The New Campaign Trail

[TheHegemonist]

This is the map from a game of the mod 1924b, with Leonard Wood as the incumbent seeking a second term and James A. Reed and Burton K. Wheeler as the challengers. I mostly tried to play it safe, especially on foreign policy and avoided a major war while taking a harder stance on anti-communism and basically side-stepping racial issues. I chose Hoover as my VP. I spent most of my visits in the West trying to hold off Wheeler, and got almost the same result as the mod's canon, with the results of Missouri and Tennessee flipped.



Popular Vote Results:
Wood – 15,093,366 (52.0%)
Reed – 9,996,694 (34.5%)
Wheeler – 3,586,405 (12.4%)
Faris – 340,103 (1.2%)

[TheHegemonist]

This was the outcome of my 1996 Powell game, a mod I really enjoyed and has a lot of replay value. As Powell, I steered a fairly moderate course and trying to avoid more partisan stances, presenting myself like a statesman and not a politician. I picked Fred Thompson as my VP candidate and let him get into the mudslinging. I generally chose to emphasis my military credentials when possible, such as reminding voters that I'm a career Army man when asked about gun control and picking the "Powell's Battle Plan" option for my domestic agenda, an option that emphasizes the more popular aspects of Gingrich's Contract With America while still being a separate plan so that I couldn't be tied with him. I made most of my visits to either the Deep South or the Rust Belt, mostly New Jersey which proved to be the decisive state.




Popular Vote Result:
Powell – 44,830,488 (45.7%)
Clinton – 44,742,239 (45.6%)
Buchanan – 6,954,126 (7.1%)
Nader/Other – 1,543,250 (1.6%)

Five Closest States

Alabama
Clinton – 687,702 (41.85%)
Powell – 685,297 (41.71%)
Buchanan – 262,048 (15.95%)
Nader/Other – 8,115 (0.49%)

New Jersey
Powell – 1,483,844 (46.36%)
Clinton – 1,471,005 (45.95%)
Buchanan – 182,248 (5.69%)
Nader/Other – 63,903 (2.00%)

Oregon
Clinton – 634,138 (45.63%)
Powell – 617,561 (44.43%)
Nader/Other – 74,508 (5.36%)
Buchanan – 63,678 (4.58%)

Mississippi
Clinton – 382,670 (42.70%)
Powell – 369,659 (41.25%)
Buchanan – 139,519 (15.57%)
Nader/Other – 4,268 (0.48%)

Michigan
Powell – 1,782,593 (46.92%)
Clinton – 1,724,311 (45.38%)
Buchanan – 242,669 (6.39%)
Nader/Other – 49,774 (1.31%)

As you can see, the Deep South and West Coast broke slightly for Clinton (Buchanan was much more of a drag on me in the South, as you would expect), while the Midwest (which has more votes at stake) broke slightly for me. I probably could've gotten a larger Electoral College victory with a slightly better performance. My result was (I think) effectively the same as the "canon" result, same EC result and almost the exact same PV.

[TheHegemonist]

 

My result playing as Wofford in the new NCT mod “1996 – The End of History.” For my first choice I tried to have the coup plotters arrested, which backfired and let to a civil war in the USSR. As Wofford, I mostly stayed the course and tried to keep the campaign’s focus on Bush’s unpopularity, not going too hard in either direction. I made a few errors – I chose a hawkish answer on one foreign policy question, and I failed to get in my proposition in the Senate bill near the end. I chose to try and use Lamm to take votes away from Wilson, though it didn’t seem to affect the outcome much. I also failed to stop Nader from entering the race, though that too didn’t hurt me much. I had Max Baucus as my VP, which didn't really affect my chances anywhere, even his home state of Montana.

 

Popular Vote results:
Wofford: 48,260,379 (50.2%)
Wilson: 43,697,954 (45.5%)
Lamm: 2,951,081 (3.1%)
Nader: 1,135,630 (1.2%)

Closest States:

Indiana
Wilson: 1,113,823 (50.55%)
Wofford: 1,070,296 (48.57%)

Ohio
Wofford: 2,383,941 (50.11%)
Wilson: 2,285,432 (48.04%)
Nader: 62,220 (1.31%)

Colorado
Wilson: 697,413 (47.80%)
Wofford: 660,908 (45.29%)
Lamm: 82,290 (5.64%)
Nader: 18,543 (1.27%)

Missouri
Wofford: 1,156,303 (51.13%)
Wilson: 1,068,212 (47.24%)
Nader: 27,793 (1.23%)

Virginia
Wilson: 1,238,018 (51.25%)
Wofford: 1,141,317 (47.25%)

With a few better choices and more efficient campaigning, I probably could’ve picked up a few more states.

