Bear with me here:
Say after the 1992 election OTL, Ross Perot goes on to found the Reform Party. In OTL, he was at first not inclined to run for the party's nomination. Now, sorry for the blatant copying here, but let's say events go similar to the events of the "Chaos: The Election of 1996" TL: Colin Powell's wife dies, which leads him to jump in the race as independent. He has much in common with Perot politically: fiscally conservative and socially liberal, even if they do have disagreements on specifics.
Powell does well enough in the race that the election has to go to the House of Representatives, which of course means Dole or whoever the Republican is that year wins.
The Reform Party switches gears: they decide to focus their efforts in 1998 on electing as many people to the House and Senate as possible, in the hopes of having a better position in a future hung election. After all, in OTL they got Jesse Ventura into the Governor's Mansion in Minnesota.
Who would be viable Reform Party candidates? John Hagelin as a Senator from Iowa? Donald Trump as Governor of New York? Who would join the ranks of TTL's Reform Party as candidates?
Say after the 1992 election OTL, Ross Perot goes on to found the Reform Party. In OTL, he was at first not inclined to run for the party's nomination. Now, sorry for the blatant copying here, but let's say events go similar to the events of the "Chaos: The Election of 1996" TL: Colin Powell's wife dies, which leads him to jump in the race as independent. He has much in common with Perot politically: fiscally conservative and socially liberal, even if they do have disagreements on specifics.
Powell does well enough in the race that the election has to go to the House of Representatives, which of course means Dole or whoever the Republican is that year wins.
The Reform Party switches gears: they decide to focus their efforts in 1998 on electing as many people to the House and Senate as possible, in the hopes of having a better position in a future hung election. After all, in OTL they got Jesse Ventura into the Governor's Mansion in Minnesota.
Who would be viable Reform Party candidates? John Hagelin as a Senator from Iowa? Donald Trump as Governor of New York? Who would join the ranks of TTL's Reform Party as candidates?