Presidents 46 through 50 (JohnaX)

46.) Joe Biden, (D-Delaware) 2020-2028
On November 7th, 2020, President Joe Biden defeated incumbent Donald Trump and was sworn into office January 20, 2021.

2020 Election
In the 2020 Democratic Primary Joe Biden was losing at first, to Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders especially. However, as the centrist vote became less split, he beat out Bernie and won. He planned to pick a women as his VP, Warren, Harris, Ducksworth and Rice were all in consideration. After a bit of time, he ended up picking Kamala Harris. Trump had had much drama over the year, congress attempted to impeach him and his administration was largely blamed for America's poor handling of the Corona Virus. Across the Summer Biden and Harris endorsed things like masks and Science, winning over many Americans. The first debate had Trump interrupt a lot, so people were unsure where they stood, but most were mad at Trump for interrupting. Due to Trump contracting the virus, the second debate was cancelled. The last debate most felt Biden did better, and Trump made many bad comments. People thought the same about the Vice Presidential Debate between Kamal Harris and Mike Pence. In the election, Biden won by 306 electoral votes, as opposed to Trump's 232. The right had many claims of fraud, but in the end, Biden won.

First Term
Biden went into office with a very divided congress. House was a slight Democratic Majority, and the Senate was equally split. His early priorities were dedicated to the Virus, including pushing for stimulus and setting up free masks delivered to every household by the USPS. In 2022 the senate became a democratic majority, but the house became republican controlled. However, many democratic seats in both the house and senate got taken by democrats who were considered far more progressive. Notable accomplishments were upgrading Obama Care to cover more people, and paved the way for a public option by making the bill a bit less friendly to big pharma. Alongside this, weed was decriminalized in 2021, in 2023 immigrant laws became a lot less strict, and many benefits were made for the environment, including undoing a lot of Trump's damage as well as setting up carbon taxes and some stronger regulations of certain companies. Overall, he was considered very much an okay President during this time. However, the further left very much didn't like a lot of his progressive claims during before election became less so, like how he just cancelled 10k in student debt rather then 50k or all of it, and how he frequently compromised with republicans on certain aspects, backing away from things like the Public Option and Clean Air requirements. The right didn't like some of his actions such as college forgiveness being seen as "anti capitalist" and didn't like how income taxes generally went up, even if it was more minor for those making less money.