[TheHegemonist]

VPS: Evan Bayh and Joe Manchin

This is from the mod “2016 Realignment Redux” set in a world where the Republicans are more liberal and the Democrats more conservative than they are now.

The election came down to the wire, and I just barely managed to hold on to the Electoral College, with Cueller winning several key swing states, including Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Florida, which is where I did most of my campaigning along with Ohio and Missouri, which I managed to win. Cueller also took several Western states where ITTL the GOP is fairly strong, but fortunately they don’t have a great deal of votes, so it wasn’t enough for him to beat me.

I picked mainly moderate-to-liberal positions – mainly in line with the real-life Charlie Baker – avoided controversial and divisive questions on abortion and free trade, pushed for gun control as a way of preventing crime, and advocated for peace in Eastern Europe. To reunite the Republicans, I promised tax cuts. While I didn’t fully embrace President Dean, I didn’t directly attack him either.

Popular Vote Result
Charlie Baker: 64,225,323 (49.6%)
Henry Cueller: 63,481,150 (49.0%)
Rand Paul: 1,403,922 (1.1%)
Roseanne Barr: 423,025 (0.3%)

Closest states:

Nevada
Henry Cueller: 504,497 (48.82%)
Charlie Baker: 503,722 (48.74%)
Rand Paul: 25,253 (2.44%)

New Hampshire
Charlie Baker: 364,453 (49.12%)
Henry Cueller: 363,508 (48.99%)
Rand Paul: 12,877 (1.74%)

Montana
Henry Cueller: 234,471 (48.24%)
Charlie Baker: 233,428 (48.02%)
Rand Paul: 17,896 (3.68%)

Missouri
Charlie Baker: 1,325,180 (49.81%)
Henry Cueller: 1,313,972 (49.39%)

Pennsylvania
Henry Cueller: 2,936,058 (49.72%)
Charlie Baker: 2,905,722 (49.21%)

[TheHegemonist]

Result of my game of the 2004 mod W. The margins here were incredibly tight, only a handful of states went 60% or more for any candidate, and I just barely won the popular vote. Despite that, I came awful close to an Electoral College blowout, losing Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Minnesota by pretty narrow margins. I think I picked most of the “correct” answers, though I could’ve handled the scandals better. I ended up keeping Dick as my running mate, I felt switched to Frist would’ve caused more problems than it would’ve solved. I took military action in Afghanistan without consulting the UN but ended up backing off from Iraq, I was too worried about the bill failing. I got Wellstone as the Dem candidate, which enabled me to go on the offensive and hit him on social issues.

Popular Vote Results
George W. Bush: 60,601,278 (49.6%)
Paul Wellstone: 59,838,365 (49.0%)

Closest States

Ohio
Paul Wellstone: 2,780,936 (49.98%)
George W. Bush: 2,751,969 (49.46%)

Pennsylvania
Paul Wellstone: 2,819,565 (49.96%)
George W. Bush: 2,786,705 (49.38%)

Minnesota
Paul Wellstone: 1,434,399 (49.43%)
George W. Bush: 1,415,450 (48.77%)

North Dakota
George W. Bush: 158,961 (50.00%)
Paul Wellstone: 155,676 (48.96%)

Iowa
George W. Bush: 740,500 (50.05%)
Paul Wellstone: 721,171 (48.74%)

I have to say, I really enjoy this mod. Great replay value with the various candidates you can go against, and the writing is great.

[TheHegemonist]

My first time playing the “Arnold 2016” mod. I picked Brian Sandoval as my VP which I think was an excellent choice, he really seemed to help me out west in Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, and Colorado. My biggest win was getting Mike Huckabee to drop out and endorse me, giving in to his concessions didn’t seem to hurt me too much. For the most part, I pick moderately conservative answers and tried to keep the focus on Hillary and her unpopularity, while consistently comparing myself to Reagan and talking about Arnold’s story as a patriotic immigrant who achieved the American Dream. I tied most of the debates, and probably could’ve been more efficient in my campaign stops. When I began playing, I went with swing states like Florida, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, but as I took a larger and larger lead I started targeting California which was surprisingly close near the end, though I couldn’t quite reach it. While Jill Stein never came up, she may have been a factor in a couple states, especially Oregon.

