2040 United States Presidential Election (Nick's Timeline)

The 2040 U.S presidential election was the 64th quadrennial American presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 6, 2040. The election marked the first time two third parties had major candidates since Ross Perot ran in 1992 and 1996. As it was between Incumbent Republican President Nikki Haley, Democratic Governor of Michigan Nicklas Zande, head of the Alt-Right Richard Spencer of the newly formed Nationalist Party, and former Michigan Libertarian Congressman Justin Amash.

Background
President Nikki Haley promised to be a new kind of President for the United States. She promised to make decisions based on consensus, and not on partisan merit. And she promised to be welcoming to all Americans, no matter what their race, religion, sex, gender, ethnicity, or political view they were.

This causes backlash with her party's white base, who believed that she was too accepting of people who, in their eyes, were more likely to commit crimes than mostly white, law biding Americans. To appease them, she commits to strengthening border security, and rebuilding Trump's wall that was knocked over by the previous Democratic Administrations.

In 2038, Pakistan declared war on India, and in response, Indian Prime Minister Piyush Goyal announced that all Muslims would be locked up in prison camps, as he suspected them of terrorism, and it was reported that a number of them were specifically death camps, Nikki Haley sent aid to India in its war against Pakistan, which caused backlash with many Americans, some thought she had gone too far when supporting "Hindu-fascists". Others thought she didn't go far enough, in actually sending the military to India, to fight the "evil Islamic invaders".

This, among many things, led to many key demographics in her voting base to leave and support other parties. The social conservatives backed the newly formed Nationalist Party, the fiscal conservatives back the Libertarian Party, and the minorities moved back to their old advocates, the Democratic Party.

Primaries
In election cycles with incumbent presidents running for re-election, the race for the party nomination is usually pro-forma, with token opposition instead of any serious challengers and with their party rules being fixed in their favor. The 2040 election was no exception; with Nikki Haley formally seeking a second term, the official Republican apparatus, both state and national, coordinated with his campaign to implement changes to make it difficult for any primary opponent to mount a serious challenge.

Nevertheless, this primary had the most serious primary challenge to any sitting President since Pat Buchanan challenged George H. W. Bush in 1992, and it was former Trump campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, who believed that Nikki Haley should've sent troops to India during the fourth Indo-Pakistani War. Nikki Haley defended her decision, saying that it would lead to a nuclear war with China.

This led to the closest Republican Primary in history, with Lewandowski winning in Iowa and New Hampshire, and Haley winning in Nevada and South Carolina in the early primaries. However, just after Super Tuesday, Nikki Haley narrowly took renomination, and Josh Hawley was renominated as her running-mate.

Nominee

 * Nikki Haley: 49th President of the United States
 * Josh Hawley: 52nd Vice President of the United States

Candidates

 * Corey Lewandowski: Former Trump Campaign Manager



Primaries
After Jason Kandler's defeat in 2036, the Democratic Party base realized that Neo-Liberalism was a dead ideology, and that they needed a more ideological and aggressive candidate to win back the White House. In response to Nikki Haley's support for India in the Indo-Pakistani war of 2038, where it turned out that a lot of that money went towards camps that held political prisoners who were accused of helping the Pakistani and Chinese invaders, most of whom were Muslim, and many of those turned out to be specifically Death Camps, the Democratic Party's base came out in full force, and elected progressive candidates to Congress.

As a result, the Democratic Party took back the House and the Senate, with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as the new Senate Majority Leader, and Ayanna Pressley as the new Speaker of the House. This made Democrats excited about possibly taking back the White House in the 2040 Presidential Election. Just after the modterms ended, Nicklas Zande, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Hunter Biden all announced their candidacies.

Hunter Biden argued that both Nicklas and Alexandria were trying to turn America into the Soviet Union, and would be too soft on China. Zande responded by saying that Biden had a job in China, and gained a lot of profits from them, and stated that he would pressure China into addressing its human rights violations, in exchange for both them and America disarming its nukes, and he'd do the same with Russia, India, Pakistan, Israel, and North Korea.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez argued that she was the only one who would be a true progressive President, who would fight for the working people, and her opponents were too sympathetic to corporate interests. Nicklas Zande argued that he was both an idealist and a realist, and that AOC, even though he admired her, was just an idealist, and not much of a realist, and that Hunter Biden was too much of a realist, and that he wasn't open too fresh new ideas.

Initially, Hunter Biden was confident he was going to win, as he believed that Zande and AOC would split the progressive vote, giving him the nomination. His confidence was boosted by Nicklas Zande winning Iowa, and AOC winning New Hampshire, and believed that they wasted their efforts in their favorite regions of the country, the Midwest and New England respectively. However, AOC surprised everyone by dropping out after Nevada, knowing that she'd continue to split votes with Zande, and immediately endorsed Nicklas Zande after dropping out.

Biden still won South Carolina, but by a margin of only less than 6 percentage points. And it led to him getting his butt whopped on Super Tuesday, with Nicklas Zande storming every state, except for North Carolina, Georgia, Virginia, and Florida. Hunter Biden immediately dropped out of the race, but still refused to support Nicklas Zande, who picked AOC as his running mate.

