Steve Brinson
The possum is not OK. Neither are we.
- Location
- Brooklyn (originally Houston)
- Pronouns
- he/him
The 2040 United States presidential election was the 63rd quadrennial presidential election, held on November 6th, 2040. The Democratic ticket of Rose Maddox, the junior Senator for California, and Davon Reid, the governor of Mississippi, defeated the New Democrat Coalition ticket of Michael Hunter, the senior Senator for Connecticut, and Ellen Hayakawa, the representative for Washington's 10th congressional district; the Unionist ticket of Lydia Bondarenko, the junior Senator for Ohio, and William Christensen, the Mayor of Salt Lake County; and the Democratic Socialists of America ticket of Antonio de la Rosa, the junior Senator for Hawai'i, and Aisha Russell, the Brooklyn Borough President. Maddox became the first non-binary person elected President, the youngest person elected President (at 41 years, 356 days), as well as being only the fourth sitting United States senator elected president, joining Warren G. Harding, John F. Kennedy, and Barack Obama. This was the first Presidential election in which the two highest popular vote totals went to members of the same political party, the last election in which the Unionist Party won any states, and the last election in which Patriotic Front officers and officials were barred from electoral participation under the Electoral Qualifications Act of 2032.
Incumbent Democratic President Charlotte Conneh was ineligible to pursue a third term due to the term limits established by the 22nd Amendment. Senator Maddox secured the nomination by November 2039 despite vehement opposition, defeating Governors Christopher Simon and Patricia Mendez in the primaries. In response to their success, a group of Democratic elected officials associated with the center-right New Democrat Coalition announced their intent to run an independent campaign that same month; though Governor Paris Stanford initially planned to make the campaign, she announced her retirement in January due to a diagnosis of leukemia, and Senator Hunter was nominated in her stead. Additionally, Senator de la Rosa announced his own independent campaign, and narrowly defeated Maddox for the DSA's national endorsement in February 2040, though many local chapters endorsed Maddox or refused to endorse either candidate. The Unionist primaries were marked by a close race between Senator Bondarenko, State Senator Joaquin Duarte, and Governor Andrew Cowan; Bondarenko won a narrow victory at the national convention in June 2040, in part by making a deal with Gov. Cowan and naming his protegé running mate.
The campaign focused largely on domestic policy. Maddox supported significant cuts to military, police, and surveillance funding, as well as sweeping legislation to protect Americans' privacy rights and end wartime restrictions on the Internet. They also endorsed the phased deregulation of price and wage controls, the devolution of the National Infrastructure Administration to state and local control, and the end of "special status" for national-scale unions and corporations. Hunter, conversely, supported the expansion of the NIA to cover geoengineering projects and long-term administration of social housing, renewed efforts to suppress third-wave 'amphibious' militias, and investment in Meristic Intelligence; on foreign policy, he supported expanding the Inter-American Development Program. Bondarenko and her party supported the repeal of the Emergency National Labor Relations Act of 2028, promotion of the nuclear family in education and housing, a legal right to private or parochial education, and American membership in the Global Democratic League, a precursor to the Ayodhya Agreements. De La Rosa supported Maddox' demilitarization plan but broke with them on economic planning and support for national-scale unions.
Maddox won a decisive victory in the Electoral College and a plurality of the popular vote, with key support bases in the Southwest, lowland South, and Midwest; their victory was assured by vote-splitting in key states such as Texas, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, though they won outright majorities in only four states (Alabama, Minnesota, Mississippi, and New Mexico). Hunter was able to win states such as New York, Virginia, Washington, and Tennessee through strong margins with white-collar voters and vote-splitting between Maddox and de la Rosa, but was unable to prevent socially conservative and military voters from falling behind Bondarenko.
This election was key in developing the Seventh Party System and crystallizing divisions within the postwar Democratic Party.