republican party

A major reason that Republican leaders supported Dwight Eisenhower for President in 1952 was that they believed the frontrunner, Senator Robert Taft, was unelectable. Taft was widely seen as an isolationist arch-conservative who opposed the New Deal, positions that were very unpopular at the...

IN YOUR HEART, YOU KNOW HE'S RIGHT In Your Guts, You Know He's Nuts. Senator Barry Goldwater, 1964 PROLOGUE Huh, Barry Goldwater 1964. Wait, what? Barry Goldwater? That's not possible. Well, seems like it is, or will be. I don't know how I'm going to do it yet, but I'm going to figure...

In 1948, a young George HW Bush had just graduated from Yale and he needed a way to make a living. His uncle offered him a job at a prominent Wall St firm, which would've allowed Bush's family to remain in Connecticut while he worked in NYC. But instead Bush decided to relocate Texas and try his...

Goldwater was reluctant to run in 1964, but conservatives convinced him to enter the race. While Goldwater upset Rockefeller in the primaries, he lost to LBJ in a landslide. Still, Goldwater's candidacy laid the groundwork for the modern GOP. What might've happened had Goldwater not run in 1964?

What if Ronald Reagan had been a moderate Republican instead of a conservative?

With a POD after 1900, how could the GOP have remained to be the more progressive US political party?

The frontrunner for the 1940 GOP presidential nomination was Thomas Dewey, but he was upset at the convention by dark horse Wendell Willkie. What if Dewey had won the nomination and gone on to face Roosevelt in November? Does Dewey do any better than Willkie? At the time Dewey was an...

What if John McCain had decided to enter politics as a Democrat, not a Republican? Would he have achieved the same level of political success as in OTL? How far could McCain take his career as a Democrat?

The 1936 election is famous for FDR's massive landslide against Alf Landon, who only won two states - Vermont and Maine. Is it possible that Landon could have done better against the popular Roosevelt? What is the best possible showing that he could have realistically made in the election?

Despite great reluctance, General Dwight Eisenhower accepted a draft for the Republican nomination in 1948. He defeated his GOP rivals at the party convention and went on to win the Presidency in a landslide. But what if Eisenhower had declined to run?

Theodore Roosevelt originally planned to sit out the 1912 election and wait for 1916. But he later changed his mind and unsuccessfully challenged President Taft in 1912. After being denied the Republican nomination, he ran on the Progressive ticket and came in second place to Woodrow Wilson...

On March 4, 1980, less than a week after Reagan had won New Hampshire, Republicans had primaries in Massachusetts and Vermont; in both of these races, Rep John B Anderson managed to come in a very close second place (practically tying with Bush in MA w 31%, and losing to Reagan in VE 29 to 30%)...

Similar to another thread I've done on a hypothetical Jeb! vs Gore race, the POD is that - as expected - George W. loses his 1994 race in Texas while Jeb! wins his race in Florida that same year. This sets up the younger Bush brother as the frontrunner for the 2000 Republican Presidential...

The 1950 California Senate Election or Shivering in Shasta “It certainly seemed odd to me at the time, I’ll admit. I’d only just recently received the request from Nixon to help him in his Senate campaign, he had plans to test the waters up north or something when I got the call. I was told by...

Suppose that Vice-President George H.W. Bush never hired Lee Atwater as his campaign manager for the 1988 election. What would've been the result of the primary season and ultimately the general election? Would Bush have been able to win without Atwater?

In 1884 President Chester Alan Arthur was rather popular with much of the country, yet the onset of Bright's Disease prevented him from waging an active fight for his party's nomination. Further, tensions between reformers and conservatives halted the momentum that did exist for his nomination...

At the 1968 Republican Convention, Nelson Rockefeller and Ronald Reagan tried to build an alliance that would've stopped Nixon and created either a Rockefeller/Reagan or Reagan/Rockefeller ticket. However, neither man's campaign could agree to supporting the other in the top spot. Ultimately...

Modern commentators cite Democratic control of Congress as a reason that Nixon was ultimately forced to leave office in 1974. This might be true, although it ignores the bipartisan nature of the investigations into Watergate. A handful of Republican Senators such as Percy and Brooke called on...

Ted Kennedy was originally the Frontrunner for the 1984 Democratic nomination, but he was convinced by his family not to run. This was in 1982 when Reagan was widely unpopular and expected to be a one term President. What if Kennedy decided to challenge Reagan? Would he have lost 49 states like...

Former President Grant came close to winning a third Republican presidential nomination in 1880, but his campaign's heavy handed tactics backfired at the deadlocked convention where the GOP settled on James Garfield as a compromise candidate. Had Grant's campaign not overreached, it's possible...