WI: Gerry Ferraro Elected to the Senate in ‘92

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Geraldine Ferraro is most remembered for being the first female Vice Presidential nominee of a major party when she ran with Walter Mondale in 1984. After her Vice Presidential run she tried to run for the NY Seat in the Senate in 1992, very nearly winning the primaries, but losing by less than a single percentage point. Her slim loss was contributed to her opponents hammering her on her husbands finances just as they did back in 1984. If she managed to win the primaries, could she win the general election, and what would her senate tenure look like? And if Bush wins a second term could she be a contender for the presidency in 1996?
 
I'd say she certainly has a decent shot at winning if she manages to take that 1% and win the nomination. She would be damaged going in, from a divisive primary fight, but Al D'Amato wasn't particularly clean himself so while the issue of her husband's finances would certainly be brought up, it may not stick too well. From a quick glance at his Wikipedia page, it seems that he lost reelection in 1998 against Chuck Schumer partly due to a lack of support from "moderate voters in New York City", which Ferraro would have. It also seems that D'Amato was able to narrowly beat Abrams, in part, due to the latter's use of anti-Italian slurs, which we wouldn't see coming from Ferraro (for obvious reasons). Ultimately I think it would be a close race, but my money says she pulls it off and becomes Senator. She'd likely stick to her moderate-to-vaguely conservative shtick while in the Senate, which makes sense for a variety of reasons. She'd also be sitting in a decent position for 1996 and/or 2000, but with that said, she also ironically becomes a Hillary Clinton analogue - a prominent Democratic woman who's not at all as liberal as her opponents like to make her out to be, with scandals surrounding her and her family regarding shady finances, etc. So whether or not she could win a Presidential Election, i'm not sure; it depends on a whole lot of other butterflies, I suppose.
 
Might actually butterfly Hillary Clinton's Senate career, at least as it ran OTL. If Ferraro is in the Senate from 1993 on, and if she presumably runs for reelection in 1998, that freezes out Chuck Schumer. Schumer may then run in 2000. OTL, NY Dems drafted Hillary (originally it was a flight of fancy by Charlie Rangel that people dismissed until Hillary's interest got piqued) because all other prominent NY Dems sat out what was expected to be a difficult race against Rudy Giuliani. Schumer was ambitious enough that he might have run.

Possible that Hillary might decide to run later from elsewhere. Arkansas in 2002 or... Illinois in 2004. (Though I don't think that's as likely for a few reasons.) But also possible she doesn't end up running for office at all. In Carl Bernstein's biography of her, he wrote about how although she had considered running for office in Arkansas earlier in Bill's career, by his second term she had actually mostly put that idea aside and was looking into leading a national advocacy group or a think tank after 2000.
 
Might actually butterfly Hillary Clinton's Senate career, at least as it ran OTL. If Ferraro is in the Senate from 1993 on, and if she presumably runs for reelection in 1998, that freezes out Chuck Schumer. Schumer may then run in 2000. OTL, NY Dems drafted Hillary (originally it was a flight of fancy by Charlie Rangel that people dismissed until Hillary's interest got piqued) because all other prominent NY Dems sat out what was expected to be a difficult race against Rudy Giuliani. Schumer was ambitious enough that he might have run.

Possible that Hillary might decide to run later from elsewhere. Arkansas in 2002 or... Illinois in 2004. (Though I don't think that's as likely for a few reasons.) But also possible she doesn't end up running for office at all. In Carl Bernstein's biography of her, he wrote about how although she had considered running for office in Arkansas earlier in Bill's career, by his second term she had actually mostly put that idea aside and was looking into leading a national advocacy group or a think tank after 2000.

This is a scenario where I could see her winding up on the Supreme Court. A former First Lady of an adored (if problematic) President, a legal scholar, and well plugged into the DC scene. It's not a given, but if she's looking for a high-profile political job and elected office seems like it's not on the table, this could be the way for her to go.
 
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