What: 2020 US Presidential Election
Short Background: Hillary Clinton wins the Presidency in 2016 and decides not to run for reelection. Can the Democrats hold onto the White House for another 4 years or will the GOP take the White House back?
Download Here:United States – 2020 [Zip]
***Update – 8/8/2015 – Version 1.4***
-New VP candidates include: Gov. Kim Reynolds, Gov. Doug Ducey, Fmr. Gov Mary Fallin, Fmr. Secretary Jack Lew, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Fmr Gov Gina Raimondo, Gov. Kate Brown
-Marco Rubio is now a potential Presidential candidate
-Edited the same sex marriage issue across the board
***Update – 7/19/2015 – Version 1.35***
-Changed storyline from having Mark Udall as Clinton’s VP to Rep. Joaquin Castro. Udall is still a candidate, but starts much lower on the totem poll. Castro obviously has moved up the totem pole.
-I’ve reworked some of the starting numbers for candidates strenght in the primaries based on if they are a former VP, former party nominee or former Vice President, former candidate or VP candidate, statewide elected officials (or high up CEOs) or a nobody….for the most part I’ve been consistent.
-I also added additional primary debates
-I love Trump, for the entertainment, so I’ve kept him as an independent candidate. I did change his bio. For better or worse, if he keeps up the 2012 antics I may keep his as an independent but weaken him significantly then add in another GOP leaning independent.
***Update – 6/23/2015 – Version 1.3***
-Added Condolezza Rice as a candidate for the GOP
-Added Sherrod Brown and Jon Stewart as a candidate for the Democrats
-Changed the Democratic and Republican primary schedule to start in February 2020 and make the primaries regional after the first four states (IA, NH, SC, NV).
-Added VPs: Sarah Palin, Rick Scott, Gavin Newsom, Maggie Hassan
***Update – 6/20/2015 – Version 1.25***
Not a big update here. Minor edits, turned Al Gore off by default as per suggestions by commenters and also put Trump & Bezo’s funds at 100 million each (prior, Bezos was higher but I wanted to balance it out).
I’ll do another update soon, as always I am reading and accepting suggestions.
***Update – 5/17/2015 – Version 1.2***
-Two US Senator Endorsers from Puerto Rico
-Updated all State Governors to reflect 2020 — minus US territories
-Added Jeff Bezos as an independent candidate. My intent was to balance out Donald Trump.
-Made Jill Stein a VP candidate for the Green Party; added two of the Green Party’s committeewomen as potential Presidential candidates
-Fixed Joaquin Castro’s photo for the most part…still makes him look a bit chubby
-Tim Scott is now off by default; Rep. Steve Chabot is now Trump’s VP
Coming Up Next: More Pres/VP candidates, feel free to suggest them. If anyone has any suggestions on fleshing out new policy/issues, let me know.
***Update – 4/29/2015 – Version 1.1***
Whats New in Version 1.1
-Added Alan Mulally as a potential Democratic candidate
-Fixed Endorser Tags [i.e Mark_Kirk –> Tammy_Duckworth]
-Added Republican VPs: Marco Rubio, Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Jon Huntsman
-Added Democratic VPs: Bill Nye, Kamala Harris, Gary Locke
-Changed Observation Party images to generic ones
-Fixed Castro’s image
-Some of the new images for candidates/vps might be slightly off. Will have to amend in future.
-Changed to .zip format
If anyone has numbers on how state political affiliation demographics are expected to change in the next few years feel free to send it my way.
Playable Characters:
Name (On/Off by Default)
Democrats:
President Hillary Clinton (Off)
VP Joaquin Castro (On)
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (On)
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (On)
Sen. Cheri Bustos (On)
Sen. Tim Kaine (On)
CEO Alan Mulally (On)
Sen. Sherrod Brown (On)
Fmr. Sen. Mark Udall (On)
Former VP Al Gore (Off)
Gov. Andrew Cuomo (Off)
Sen. Chuck Schumer (Off)
Former VP Joe Biden (Off)
Jon Stewart (Off)
Republicans:
Sen. Rand Paul (On)
Gov. Scott Walker (Off)
Sen. Kelly Ayotte (On)
Rep. Paul Ryan (On)
Gov. Susana Martinez (On)
Sen. Joni Ernst (On)
Gov. Mike Pence (On)
Gov. Nikki Haley (On)
Gov. Brian Sandoval (On)
Sen. Ted Cruz (On)
Rep. Louie Gohmert (On)
Fmr. Sec. of State Condolezza Rice (Off)
Sen. Tim Scott (Off)
Scenario Backstory:
Democratic Nomination
In 2016, Hillary Clinton barely defeats Martin O’Malley in Iowa – soon after she sweeps the remaining early primary states and goes onto being the uncontested Democratic nominee. She picks Congressman Joaquin Castro as her running mate.
Republican Nomination
In 2016, The GOP primary field is overly packed – Scott Walker pulls out a bare bones win in Iowa, but loses to Rand Paul in New Hampshire. South Carolina goes to Walker and Paul picks up Nevada more or less making the GOP nomination a two man race. The contest becomes bitterly contested but Walker pulls it off in the end. Word leaks that Paul turned down Walker’s offer for VP hurting the GOP nominee. Walker selects Kelly Ayotte as his running mate.
2016 General
Running on an upswing economy as a centrist Hillary Clinton defeats Governor Scott Walker 55% to 45% despite winning the Electoral College 297-241
2016 Senatorial Freshman & Pickups Winners:
Florida: Patrick Murphy (D-pick up)
Illinois: Tammy Duckworth (D-pick up)
Indiana: Marlin Stutzman (R-hold)
Louisiana: John Kennedy (R-hold)
Nevada: Catherine Cortez Masto (D-hold)
Maryland: Chris Van Hollen (D-hold)
Pennsylvania: Joe Sestak (D-pick up)
Wisconsin: Russ Feingold (D-pick up)
Picking up 4 seats gave Democrats 48 seats in the Senate, plus two independents gave them 50 seats. Vice President Udall would be the tie-breaking vote for control of the Senate. Democrats pickup 30 seats in the House, giving them a barebones majority.
2018 Senatorial Freshman & Pickups Winners:
California: Alex Padilla (D-hold)
Illinois: Cheri Bustos (D-hold)
Indiana: Brian Bosma (R-pick up)
New Jersey: Richard Codey (D-hold)
North Dakota: Kevin Cramer (R-pickup)
Utah: Mike Leavitt (R-hold)
West Virginia: David McKinley (R-pick up)
The loss of three seats gave the Republican Party a 53-49 advantage in the Senate. Republicans pickup five seats in the House handing the majority back to the GOP.
Clinton Presidency
The Clinton Presidency benefits from a Democratic Congress quickly passing immigration reform in addition to later reforming the tax code. Democrats lose a small number of seats in both houses in 2018 costing Democrats the majority in both Houses.
In 2019, Clinton announces that she will not seek reelection leaving the field wide open. Pundits speculate that Clinton believes the economy will stop expanding around the time of the election and thus ensuring a Republican victory.
Disclaimer: I made this for fun, this is not a prediction of the future. I am open to suggestions, etc.
Download Here:United States – 2020 [Zip]