WI: Charlton Heston runs for Senate?

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So, according to the dreaded Armenian Genocide (or whatever you call Wikipedia these days), Charlton Heston was approached by the Democratic Party, who wanted him to run for a Senate seat. He apparently agonized over the decision, but ultimately declined.

So what if he accepted the job? Would he be a Reagan-esque politician, except a Democrat instead of a Republican? Which state would he be Senator of (I assume California, but I could be wrong)? Could he run for higher office? How would he interact with Ronald Reagan? Also, would he still veer towards conservatism in this TL?
 
As far as I can tell, Heston would be overall a typical liberal Democrat even in his old age, with the exceptions of being libertarian on gun ownership and authoritarian on military issues (for instance, information leaks in the press that endanger the lives of US soldiers would completely bypass his civil libertarianism node, going by his OTL opinions).

Not as much of a centrist pro-war guy as Lieberman (I can't see a Heston who started his career in the late 60's being anti-universal-health-care for instance) but if anything even more strongly assertive on defense issues and gun rights.

So Scoop Jackson on steroids, if I had to guess.
 
Agree w LGA mostly -- what I'd add is a reminder that Heston marched w MLK in 63, and supported gun control shortly after RFK's death in 68. The proposed run was for 1970...
 
Wikipedia also says he opposed Vietnam at the time, so I don't think he'd be that close to Scoop Jackson. It also mentions him opposing affirmative action, so my guess is that he'd probably plow the same furrow as Daniel Patrick Moynihan - a Nixon Democrat rather than a Reagan Democrat, so might swing back to the left in the 1980s.
 

Zioneer

Banned
As far as I can tell, Heston would be overall a typical liberal Democrat even in his old age, with the exceptions of being libertarian on gun ownership and authoritarian on military issues (for instance, information leaks in the press that endanger the lives of US soldiers would completely bypass his civil libertarianism node, going by his OTL opinions).

Not as much of a centrist pro-war guy as Lieberman (I can't see a Heston who started his career in the late 60's being anti-universal-health-care for instance) but if anything even more strongly assertive on defense issues and gun rights.

So Scoop Jackson on steroids, if I had to guess.

Makes sense. Do you think he could have run for President later on? Or at least run for Governor of California?
 
The military stuff goes on his later attitudes - his comments during the Gulf War to be specific.

The affirmative action bit is interesting. I wouldn't go quite as to say Nixonite, but certainly it is a point in the "he has right libertarian leanings" direction.

But is he against affirmative action enough to be against the War on Poverty, public housing projects, etc too; or is anti-affirmative-action just a civil libertarian legalist argument for him of that time, I wonder?
 
Hmm. I hadn't considered opposition to affirmative action to be borne out of libertarian inclinations. I assumed it would be like Moynihan's patrician attitude, and so Heston would support poverty-reduction and public housing but push for them to focus on the working poor, two-parent families, etc.
 
It looks like it was California, specifically the seat John V. Tunney won. If Heston is there instead, and votes with the GOP on certain legislation, then might he fall to the primary challenge from Tom Hayden in 1976 (which Tunney apparently only barely survived). If he does survive against Hayden, I think he's sure to win re-election against Sam Hayakawa. Having him on the ballot there might shift CA in Carter's favour in the Presidential election (it was quite close), so his electoral college vote gets boosted from 297 to 342 and Ford goes down to 195.
 
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Zioneer

Banned
It looks like it was California, specifically the seat John V. Tunney won. If Heston is there instead, and votes with the GOP on certain legislation, then might he fall to the primary challenge from Tom Hayden in 1976 (which Tunney apparently only barely survived). If he does survive against Hayden, I think he's sure to win re-election against Sam Hayakawa. Having him on the ballot there might shift CA in Carter's favour in the Presidential election (it was quite close), so his electoral college vote gets boosted from 297 to 342 and Ford goes down to 195.

But let's assume Heston survives the primary challenge. Besides possibly helping Carter's election, what does he do?
 
But let's assume Heston survives the primary challenge. Besides possibly helping Carter's election, what does he do?

I presume he becomes seen as a leading conservative Democrat, though still recognisably and solidly a Dem. A pioneer for the DLC and the kind of star power they need in the late 80s. Presidential run in 1988?

Or else, he does swing back leftwards after flirting with Nixon, and becomes an elder liberal statesman with contrarian tendencies.
 
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