2024 Election
Many assumed Biden would not run a second time due to his age. However, at the 2022 state of the union, he announced he would be running for re-election. This concerned people on all sides of the political spectrum, but many valued incumbency. In the DNC primary, he mainly ran against people who were not even in congress or had much political experience, such as Mike Gravel, Ryan Knight, and Brie Joy, but he did have a somewhat significant challenger in Andrew Yang. Yang, who was at that time the mayor of New York, felt that Biden was best used as a transitional President, and a second term would be more time then he needed. In addition, he also pointed out that Biden had had a record number of surgeries while in office, that could be a sign he's on his way out and isn't fit for 4 more years. The primaries were fairly intense for those of a party with an eligible incumbent, but in the end, despite a fierce opposition from the left wing, Biden won 2,800 of the delegates, getting a strong majority, but less then an incumbent usually gets, with Yang winning New York, Washington, California, Hawaii, and Oregon. Many were concerned about this, noting how the 1980 primary had a similar (though bigger) amount of competition, but figured in the actual election it'd go fine. Biden once again ran Harris as his VP. On the Republican side, there was a lot of contest, especially due to somewhat of a party split. Many desired a return to the moderate pre-Trump era, but some desired a return. Notable contestants included Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush, Michael Reagan, Ted Cruz, Mike Pence, Niki Haley, Marco Rubio, Ivanka Trump, and Tom Cotton. Donald Trump teased a run for a Grover Cleveland style comeback, but ended up backing out, saying "The radical left democrats control the media and have years of dirt built up on me. Sleepy Joe will win because of fear mongering, and Communist Harris will takeover. However, they have focused so much on me that if my successor takes over in my shoes they'll be blind sighted. As such, I want a candidate who can carry my legacy". He did not endorse anyone at the time, but immediately opposed Jeb and Michael somewhat for their comments in the past, but especially was negative towards Mitt Romney, feeling hostility after Romney voted in favor of removing Trump from office. As the debates went on, there was much discourse over if Trump was good or if they should diverge a new path. Jeb and Michael strongly believed in a new path, and Cotton and Rubio were somewhat centrist on the issue. Trump bashed them all after this, and as it went on, Cotton, Haley, Jeb, Michael, and Rubio dropped out. Jeb endorsed Mitt Romney, Haley endorsed Ivanka, Cotton endorsed Pence, Rubio endorsed Cruz, and Michael stayed neutral. Of the 4 remaining candidates, 3 were known for their connections to Donald Trump himself, especially Pence and Ivanka. As Romney began to lead and the "Trump-publicans" began to have a divide, they took a page out of the 2020 DNC book and Trump endorsed Ivanka. Cruz also dropped out and endorsed Ivanka, soon followed by Pence. Michael then endorsed Romney. It was now Ivanka vs Romney. As this happened, Ivanka began to takeover, and she ended up winning the nomination. There was a lot of discourse over who she should pick as Vice President. Many Republicans weary of the distaste towards Trump said she should do Jeb to call back to an older era, and even more said Michael due to how popular his father was. Others felt she should do Haley to double down on woman and hurt the Democrats diverse image. There was also a lot of backing for Cruz or even Pence. As for those not in the primary, there were many requests for Eric or Jr., some requests for people like Ben Shapiro or Tucker Carlson, and even a large, large demand for Trump himself. It was reported she was between Michael, Cruz, Pence, and Trump. It seemed she almost picked Trump, but enough within the party feared his image and she instead ran with the man second closest, Mike Pence, meaning if he won, he would be the first Vice President since John Calhoun to be under 2 different Presidents. To the surprise of many, Larry Sanders, son of popular candidate in 2016 and 2020, ran as an Independent, but unofficially used the term "Berniecrat". He reportedly wanted to get AOC as his running mate, but she declined, so he chose Christine Olivo. Many were fearful this would cause real divide within the left, mainly due to Bernie's connections. Bernie spoke at the DNC and said some of the good that happened under Biden's time, as well as spoke critically of Ivanka and Pence, but did not outright praise Biden. Nowhere did he officially endorse a candidate, and it became somewhat of a hot topic, many feared his silence was splitting the party. In debates, Ivanka seemed to agree with many of her dad's policies, though advocated less against immigration, and advocated a lot more towards tax cuts. Biden wanted to continue his policies from his first term, but also began more and more to advocate for a progressive shift, saying on stage "I guarantee if I get a second term, you will see FDR levels of change in terms of the working classes treatment by the end of it". The Biden team later clarified this would include a more progressive tax bracket, a decrease in tariffs, and that even more student loans would be forgiven. Its speculated this late game move was to sway Larry Sanders voters into Biden. There was a fair bit of concern among moderates that Ivanka would be like a second Trump term, but due to her composure, it wasn't as extreme as in 2016 and 2020. On election night, the divide between the moderate and less moderates of the left wing was strong. In the end, Biden got 271 electoral votes and squeezed out a re-election. States like Pennsylvania, Arizona, and Georgia flipped red either due to the left vote being divided or voters that voted for Biden in 2020 but were fine with Ivanka as opposed to Trump. Ivanka got 258 electoral votes. Surprisingly, 2 states, Nevada and Vermont, Larry won. This was considered a big win for the progressive side of the party, as they felt this 9 vote loss from the main democrat would either force the 2028 candidate to be more progressive, or cause a popular progressive to run independently again, and make things shift even more. Ivanka waited 3 days to concede, feeling that things were too close to call in some areas, but eventually did. The House gained blue seats but remained red, and the senate gained red seats but remained blue.

Second Term
Within 3 months of time in office, 35k in student debt was forgiven per student, and capped the price of total annual tuition at any public institution years of college at 45k per year. In 2026 the house was flipped back to blue, and the senate remained blue. With all 3 branches in favor, there was an attempt to pass the 28th amendment, which would abolish the electoral college. It failed to pass in the house. It did have a majority, but not 2/3rds. This second term was generally considered less active, but did have an overall betterment of the economy, as the Corona Virus was getting more and more distant. Due to this more tax cuts were passed, though the taxation on those with a high amount of income became a bit lighter then during the first term, much to dismay of progressives. The public option was also finally passed, Medicare For All still in limbo. A bill was also passed that would prohibit the sale of non electric cars by the year 2032. Moderates and those with a slight left lean liked Biden, more progressives and those with more then a slight right lean were opposed, with some of the farther right calling some of his actions "socialist". In early 2027 he began to promote Kamala Harris a lot, and implied she was basically running things, though she never officially became President during this time.