WI: Ronald Reagan married Lauren Bacall?

They both worked at Warner Bros. in the 1940s. What if Ronald Reagan was cast in Bacall's first film To Have and Have Not instead of Humphrey Bogart? They start a friendship that turns into a relationship after Reagan's divorce from Jane Wyman. Then they get married in 1949.

Would Reagan remain a New Deal Democrat? Does he still become California's governor and later POTUS? Does Bacall make him even more liberal?
 
In 1960 Reagan publicly endorses Kennedy for president over Nixon. The two men become great friends. Butterflies cause Kennedy to never get shot and in return is elected in a landslide against William Scranton in 1964. In 1965, the congress passes and Kennedy signs a Civil Rights Act.

In 1968, Reagan decides to run for the US Senate in California and defeats state controller Alan Cranston in the Democratic primaries. He goes on to defeat Republican incumbent Thomas Kuchel in the general election. Also in 1968, Michigan governor George Romney narrowly defeats Vice-President Lyndon B. Johnson with George Wallace running a much more successful third party campaign.

In 1972, Senator Reagan an outspoken critic of President Romney decides to run for the Democratic nomination. However in the end, the Democrats pick Washington Senator Henry M. Jackson with the philosophy "only a moderate can unseat a moderate." Jackson surprised the country by picking Reagan as his running mate to balance the ticket. The Jackson / Reagan ticket goes on to defeat Romney / Agnew by a comfortable margin. However, relations between the vice president and president slide downhill.

Jackson and Reagan end up having a major falling out after Reagan deemed many of Jackson's policies "not liberal enough." In return promising the American people "a choice not an echo" vice-president Reagan challenges President Jackson to the Democratic nomination in 1976. The battle is close but in the end, Jackson won the nomination. Reagan is very upset but he still believed that America needed him so he decides to do something that forever altered his political career.

Reagan after losing the Democratic nomination creates his own "Liberal Party" to oppose Jackson and the establishment Democrats. He picks South Dakota senator George McGovern as his running mate. To replace Reagan who resigned from his position to join the new Liberal Party, President Jackson appoints Lloyd Bentsen as the new vice-president.

1976 is a three way race. After a remarkable performance in the debates, Reagan and the Liberals surprisingly steal second place from Jackson and the Democrats. However, the great split in the Democratic vote causes the Republican ticket of Gerald Ford and Howard Baker to win in a landslide.

After being the deciding factor in the Republican victory in 1976, Reagan retires from politics and moves with his wife to Hawaii to live in obscurity. He dies in his sleep in 1984 at the age of 73.

The moral of the story: Reagan was much better off as a Republican.
 
The country seems to be much better off with him as a Democrat though.

True. Carter never becomes president, Ford is more able to deal with the problems in the Middle East compared to him and stagflation never occurs to the extent it did IOTL. Then again, we never have the '80's boom due and Reagan is obviously not president then. Also, the US is split into three parties up until today with the Democrats being actually the most rightest of the parties in some (but not all) respects.

Poor Reagan though. On the other hand, he does share the honor of tearing his party apart with Teddy Roosevelt.
 
wouldn't Jane Wyman be a more interesting choice? ;) cookies to whoever gets it first


She said she was a registered Republican, so if they had stayed married he still likely would have switched in the 60s. But if he had married Bacall (a Democrat) instead of Nancy Davis (a Republican) after his divorce, would he have remained a Democrat and became even more liberal? Nancy was already a Republican apparently before she married Ronnie.
 
She said she was a registered Republican, so if they had stayed married he still likely would have switched in the 60s. But if he had married Bacall (a Democrat) instead of Nancy Davis (a Republican) after his divorce, would he have remained a Democrat and became even more liberal? Nancy was already a Republican apparently before she married Ronnie.

Most likely; Nancy Davis strongly influenced Reagan politically.
 
I think suggesting Reagan would start a third party is a little too far. The man was a Republican when conservatism was still on the 'fringe' of Republicanism.
 
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