AHC: POTUS George Wallace

Yeah, several of his statements really seemed to imply it was all an act to go forward in politics. Wasn't he rather moderate on civil rights when he lost his first race for governor?
 
Nixon gets hit by a car and dies in 1968, Reagan wins the Republican nomination with Wallace as his running mate, Reagan beats LBJ in 1968. Otherwise known as the premise for Icarus Falls. Except here, Reagan is shot and killed shortly after inauguration. Introducing President George Wallace.
 
Was a Wallace nomination even mathematically possible at the time Bremer shot Wallace? I may have been relying on a bad source but I was under the impression that even if Wallace were to win all subsequent contests he wouldn't have enough delegates to win the nomination outright-and he may not have had enough for a plurality.

The contests that followed the shooting with the largest amount of delegates may have been unfriendly to Wallace. Admittedly Wallace may have put in larger victories in Maryland and Michigan-but after that-where would his delegates come from?


For example-given that McGovern won in California I have my doubts that Wallace would have won there. Yes the state voted for Reagan as Governor-but a McGovern voting electorate seems unlikely to vote for the opposite candidate. And California had more delegates than the other remaining states.


Perhaps I'm wrong. I don't have access to a great source on the 1972 primaries. But I don't know the extent to which Wallace could have pulled off a victory after May 1972. I could see him winning more delegates-but nominating him is more difficult-and securing his nomination from an inevitable McGovern-Humphrey "stop Wallace" movement at the convention more difficult still.
 
Nixon gets hit by a car and dies in 1968, Reagan wins the Republican nomination with Wallace as his running mate, Reagan beats LBJ in 1968. Otherwise known as the premise for Icarus Falls. Except here, Reagan is shot and killed shortly after inauguration. Introducing President George Wallace.

Reagan is not going to name Wallace as his running mate. First of all, Wallace wasn't a Republican and in 1968 was still openly segregationist enough to be offensive to many Republicans, not all of them liberals. Second, Reagan wanted to conciliate moderate Republicans, as he tried to do in California. (He even tried to bury the hatchet with Thomas Kuchel, who however refused to endorse him. https://books.google.com/books?id=ZlRpAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA189 ). In fact, in OTL William Rusher was trying to get Charles Percy as Reagan's running mate. "If Percy wouldn't take the vice-presidency, they would look for another moderate. 'If I could be convinced that Ed Brooke could deliver a portion of the Negro vote, we would take him.' Rusher felt that the California governor would have no chance if he were perceived as the 1968 version of Goldwater, so at Miami he would 'do everything possible to appear moderate, humane, and compassionate...He must start appearing progressive, responsible, and ecumenical in a hurry." https://books.google.com/books?id=ZlRpAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA241
 
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