? But he might not get the Democratic nomination.
 
Give it at least a day before bumping your own thing.

I think David Davis could beat Grant. He was someone for everyone.
 
Give it at least a day before bumping your own thing.

I think David Davis could beat Grant. He was someone for everyone.
I haven't heard much about him. He wasn't able to win the nomination when he tried IOTL. Was that more because Greeley had spent a lot of time securing support for his own nomination so Davis couldn't really complete. I definitely feel like Greeley is the weird one in all this. How did a newspaper publisher with some weird views become the standard bearer of the anti-Grant forces when there were so many better qualified people who were against Grant?
 
The Democrats were willing to back Greeley IOTL, but I think Hell would have to have frozen over before they backed Sumner.
How was Greeley that different than Sumner? Greeley was one of the biggest abolitionist and fighters against the Democrats. I still don't even get how the Democrats managed to get their people to back Greeley.
 

Anaxagoras

Banned
How was Greeley that different than Sumner? Greeley was one of the biggest abolitionist and fighters against the Democrats. I still don't even get how the Democrats managed to get their people to back Greeley.

Because Greeley was malleable. Sumner was strong as steel.
 
More thoughts? For instance, you guys think that if Grant had actually succeeded in annexing the Dominican Republic, it could have led to a violent occupation war that would diminish his popularity?
 
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