Collaborative Lists of Alternate Prime Ministers and Presidents

So I recently came across this thread which seemed to have an interesting concept of members collaborating together to create lists of alternate PMs - much like the list of monarchs thread which is still going in the Before 1900 forum. Unfortunately, it is over four months old and I wouldn't dare divulge into the dark act of necromancy, and so I have created a new thread to see if anyone wants to continue it.

The rules:

(1) One Prime Minister/President per post,
(2) No making a new list until one which is already going is finished,
(3) Keep things plausible (although be creative!), and
(4) Make sure to add a footnote after adding a PM to explain what has happened.

I'll start it off:

For a Lack of a Sandwich, or the Archduke survives

1915: Andrew Bonar Law (Conservative) [1]

[1] By 1915, the Liberals had been in power for nine years, during which their initial landslide in 1906 had been reduced to a minority in the two general elections of 1910. Henry Campbell-Bannerman and his successor, H.H. Asquith, had seen turmoil and reform during their premierships, with Asquith having passed the Government of Ireland Act during his final year in power (which introduced Home Rule in Southern Ireland while Ulster was exempted from the Act due to firm opposition to Home Rule within the province), and so the British people were in a mood for change. Consequently, the Conservatives, led by Andrew Bonar Law, secured a landslide, sweeping the country and holding a large majority in the House of Commons, while the Liberals once again returned to the opposition benches. Meanwhile, Bonar Law accepted an invitation from King George V to form a government as Prime Minister and arrived at Number Ten Downing Street triumphant.
 
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1917: Stanley Baldwin (Conservative) [2]

[2]: Bonar Law was a sick man. His death barely 18 months after he became Prime Minister was a huge shock. Seeking quickly to keep the government stable George V asked Baldwin to become PM. Baldwin's first tenure as PM was dominated by overseeing the end of the war and locking horns with Wilson over Versailles.

 
For a Lack of a Sandwich, or the Archduke survives

1915: Andrew Bonar Law (Conservative) [1]
1917:
Stanley Baldwin (Conservative) [2]
1920: Stanley Baldwin (Conservative) [3]

[1] By 1915, the Liberals had been in power for nine years, during which their initial landslide in 1906 had been reduced to a minority in the two general elections of 1910. Henry Campbell-Bannerman and his successor, H.H. Asquith, had seen turmoil and reform during their premierships, with Asquith having passed the Government of Ireland Act during his final year in power (which introduced Home Rule in Southern Ireland while Ulster was exempted from the Act due to firm opposition to Home Rule within the province), and so the British people were in a mood for change. Consequently, the Conservatives, led by Andrew Bonar Law, secured a landslide, sweeping the country and holding a large majority in the House of Commons, while the Liberals once again returned to the opposition benches. Meanwhile, Bonar Law accepted an invitation from King George V to form a government as Prime Minister and arrived at Number Ten Downing Street triumphant.
[2]: Bonar Law was a sick man. His death barely 18 months after he became Prime Minister was a huge shock. Seeking quickly to keep the government stable George V asked Baldwin to become PM. Baldwin's first tenure as PM was dominated by overseeing the end of the war and locking horns with Wilson over Versailles.
[3] Capitalizing on the divide in the opposition Liberals between supporters of David Lloyd George and Asquith, Baldwin asked the King to dissolve parliament and call another election. Though Baldwin was popular, his government takes a handful of net-losses due to the rise of the Labour Party, which catapulted to a strong third place behind the Tories an the Lloyd George faction of the Liberal Party.
 
