2036 United States Presidential Election (Rubio, Ocasio-Cortez)

The 2036 United States presidential election took place on Tuesday, November 6, 2036. It was the 63rd quadrennial presidential election. Voters selected presidential electors who voted on December 14, 203,[2] to select a new president and vice president. The election occured simultaneously alongside elections for the House of Representatives, Senate, and various state and local-level elections.

The Presidential Election was the first presidential election to take place during a time of world war since 1944. The election took place in the culminating stages of the main theater of World War III. It was an deadliest conflict in American history causing over 1.2 million American lives. However, by the time of the election the Eastern European theater of the war had fallen, while NATO forces were making fast movements in the Asian theater as well.

The Republican ticket of President Marco Rubio and New York Governor Elise Stefanik defeated the Democratic ticket of New York Senator Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Hawaii Senator Brian Schatz. Rubio received 281 electoral votes and 48.7% of the popular vote, while Ocasio-Cortez received 265 electoral votes and 48.3% of the popular vote.

Background
By the time that President Rubio first took office on January 20, 2033, the Great Sino-Indian War had seemed to turn into World War III. Not only were China and Pakistan making fast movement through India and blocking out European and Indian forces, but Russia joined an alliance with China known as CSTO and on January 10th, 2033, Russian President Vladimir Putin had declared war on the Baltic States of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. Additionally, the Shia government of Iran was making fast movements into the Middle East taking over the neighboring Sunni countries of Syria and Iraq.

On day one of his Presidency, Rubio asked Congress to declare war on the CSTO forces, thus finally bringing America into the conflict. Over the next three years, NATO forces had greatly struggled to push back China, Pakistan, Iran, and Russia. By mid 2035, over 65 million people died in the conflict including 1.2 million Americans, the most in any one single war in American history. The war had largely turned into a stale mate, and two nuclear warheads had been dropped in the Asia-Pacific region.

The domestic US economy had, however, recovered from the 2031-2032 Financial Crisis and was booming due to the great government expenditure the Rubio Administration had done to support the war effort. Factories and American workers worked for longer than ever to support their brothers and sisters fighting in the War.

Democratic Nomination
After her loss in 2032, former President Kamala Harris was widely considered to be the leading frontrunner for the 2036 Democratic nomination, and was expected to face a rematch against President Rubio. However, the Harris Administration was still widely blamed by the American public for not doing enough to mitigate the conflict in the first place in the early 2030's. Moreover, Harris was not popular with the Progressive Wing of the Democratic Party that was growing ever so prominent in the Party.

Rubio's initial extreme popularity following his declaration of war on China and Russia caused Harris to question whether she could win re-election against him. Ultimately, Harris decided against running for the Presidency.

When Harris declared her intention not to stand for the Democratic Nomination, a plethora of candidates joined the Democratic primaries. Such candidates included former Vice President Jon Ossoff, former New York Governor Andrew Yang, California Senator Gavin Newson, and Georgia Senator Stacey Abrams. However, the far-stretching front runner was the Progressive Voice of the Party New York Senator Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Ocasio-Cortez almost defeated Harris back in 2032 and this time it seemed unlikely like anyone could stop her from achieving the nomination.

By mid March, Alexandia Ocasio-Cortez had easily secured the presumptive Democratic nomination, although former New York Governor Andrew Yang proved to be a challenging opponent. Ocasio-Cortez picked Hawaii Senator Brian Schulz as her running mate. Schulz was a great admirer of the Progressivism of Bernie Sanders. He was however, also known for having a good appeal to moderates within the party.