Challenge/WI: Aaron Burr elected president

With a POD no earlier than 1789, would it be possible for Aaron Burr to become president? Not just in 1800, but at any point thereafter.

And what would be the effects, of a feminist and abolitionist such as Burr becoming president?
 
Quite possible. In the tiebreaker election in the House in 1800, the vote was deadlocked for 35 ballots with 8 state delegations voting for Jefferson, 6 states for Burr, and 2 tied, with 9 states needed for victory. Two of Jefferson's states had only one Congressman present and voting, so flipping him would flip the state.

Flip one vote each in three of those four states (MD, VT, TN, and GA), and Burr wins. It's hard to outline a detailed scenario without knowing who voted which way and why, but Burr was close enough that I expect it'd be plausible. Most likely, I think, would be for one more Federalist each in MD and GA join in the support of Burr, then Burr cuts a deal with a D/R Congressman in either VT or TN to put himself over the top.

Two other plausible scenarios for a Burr Presidency:

  1. Burr firmly rejects overtures to elect him in the tiebreaker election, or the electors coordinate better and there's no need for a tiebreaker election. Burr then either doesn't duel Hamilton, or misses his shot and proclaims honor to be satisfied. In general, Burr keeps his nose clean and builds a national political base for himself as Jefferson's loyal VP between 1801 and 1808, then becomes the D/R nominee in 1808 and goes on to win the Presidency.
  2. Jefferson dies in office during his first term, due to illness or assassination.
The effects of a Burr Presidency would depend wildly on how and when he becomes President.


If he "steals" the 1800 election from Jefferson, he'll likely mirror the OTL pattern of President Tyler: perceived as having gotten into office illegitimately through exploiting a technicality, and despised by both parties in Congress (in Burr's case, the D/Rs would hate him for stealing the election from Jefferson, and the Feds for being a D/R). The D/R majority in Congress is likely to dominate national politics, with Jefferson and Madison pulling the strings from behind the scenes and Burr acting as a speed bump.


This might buy time for a Federalist revival, but more likely, the Jeffersonian Revolution will still take place, albeit with parts of the agenda delayed until Jefferson's elected in 1804. The biggest long-term effect would probably be a moderate increase in Congress's de facto power relative to the Presidency.


Burr winning fair and square in 1808 could be very interesting, but I don't know enough about his policy preferences and political acumen to speculate, so I'll defer to others.


If the 1800 election goes as OTL, but Jefferson dies in office during his first term, things could get very ugly. Particularly if Jefferson were to be assassinated in 1804, before the election but after the Burr/Hamilton duel.
 
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