2032 United States presidential election (YoungLibertarian20)

The 2032 United States presidential election was the 62nd quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 2, 2032. The Democratic ticket of New Mexico Governor Martin Heinrich and U.S. Senator from Maine Sara Gideon defeated the incumbent Republican President Tim Scott and Vice President Josh Hawley. It was the first election since 2020 in which the incumbent president failed to win a second term. Gideon became the second female vice president in U.S. history, after Kamala Harris.

The Democratic nomination was competitive and left without a clear frontrunner in the wake of Ossoff’s defeat in the previous election. While many Democrats persuaded him to run, he decided against it. Ultimately, Senator Martin Heinrich of New Mexico secured a majority of the delegates needed to win the nomination over closest rival U.S. Representative Jamaal Bowman. Heinrich ultimately selected Senator Sara Gideon of Maine as his running mate. Gideon became the fourth female vice presidential nominee on a major party ticket. The Republican primary was not competitive, and incumbent President Scott easily won re-nomination.

In the wake of mass civil unrest in the Middle East and Scott’s authorization of troops in Iran and Syria, his standing with the American public deteriorated and he faced multiple threats of impeachment by Democratic lawmakers. The campaign was consistently competitive in polls, and both candidates were either tied or Heinrich had a slight lead in the final weeks of the campaign. Heinrich ultimately defeated Scott and won a majority of the Electoral College and the nationwide popular vote. Heinrich won 288 electoral votes with 50.2% of the popular vote to Scott’s 250 electoral votes and 47.5%. The result was the closest of any presidential election since 2004. It was the first election since 1976 in which the majority of the states in the union voted for the losing presidential candidate. With Scott’s defeat, he became the second Republican president in a row, after Donald Trump, to fail to win a second consecutive term. Many protests broke out across the country following Heinrich’s victory in the election. Texas was the tipping point of the election, and voted for a Democratic candidate for the first time since Jimmy Carter won it in 1976. The results in the state later underwent multiple recounts and audits due to the scarce margin of victory. It drew heavy comparisons to Bush v. Gore in 2000, despite the margin being much larger. After weeks of litigation, he would concede the election to Heinrich on December 2.