• Hi Guest!

    The costs of running this forum are covered by Sea Lion Press. If you'd like to help support the company and the forum, visit patreon.com/sealionpress

Hughes wins the US Presidency in 1916

S

Sylvanus

Member
What would have been the effects of Charles Evans Hughes winning the US Presidency in 1916 on both US domestic policy and US foreign policy? Also, what would the next several US presidential elections in this TL have looked like?
 
The Republicans would face the same problems the Democrats did in our timeline. We would see a Democratic landslide in this timeline. The Republican nominee would presumably be Hughes, himself. The Democratic nominee is more uncertain. It could be Wilson in a rematch assuming he didn't suffer a stroke in this timeline.
 
Japhy said:
1912 and even 1924 show that's wrong. In different circumstances he could have done it.
Click to expand...

You quoted your own post instead of mine. Could you, please, fix that?
Regardless, I don't see how 1912 and 1924 (which is after this point of divergence, anyways), in neither of which Bryan was a candidate, show it's wrong. IMO, Bryan's third and biggest loss in 1908 made it impossible for him to be nominated again. You don't renominate a three time loser.
 
Ricardolindo said:
You quoted your own post instead of mine. Could you, please, fix that?
Regardless, I don't see how 1912 and 1924 (which is after this point of divergence, anyways), in neither of which Bryan was a candidate, show it's wrong. IMO, Bryan's third and biggest loss in 1908 made it impossible for him to be nominated again. You don't renominate a three time loser.
Click to expand...
Because in both of those conventions he was either a king maker EVERYONE was afraid would jump in or the Compromise Candidate that sank himself by not wanting to run when Party insiders were begging him to and has to resort to his younger brother.

You might not want to nominate a three time loser but plenty of Democrats did and in a more open primary probably would have.
 
Bryan had lost a lot of his potency (and support) by 1912 OTL and was a kingmaker figure at that convention, but his relative centrality in favouring Wilson and bucking Clark demonstrates he still had significant power and standing.

I think it's likely a 1920 convention ITTL would be similar, with Bryan as a non-candidate - but it's quite possible that he could be nominated in a deadlock, and a winnable-looking general election might produce a number of potential candidates, a bit like the OTL Republican convention.
 
If Wilson had actually carried out his plan to have Hughes appointed Secretary of State and then to resign and have Vice President Marshall resign with him so that Hughes would become President before March of 1917, it's interesting to consider how much of a precedent that might have set. It's a problem that we eventually saw solved with the 20th Amendment in 1933, so perhaps that might have come about sooner rather than the awkward work-around of a Cabinet appointment being allowed to continue.
 
A tangential question I realise but (assuming he failed as per OTL) what would be the effect if Hughes ran for and won the presidency in 1920?
 
Venocara said:
A tangential question I realise but (assuming he failed as per OTL) what would be the effect if Hughes ran for and won the presidency in 1920?
Click to expand...
Depends on what's happened with his daughter, which is why he didn't run IRL.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top