WI: Chisholm Gets The Nomination

Now I now that a black woman getting the presidential nomination in 1972 might verge on ASB, but I'm legitimately interested in what might have needed to happen further up the chain to allow Shirley Chisholm to get the 72 Democratic Nomination. Obviously both Humphrey and McGovern need to either not be nearly as strong, or not be in the running at all. Maybe a stronger Southern Strategy diminishes Dixiecrats and the Wallace campaign is out too? I'm just spitballing here, it'd probably take a lot of divergences for Chisholm to get the nomination. She'd be a dark horse to beat most other dark horses. Even then, would she win the presidency? It's incredibly likely she wouldn't, I mean 72 was famously a landslide for Nixon - 60%/37%, 49 states/1 state (and DC). But more interesting, perhaps, would be the Chisholm candidacy's effects on women and black people in national politics - we might see a black or female president much earlier than we have (or are still waiting to have, in the latter case) IOTL. Interested in what you guys think.
 
Suppose she did better (mainly at McGovern's expense) and someone who is not McGovern runs in 72.

Could she have got the nomination in 1976 and won
 
But more interesting, perhaps, would be the Chisholm candidacy's effects on women and black people in national politics - we might see a black or female president much earlier than we have (or are still waiting to have, in the latter case) IOTL. Interested in what you guys think.
I have a feeling it would be negative, the way that McGovern getting crushed discredited leftist politics for a generation or two afterwards and helped facilitate the rise of the Clinton-esque moderate Democrats. Chisholm losing--and she would be very nearly sure to lose--would completely discredit the idea of a black woman running for President, and most likely blacks or women taken separately as well. People would blame her loss on her race and gender, even taking into account Nixon's dirty tricks and overall electoral strength in 1972.

That being said...a timeline where this happens would be interesting. If you can figure out any way for her to actually be elected, that would be especially interesting.
 
Maybe a strong early showing in Florida, giving her a surprise 2nd place behind George Wallace. McGovern's base could collapse following this, especially as NY delegates Steinam and Abzug unify behind Chisholm. Follow it up with a strong showing in California, Illinois, Massachusetts. Have DC support her. Should place her in 3rd place behind Wallace and either Musky or Humphrey. When Wallace is shot, he retains his delegates up until convention and then due to Chisholm's visit while he is hospitalized, uses his power and influence to get his delegates to support Chisholm. Humphrey releases his black delegates like OTL. Chisholm. She selects Terry Sanford or another Southern Governor as her VP. Couple that with some major losses in Nam and some administration drama such as Agnew getting dropped from the ticket, and you have President Chisholm, albeit with a real squeaker of a victory.
 
To people who say "well, if McGovern doesn't run or drops out early": McGovern's constituency and Chisholm's were quite different. McGovern's support was predominantly white: Humphrey got the African American vote. There is absolutely no reason to believe McGovern's supporters would have shifted en masse to Chisholm.

Anyway, here is what the racial situation was in 1972. Edmund Muskie, a more-or-less liberal Democrat openly said he would not have a black running mate, because a ticket with one couldn't win. And Roy Wilkins of the NAACP said Muskie was probably right! https://www.nytimes.com/1972/01/11/...-probably-right-in-stand-against-a-black.html

Also:

"Judging from what some Republican officials have been saying and doing, Richard Nixon has written off the black vote as unattainable and, what's more, unimportant. His Ad ministration has willfully withdrawn the long‐standing Federal commit ment to school integration; yet, perhaps partially because of this retreat, Nixon is favored to be elected to a second term.

"For the Democrats, George Wallace obviously neither wanted nor expected blacks to help him. Senator Edmund Muskie, early in his days as the Democratic front‐runner, declared he would not take a Negro as a running mate. Senator George Mc Govern blazed through the primaries despite only scattered Negro support plus some late‐blooming endorsements from black leaders. And Hubert Humphrey, who jawed his way through the early primaries echoing George Wallace on the busing and welfare issues, received the lion's share of black votes nonetheless. To a large extent, the rise and fall of black political power this year parallels the frustrating, sometimes poignant odyssey of U. S. Representative Shirley Chisholm, the first black and the first woman ever to make a serious run at the Presidency of the United States." https://www.nytimes.com/1972/06/25/...f-black-presidential-politics-1972-black.html
 
This isn't ASB, but i'd call it damn near close. As much as I'd love to see Shirley Chisholm win the nomination (and maybe even the Presidency), there's little to no way it'd happen. If there was more plentiful, and more effective opposition to Humphrey from "establishment" Democrats who also somehow appealed to McGovern voters, and they all cut into the same mostly-white base (while alienating blacks and other minority groups in their attempts to pander to aforementioned whites) and seriously split the vote, then maybe Chisholm could win in a contested convention if she has all her ducks in a row when the others don't. But those are some big "if"s, especially because as it became more and more obvious that Chisholm had a serious chance at taking the nomination, party leaders would scramble to unify and make the "Anybody But McGovern" movement look like nothing by comparison. They'd know that, unfortunately, having Chisholm at the head of the ticket in 1972 would, most likely, mean an even bigger loss electorally.
 
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