For a Lack of a Sandwich, or the Archduke survives

1915: Andrew Bonar Law (Conservative) [1]
1917:
Stanley Baldwin (Conservative) [2]
1920: Stanley Baldwin (Conservative) [3]
1922:
Ramsay Macdonald (Labour) [4]


[1] By 1915, the Liberals had been in power for nine years, during which their initial landslide in 1906 had been reduced to a minority in the two general elections of 1910. Henry Campbell-Bannerman and his successor, H.H. Asquith, had seen turmoil and reform during their premierships, with Asquith having passed the Government of Ireland Act during his final year in power (which introduced Home Rule in Southern Ireland while Ulster was exempted from the Act due to firm opposition to Home Rule within the province), and so the British people were in a mood for change. Consequently, the Conservatives, led by Andrew Bonar Law, secured a landslide, sweeping the country and holding a large majority in the House of Commons, while the Liberals once again returned to the opposition benches. Meanwhile, Bonar Law accepted an invitation from King George V to form a government as Prime Minister and arrived at Number Ten Downing Street triumphant.
[2]: Bonar Law was a sick man. His death barely 18 months after he became Prime Minister was a huge shock. Seeking quickly to keep the government stable George V asked Baldwin to become PM. Baldwin's first tenure as PM was dominated by overseeing the end of the war and locking horns with Wilson over Versailles.
[3] Capitalizing on the divide in the opposition Liberals between supporters of David Lloyd George and Asquith, Baldwin asked the King to dissolve parliament and call another election. Though Baldwin was popular, his government takes a handful of net-losses due to the rise of the Labour Party, which catapulted to a strong third place behind the Tories an the Lloyd George faction of the Liberal Party.

[4] Baldwin sought to destroy the Liberals once and for all and called a snap election. However his work had already been done. Labour had been steadily eroding the Liberals position and by 1922 stormed past the divided party and won the most seats but not a majority.
 

1915: Andrew Bonar Law (Conservative) [1]
1917:
Stanley Baldwin (Conservative) [2]
1920: Stanley Baldwin (Conservative) [3]
1922:
Ramsay Macdonald (Labour) [4]
1923:
Ramsay Macdonald (Labour/Liberal)


[1] By 1915, the Liberals had been in power for nine years, during which their initial landslide in 1906 had been reduced to a minority in the two general elections of 1910. Henry Campbell-Bannerman and his successor, H.H. Asquith, had seen turmoil and reform during their premierships, with Asquith having passed the Government of Ireland Act during his final year in power (which introduced Home Rule in Southern Ireland while Ulster was exempted from the Act due to firm opposition to Home Rule within the province), and so the British people were in a mood for change. Consequently, the Conservatives, led by Andrew Bonar Law, secured a landslide, sweeping the country and holding a large majority in the House of Commons, while the Liberals once again returned to the opposition benches. Meanwhile, Bonar Law accepted an invitation from King George V to form a government as Prime Minister and arrived at Number Ten Downing Street triumphant.
[2]: Bonar Law was a sick man. His death barely 18 months after he became Prime Minister was a huge shock. Seeking quickly to keep the government stable George V asked Baldwin to become PM. Baldwin's first tenure as PM was dominated by overseeing the end of the war and locking horns with Wilson over Versailles.
[3] Capitalizing on the divide in the opposition Liberals between supporters of David Lloyd George and Asquith, Baldwin asked the King to dissolve parliament and call another election. Though Baldwin was popular, his government takes a handful of net-losses due to the rise of the Labour Party, which catapulted to a strong third place behind the Tories an the Lloyd George faction of the Liberal Party.

[4] Baldwin sought to destroy the Liberals once and for all and called a snap election. However his work had already been done. Labour had been steadily eroding the Liberals position and by 1922 stormed past the divided party and won the most seats but not a majority.
[5] The Zinoviev letter storm breaks. Macdonald calls an election on the theme of "Who Governs Britain". Liberals gains under a reunified party and Ramsay forms an Coalition with Lloyd George as Deputy PM and Foreign Secretary.
 
