Challenge: 16 years of women as POTUS, 2001-1017

The most obvious scenario is eight years of Liddy Dole followed by eight years of Hillary Clinton.

The POD obviously is that something prevents GW Bush from running in 2000. (Maybe he dies in an accident. Maybe there is a spectacular lapse into youthful bad habits. Maybe he loses the 1994 Texas gubernatorial race. Maybe Clayton Williams avoids rape jokes and wins the Texas governorship in 1990; Bush obviously can't very well challenge him in 1994, and winnng the governorship in 1998 won't leave him with enough experience to be a plausible presidential candidate in 2000.) Liddy Dole will of course face plenty of opposition in the GOP primaries--from McCain, Kasich, Engler, Ashcroft, and other possible candidates--but that she can win the nomination and go on to defeat Gore is at least plausible.

Just why HRC rather than Obama would win the Democratic nomination and general election in 2008 in this ATL is something I haven't worked out yet...
 
The most obvious scenario is eight years of Liddy Dole followed by eight years of Hillary Clinton.

The POD obviously is that something prevents GW Bush from running in 2000. (Maybe he dies in an accident. Maybe there is a spectacular lapse into youthful bad habits. Maybe he loses the 1994 Texas gubernatorial race. Maybe Clayton Williams avoids rape jokes and wins the Texas governorship in 1990; Bush obviously can't very well challenge him in 1994, and winnng the governorship in 1998 won't leave him with enough experience to be a plausible presidential candidate in 2000.) Liddy Dole will of course face plenty of opposition in the GOP primaries--from McCain, Kasich, Engler, Ashcroft, and other possible candidates--but that she can win the nomination and go on to defeat Gore is at least plausible.

Just why HRC rather than Obama would win the Democratic nomination and general election in 2008 in this ATL is something I haven't worked out yet...

I'll do ya one better and give ya 20. Have Bush Sr. get re elected in 1992, have Ann Richards get re elected Governor in 1994, and run for the Presidency in 1996 and win and get re elected in 2000. Liddy Dole runs for the Senate in 1996, is re elected in 2002 and is elected President in 2004 and re elected in 2008. With Butterflies pushing the financial crisis to 2009 or 2010, have Kirsten Gillibrand (who is elected Senator in 2006 at the age of 39 TTL) get elected President in 2012 and re elected in 2016.
 
Here's a different possibility:

Dianne Feinstein wins the California governor's race in 1990. She gets selected as Bill Clinton's running mate in 2000, beats George W. Bush, and serves from 2001 to 2009.

After Bush's loss in 2000, he opts against running for reelection to the Texas governorship in 2002. Kay Bailey Hutchison runs for the TX governorship and wins. Though she'd have to finesse being nominally pro-choice, perhaps she can emerge as the GOP frontrunner for the 2008 nomination after winning reelection in 2006. In 2008, Hutchison (R) beats Feinstein's vice president, John Edwards and then wins reelection in 2012.
 
Here's a different possibility:

Dianne Feinstein wins the California governor's race in 1990. She gets selected as Bill Clinton's running mate in 2000, beats George W. Bush, and serves from 2001 to 2009.

After Bush's loss in 2000, he opts against running for reelection to the Texas governorship in 2002. Kay Bailey Hutchison runs for the TX governorship and wins. Though she'd have to finesse being nominally pro-choice, perhaps she can emerge as the GOP frontrunner for the 2008 nomination after winning reelection in 2006. In 2008, Hutchison (R) beats Feinstein's vice president, John Edwards and then wins reelection in 2012.

Clinton needed someone with foreign policy experience though, so I doubt she'd be picked if she won the governor's race in 1990.
 
Could you get Condeleeza Rice as Bush's VP then he dies early on? (I'm far from an expert on US politics, but the first female and black president being a republican would be interesting for the history books.)
 
Could you get Condeleeza Rice as Bush's VP then he dies early on? (I'm far from an expert on US politics, but the first female and black president being a republican would be interesting for the history books.)

She didn't have any prior political experience, while I think that it'd be good in a sense that it would be historic, it would hurt to.
 
Clinton needed someone with foreign policy experience though, so I doubt she'd be picked if she won the governor's race in 1990.

Well, you could have one of the many national Democrats who didn't run that year, do so. She probably wouldn't be a likely pick for Cuomo. But Al Gore, Jay Rockefeller, or Bill Bradley—particularly the former two—could well pick her.
 
It doesn't have to be just women from within the existing politics at the time. There's a few wealthy women with large name recognition that could intrude either parties' primaries similarly in the way that Trump unexpectedly came into the political spotlight.

Heck, you could write a timeline where Oprah Winfrey essentially runs as a Democrat-take on Donald Trump.

It sounds improbable, but so did Trump at first.
 
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