Inspired by a similar infobox on the Other Site featuring Romney '12.
By January 2020, the Republican Party was in a bit of pickle. Though the 45th President of the United States was moderately popular, presiding over an economic recovery and the building of an trans-Atlantic anti-Putin coalition, many Republicans found him insufficiently willing to cut down on socialized healthcare, insufficiently strong in the face of Chinese aggression, insufficiently partisan overall. Amidst a dubious Ukrainian election between Tihipko and Boyko, threats of a trade war with China and an actual war with Iran, and the introduction of a disease heretofore limited to Africa, numerous conservative up-and-comers arose to challenge Vice President Paul Ryan, who nonetheless eked out a victory in the primaries and took along one of the biggest such competitors as well as numerous concessions to the Tea Party.
The Democratic field was equally divided, as former President Obama declined the opportunity to pull a Cleveland and former Vice President Biden grieved over the death of his son. Castro stuttered in the debates, Carter stumbled over the Ferguson protests and his past pledge to permit Confederate battle flag license plates, Klobuchar's tough demeanor and abuse towards her staff didn't endear her to anyone, and the political maverick Crist was not appreciated enough by the DNC. The vacuum was soon filled by Senator Donna Edwards of Maryland, who narrowly triumphed over moderate Van Hollen in 2016 and since then portrayed herself as an unabashed torchbearer of progressive causes. The DNC wasn't entirely on ease with Edwards, with some slamming her for being "overtly ambitious", but her campaign was easy to negotiate with, and Sanders and Warren - seeing her strength amidst the protests and the increasingly evident ebolavirus epidemic - endorsed her quite early.
Although initial polls showed Ryan well in the lead, he wasn't well-equipped for the ebolavirus issue - with both him and his running mate flip-flopping and contradicting each other in regards to the solution - and generally wasn't a very good campaigner. Pundits of all outlooks feared that Edwards wouldn't perform as well in the Midwest as, say, Biden or Carter or Mitchell would, but she quickly narrowed the lead as backlash against far-right counterprotestors and "Romneycare" access issues in the Rust Belt played into her hand.
The Ryan/Ward ticket is more than a little inspired by
@Callan's neat little scenario
here.