James K. Who? (based on an old scenario of mine)

10. John Tyler (Whig) (1841-1845)
11. Henry Clay (Whig) (1845- ) [1]

[1]
Whigs across the country breathed a sigh of relief as they read the newspaper headlines. On the prophetic thirteen ballot, Martin Van Buren had narrowly beaten Lewis Cass as the Democratic Party’s nomination for president of the United States. It had been a hectic convention, but eventually the Jacksonian wing of the party had prevailed, with Van Buren now hunting for a non-consecutive second term. The greatest controversy among Democrats in the wake of the nomination was the issue of slavery, with Van Buren now becoming an open abolitionist in the years since leaving the presidency. The party heads tried to silence these concerns by having William Butler as a slave state ticket balancer. Butler was a slave owner, yet supported gradual emancipation, making him a seemingly perfect fit for both wings of the party. But it wasn’t enough, and Southern Democrats roared in outrage over Van Buren’s nomination.

John C. Calhoun, one of slavery’s most loyal defenders in American politics, was horrified over the thought of an abolitionist president and decided to run on a third-party ticket. Alexandre Mouton, the Governor of Louisiana, and fellow slavery advocate would be his running mate. Together they formed the States’ Right Party’s presidential ticket, setting out to provide a political voice for the “Never Van Buren Democrats” across the Deep South.

In comparison to the divided Democrats, the Whigs had a relatively controversy-free convention, nominating Henry Clay and Theodore Frelinghuysen. With three strong parties in the running, it would be a vicious campaign full of nasty attacks on all sides. Van Buren supporters, often called Jacksonian Democrats in the press, criticized the failures of the Tyler administration saying that Whigs would continue these blunders if they were in office. Clay shot back, saying that Tyler was a “Whig in Name Only”, and that if elected he would be a much different president than Tyler. Political cartoons in Whig newspapers showed Van Buren and Tyler as a pair of small twins, with a large Clay allied with the personification of the America, Brother Jonathan. While many Whigs personally opposed slavery, they also said that Van Buren had gone too far with abolitionism and that a Van Buren presidency would cause civil unrest in the South. A famous political cartoon had Van Buren and Calhoun splitting a map of America in two, with Clay seen trying to stop them. To Whigs the message was clear, Democrats, all of them, were all too eager to tear the country apart. Clay also reminded the people of the horrid economy under Van Buren. “Yes,” he said in a public speech, “Tyler is a weak president, but remember that Van Buren was, unbelievably enough, weaker still.” Calhoun, a dedicated supporter of Texas annexation, attacked Clay for being against it. With Clay in charge he said, the Texan people would never earn the political enfranchisement they deserved. The loudest shouting came from between the Van Buren and Calhoun wings of the Democratic Party, with each trying to outdo in portraying each other as leaders that would drag the party into obscurity, giving Whigs a monopoly on government.

Finally voting day arrived. The States’ Right Party was only on the ballot of five states, all in the Deep South, winning Alabama, Mississippi, and Arkansas. They also won the electoral votes from South Carolina, the only state without a popular vote and Calhoun’s home state. They were also on the ballot in Georgia and Louisiana, and did relatively well there, with many historians saying they played a spoiler vote allowing Clay to win both the Peach State and the Pelican State. Arkansas was the sole state in which only Clay and Calhoun were on the ballot, with local politicians successfully barring Van Buren from appearing. Butler’s influence in slave states kept more from following suit, but it helped little.

Whigs did well in New England, only losing Maine and New Hampshire. They also did great in the Mid-Atlantic, winning all but Van Buren’s home state of New York. The sole geographic stronghold of the “Jacksonian Democrats” was the Northwest. Their win in Virginia also helped but it wasn’t enough. When the results from Pennsylvania, the closet race in the nation, came back, Van Buren knew he had lost a presidential election for the second time in a row.

In total Whigs had 147 electoral votes, “Jacksonian Democrats” 101, and the States’ Rights Party 27. Henry Clay had passed the 138 electoral votes required and would be the eleventh president of the United States, and the first from Kentucky. As he entered office, the issue of Texas Annexation, which he opposed, was the talk of the entire nation, and Clay would soon find himself at the center of the issue. Tensions rose quickly between supporters and dissectors. It would be the most contentious, and often bloody, chapter of the first half of the 19th century in American politics…
 
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