AHC: More Reps or < getting elected president

[NKVD]

IOTL, most presidents have been governors or senators. Your challenge is to, with no POD before 4 March 1881, have more presidents elected directly from the House of Representatives, and/or even have at least one president who has only been mayor or in some other "lower" office before being elected president. Military officials do not count; people with no experience in elected office do.

However, nothing after, say, 1972. So no Perot, no Giuliani, no Bloomberg, etc.

 

[JVM]

Just outside my realm of knowledge, unfortunately, but nonetheless an interesting AHC. Not sure what you mean about '72 though.

 

[Maniakes]

Wendell Wilkie had no experience in political office before running for President in 1940. OTL, he got trounced by FDR, but by a much smaller margin than Hoover or Landon and by not much bigger a margin than Dewey in 1944. Had FDR had to drop out of the race late for health reasons in favor of his running mate Henry Wallace, Willkie would have had a much better shot, especially since Wallace suffered a rather embarassing personal scandal by the standards of the day (regarding his New Age spiritual practices) during the campaign IOTL.

Alternately, Dewey was a contender for the Republican nomination in 1940, and lead the voting by a wide margin on the first ballot. At the time, his highest elected office was District Attorney for Manhattan. Dewey's support collapsed during the convention in Willkie's favor because he'd taken a cautiously noninterventionist view on WW2, while Willkie had been outspoken in advocating material aid to Britain, and the news of the Fall of France had shifted public opinion towards Willkie's position. ITTL, Dewey also takes a pro-Allied stance relatively early in the campaign, and winds up winning the Republican nomination. As per the Willkie-victory scenario, FDR still drops out of the race, giving Dewey as shot against the much weaker candidate Wallace.

William Jennings Bryan could probably have won in 1896 or 1900, and he'd never served higher than the House (his stint as Secetary of State came later under Wilson).

Apart from them, I don't see anyone else who fits the bill with a campaign-timeframe POD. With a POD a year or more before the election in question, there are no doubt a lot of opportunities, but nothing leaps to mind for me right now.

 

[dilbert719]

IOTL, most presidents have been governors or senators. Your challenge is to, with no POD before 4 March 1881, have more presidents elected directly from the House of Representatives, and/or even have at least one president who has only been mayor or in some other "lower" office before being elected president. Military officials do not count; people with no experience in elected office do.

However, nothing after, say, 1972. So no Perot, no Giuliani, no Bloomberg, etc.

Sticking solely to OTL losing candidates, your criteria would be satisfied by the election of William Jennings Bryan in 1896 (any of his other races, he wasn't a sitting Representative, but didn't hold any higher office, so those may count as well) or Wendell Willkie in 1940. I'll probably leave it to better equipped people than I to come up with the how, but those are good places to start for the who.

Edit: Or what Maniakes said. I really need to type faster.

 

[Timmy811]

Champ Clark was the favorite for the Democratic nomination in 1912. If he won it, he'd probably win the election, though it would be a lot closer since the Progressive vote wouldn't be split.

 

[Rich Rostrom]

Sticking solely to OTL losing candidates, your criteria would be satisfied by the election of William Jennings Bryan in 1896 (any of his other races, he wasn't a sitting Representative...

Bryan was not a sitting Representative in 1896; he was elected to the House in 1890, and reelected in 1892, but did not run for re-election in 1894 - perhaps because he could see the Republican steamroller coming. (Republicans won 5 of 6 districts in Nebraska, including Bryan's.)

 

[Nofix]

Mo Udall: Mormon, Arizona Democrat, and served for 30 years in the House. He ran for the 1976 nomination as a Liberal alternative to Jimmy Carter. Carter beat him in the early Wisconsin primary by 1%, but it was enough to give Carter momentum, and lead Udall in the dust.

Whether the pro-green Southwesterner could have beaten Gerald Ford, I couldn't tell you. He thought about running in 1984, but in 1979 he was diagnosed with Parkinson's, and the disease was too much for him by then.

 

[Fleetlord]

I believe George B. McClellan, Jr. was talked up as a Presidential candidate on occasion. (Don't let the birthplace throw you -- he's as eligible as John McCain.) Perhaps if he survives his falling out with Tammany Hall, he can emerge as a compromise candidate in a deadlocked 1912.

 

[JVM]

Alton B. Parker, Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals, was nominated by the Democratic Party to run against Theodore Roosevelt in 1904.

It's pretty much ASB for him to get elected, but hey, it's quite a curveball ain't it?

 

[Nofix]

Associate Justice William O. Douglas was considered to be a Vice-Presidential candidate in 1944 by FDR, Roosevelt even sent a letter to Committee Chairman Robert E. Hannegan that said "Harry Truman or Bill Douglas." But given Douglas's anti-segregation views, he was not chosen and Truman was. Douglas also, according to 1948: Harry Truman's Improbable Victory, was hoping to be drafted in 1948, during when Truman was thought to be hopeless. He even turned down the idea VP nomination because "why be a number 2 man to a number 2 man".