WI: James Blaine, Republican nominee 1876

Probably a clear majority for Tilden, Rutherford was a reformist governor, and I think even back then Blaine had a stigma of corruption.
 

katchen

Banned
Hmmm. A Tilden Administration, if it brought in a Democratic majority in Congress even for one term would probably lead to statehood for New Mexico, with Arizona split off as a separate state. New Mexico had enough people for statehood since 1850 but THOSE people were Catholic and likely to vote Democrat--not wanted by a Reupblican Congress. Utah might get statehood too, butterflying away 16 years of federal suppression of polygamy and making polygamy a question of states rights. (Anything to try to retain a majority in the next election!).
Perhaps Arizona and New Medico would be split North to South with the Southern Rio Grande Valley consolidated with Arizona to give it more population a (making a certain amount of sense since the Southern Pacific Railroad would go through both areas), northwest Arizona north of the Grand Canyon going to Utah, since it's cut off from the rest of Aruzona-New Mexico, the Kingman-Flagstaff-Wilslow Corridor and Navajo Reservation going to New Mexico and Colorado south of a line just north of the Arkansas ans Gunnison Rivers going to New Mexico (to keep the Catholics of the San Luis Valley in New Mexico) with Colorado Territory getting compensated with Wyoming Territory north to near Casper and Wyoming Territory extended north to the Yellowstone Valley around Billings and Miles City. and Bozeman.
African-American vote suppression would happen sooner than it did OTL.:mad:
I doubt if it will stop the Republicans from coming back in 1880, though it would probably buterfly Garfield out of the picture. Republicans might be motivated to grant statehood to the rest of the Western states a lot sooner once they recapture Congress.
 
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