Nominee

 * Nicklas Zande: Governor of Michiagn (2035 - 2041)
 * Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: Senator from New York

Candidates

 * Hunter Biden: Senator from Delaware
 * Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: Senator from New York

Primaries
The Nationalist Party was founded on April 13, 2037, as a result of a merger agreement between to far-right parties, the Constitution Party, and the American Independent Party, as they were both united behind Nikki Haley's lenience towards minorities, as they believed that she should take a hard-lined stance on minorities, as they believed that them living in America went against the Constitution. Initially, most Americans didn't take them seriously, as they were seen to as too racist for most Americans.

However, in March of 2038, they had their big break when they saw Nikki Haley as weak in the Indo-Pakistani conflict, saying she should've sent troops to India. This turned a lot of social conservatives away from the Republicans, and towards the Nationalists, and they won all rural Southern Congressional Districts, mostly populated by white people, and it was enough for them to become the Official Minority Party in Congress, giving the newly elected Virginia Congressman Thomas Jackson as the new House Minority Leader, reducing the Republicans to just 18 seats. House Republican Leader Steve Scalise even lost his own seat, and he immediately retired from politics.

This boosted them into official party status, giving them the confidence that they could win in the 2040 Election. They all united behind one candidate, Richard Spencer, the head of the Alt-Right, who advocated for America to a Byzantinian society, where all Non-Whites and Non-Christians would be oppressed, and the Aryan White Christians would dominate America. He picked Colonial Heights Mayor Stuart Jackson, the older brother of House Minority Leader Thomas Jackson, and nephew of former White House Communications Director, and 1992 Presidential Candidate Pat Buchanan, as his running mate. However, many people, even conservatives outside the south though he was way too racist for most Americans, and many of them supported the Libertarian Party.

Nominee

 * Richard Spencer: Leader of the Alt-Right Movement
 * Stuart Jackson: Mayor of Colonial Heights, Virginia (2039 - Present)

Primaries
After years of coming in a very distant third place in every election, they finally had their big break in the 2038 midterms, when they saw Nikki Haley's intervention in the Indo-Pakistani conflict as too Islamophobic, and a betrayal of American values for Democracy. This lead to them winning in rural northern Congressional Elections, and in Northwestern At-Large Congressional and Senate elections, leading to them becoming the third biggest party in Congress, despite getting more votes overall than the Nationalists.

During the primaries, all Libertarians rallied behind former Michigan Congressman Justin Amash, giving him the Libertarian Nomination with flying colors. He nominated Spike Cohen, the Libertarian Vice Presidential Candidate from 2020, as his running mate. The Libertarians began to sweep a lot of Republican votes in Northern States, and he also shared a home state with Democratic Candidate Nicklas Zande, as they both lived in Michigan.

Nominee

 * Justin Amash: Former Congressman from Michigan's 3rd Congressional District (2011 - 2021)
 * Spike Cohen: 2020 Libertarian Vice Presidential Candidate

General election campaign
Though Nikki Haley tried to remain optimistic about her re-election, she knew that the odds were against her, as America's Right-Wing was divided between three major Right-Wing parties, herself, Spencer and Amash. Nicklas Zande was very optimistic about being re-elected, as he not only had a divided opposition, but his opponent Nikki Haley had an approval rating of only 34%, the lowest since George W. Bush in 2008.

This election was the first to have both English and Spanish language debates. Richard Spencer and Stuart Jackson both refused to participate in the Spanish Debates, because they believed that America should have English as the official language.

The Nationalists under Spencer and Jackson were labeled by all other parties as too racist, and it was likely that they wouldn't win anywhere but the South. The Libertarians under Justin Amash, despite being higher in the polls, was projected to get less Electoral Votes than the Nationalists and Republicans combined, due to the flaws of the Electoral College.

Results
Nicklas Zande won with 52% of the vote, and because of the Right-Wing split, their vote was split into thirds. This was the Republican Party's biggest defeat since Barry Goldwater in 1964, and the worst defeat for an Incumbent President since Donald Trump in 2020.

This was not the biggest popular vote win for the Democrats, as the Zande Campaign got less than Kamala Harris' landslide popular vote percentage of 54.5%. Which would eventually harm the Democrats in the long run.

Conclusion
This results marked an end for Neo-Liberal economics, and began the Third Progressive Era AKA: Zande Era in American History, when the country made a giant swing to the left, both socially and economically. This was especially apparent, as China and Russia weren't the threats they once were, and the age of interventionism came to a symbolic end, once President Zande embargoed on India, and Pakistan took control of Kashmir and Jammu, in exchange for Indian annexation of Bangladesh. And Saudi oil and oil in general was now a thing of the past, as Renewable and Nuclear Energy was now the norm, as America cut off all ties with the Saudi Royal Family.

Korea also reunified during Haley's lame duck session, leading to the most evil country in the world, North Korea, being wiped off the map for good. And, the Western World also took a giant swing to the left, as the UK Labour Party under Owen Jones won a landslide in the 2039 General Election, and the newly formed Progressive Party of Canada, led by Jordan Humber, won a Majority Government in Parliament. This was a moment when the world began focusing on world peace, instead of building their strength both slowly and quickly, and refocusing on domestic matters.