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The drowning death of passenger Mary Jo Kopechne--a former Senate staffer and 1968 campaign worker for the late Senator Robert F. Kennedy--following a July 18, 1969 auto accident in which Senator Ted Kennedy drove his car off Dike bridge at Chappaquiddick island dealt a serious blow to Kennedy's promising future presidential prospects.

What If Ted Kennedy had not accidentally driven off that bridge at Chappaquiddick and Mary Jo Kopechne had gone on with her life? Would Kennedy have run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1972 to face President Nixon? Would Kennedy have waited until Nixon was term-limited and sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 1976 for what was expected to be an open seat? Would Kennedy have waited until 1980 and challenged President Carter as ITTL? Would Kennedy have run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 to face President Reagan? Without the Chappaquiddick incident, would Kennedy have won the Democratic Party's presidential nomination in any of those years and would he have been elected president?
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