Popular Vote Results
Arnold Schwarzenegger: 71,617,350 (52.3%)
Hillary Clinton: 63,979,403 (46.7%)
Jill Stein: 1,431,356 (1.0%)

Closest States

Oregon
Arnold Schwarzenegger: 1,018,218 (49.40%)
Hillary Clinton: 992,790 (48.17%)
Jill Stein: 50,096 (2.43%)

Minnesota
Arnold Schwarzenegger: 1,521,162 (50.05%)
Hillary Clinton: 1,479,010 (48.67)
Jill Stein: 38,937 (1.28%)

Maine
Arnold Schwarzenegger: 388,245 (49.92%)
Hillary Clinton: 373,927 (48.08%)
Jill Stein: 15,548 (2.00%)

Michigan
Arnold Schwarzenegger: 2,481,507 (50.53%)
Hillary Clinton: 2,366,552 (48.19%)
Jill Stein: 63,253 (1.29%)

Delaware
Hillary Clinton: 223,981 (50.66%)
Arnold Schwarzenegger: 213,116 (48.20%)
Jill Stein: 5,066 (1.15%)

[TheHegemonist]

My result against Joe Lieberman in the W. 2004 mod. I focused entirely on domestic policy and avoided wars (only way to get Lieberman as the opponent), dropped Cheney for Frist and hit Joe hard whenever I could, rather than play nice.

Very weird outcome – almost every state was fairly close, and each of us won a couple of states that normally are easy wins for the other party. I think the margins were less than five percent in nearly half of all states. California and Illinois were closer than Wisconsin and Iowa. A slight shift in my direction, probably less than a million votes across several states, could’ve turned this into a historic blowout.

Popular Vote Result:
George W. Bush: 59,996,055 (49.3%)
Joe Lieberman: 58,055,005 (47.7%)
Ralph Nader: 2,136,576 (1.8%)
Ron Paul: 1,580,256 (1.3%)

Closest States

Washington
George W. Bush: 1,324,205 (48.15%)
Joe Lieberman: 1,323,434 (48.13%)
Ralph Nader: 78,607 (2.86%)

Pennsylvania
Joe Lieberman: 2,782,364 (49.72%)
George W. Bush: 2,763,963 (49.39%)
Ron Paul: 43,624 (0.78%)

Delaware
George W. Bush: 189,695 (50.07%)
Joe Lieberman: 186,771 (49.29%)

Florida
George W. Bush: 3,524,581 (48.39%)
Joe Lieberman: 3,438,474 (47.21%)
Ron Paul: 192,021 (2.64%)
Ralph Nader: 127,898 (1.76%)

Hawaii
Joe Lieberman: 212,377 (50.28%)
George W. Bush: 206,274 (48.84%)

[TheHegemonist]

My result as Ted Turner in Mouths of the South. I chose John Kerry as my veep, thinking it was the safe pick. I had to do a lot of trial and error here, this mod has a lot of weird side paths you can get if you don't make the right picks. I generally picked more moderate answers and got Jane to stick around. My ending was "Gone With The Wind" which I think is good.

Despite falling under the 5% national vote share, Perot managed to finish ahead of Gingrich in Maine, getting around 30% of the vote there. He was up there, above 10% in a few Western states. Very weird.

Popular Vote Result:
Ted Turner: 50,929,771 (47.9%)
Newt Gingrich: 49,676,514 (46.7%)
Ross Perot: 5,247,781 (4.9%)
Ralph Nader: 430,024 (0.4%)

Closest States

Pennsylvania
Ted Turner: 2,428,084 (48.80%)
Newt Gingrich: 2,393,216 (48.10%)
Ross Perot: 136,719 (2.75%)

Missouri
Ted Turner: 1,137,040 (48.80%)
Newt Gingrich: 1,120,656 (48.10%)
Ross Perot: 64,909 (2.79%)

Arkansas
Ted Turner: 458,093 (48.98%)
Newt Gingrich: 450,973 (48.22%)
Ross Perot: 24,156 (2.58%)

Nevada
Newt Gingrich: 273,159 (46.85%)
Ted Turner: 268,220 (46.00%)
Ross Perot: 39,816 (6.83%)

Tennessee
Newt Gingrich: 1,052,055 (48.99%)
Ted Turner: 1,026,589 (47.81%)
Ross Perot: 61,898 (2.88%)

The election mainly came down to parts of the South and Midwest. Gingrich had an advantage in the South (though I managed to take Arkansas and Georgia), but I got past him in the Midwest other than Ohio.