2020 United States general election (Archive)

2020 United States general election

February 22, 2020
All 1998 seats to the United States Congress 1000 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	90.59%
First party Second party Third party   Leader John Fetterman Mitt Romney Kyrsten Sinema Party Social Democratic Party/Southern Social Democrats Democratic Republican Party Free Democratic Party U.S. Leader since June 29, 2019 January 19, 2016 June 20, 2018 Leader's seat Stern, PA Swenson, UT Arizona at-Large Seats before 891 663 105 Seats won 783 618 154 Seat change 108 45 49 Popular vote 87,718,388 69,179,636 17,899,640 Percentage 37.43% 29.52% 7.64% Swing 5.42% 2.61% 2.30   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Ted Cruz Lynne Serpe Jon Tester Party Christian Conservative Union Greens Party U.S.A. Farmers Federation Leader since November 2, 2014 July 2, 2017 August 8, 2013 Leader's seat Texas at-Large New York at-Large Haskell, MT Seats before 106 126 76 Seats won 137 145 102 Seat change 21 19 26 Popular vote 17,210,894 16,648,502 13,143,201 Percentage 7.34% 7.10% 5.61% Swing 1.55 0.61 1.23
Chancellor before election John Fetterman [[SDP (SDP/SSD-GRN Coalition)|SDP (SDP/SSD-GRN Coalition)]] Chancellor John Fetterman [[SDP (SDP/SSD-GRN-FFA Coalition)|SDP (SDP/SSD-GRN-FFA Coalition)]]

The 2020 United States general election was held on February 22, 2020 to elect members of the 53rd Congress of the United States. The election was called following the dissolution of the 52nd Congress elected at the 2015 general election. All 1998 seats of the Congress were up for election.

The second-term SDP-led government was able to enter a historic third-consecutive term by entering into a "Red-Green-Green" coalition with the Greens and Farmers Federation. Without the Farmers Federation, the SDP/SSD-Greens coalition would have been unable to form government as the collective coalition lost a net of 89 seats. Despite this, the SDP/SSD remained the largest parliamentary voting bloc, with a joint 783 seats between them. This was followed by the Democratic Republican Party which saw it's third consecutive election with losses, continuing a decade of losses.

The electoral system in the United States enforces compulsory voting, and uses full-preferential voting for single-member constituency seats with first-past-the-post voting to award at-Large balancing seats. The election was administered by the Federal Electoral Commission.

On election night the result was seen as an aberration as opinion polling had been unable to capture the strong increase in support for non-major parties. Polling had accurately predicted the SDP/SSD would remain the largest party, but had been unable to forecast the full scale of support gained and lost in various states. Opposition Leader Mitt Romney indicated his desire to fight to remain leader of the DRP, but within days a competitive race has emerged to decide the new leader of the DRP. Chancellor John Fetterman indicated he would attempt to form coalition with either the Free Democrats or Farmers, and was able to announce the formation of a coalition six weeks later.

Results

Government (1030)
Coalition
  Social Democratic Party (657)
  Southern Social Democrats (126)
  The Greens (145)
  Farmers Federation (102)

Opposition (618)
  Democratic Republican Party (618)

Crossbench (319)
  Free Democratic Party (154)
  Christian Conservative Union (137)
  National Freedom Party (33)
  Socialist Party (28)
 

Party			Votes	%	Swing (pp)	Seats			Change (seats)
						C	A	T
	Social Democratic Union
		Social Democratic Party	73,779,189	31.48	−5.26	424	233	657	105
		Southern Social Democrats	13,939,199	5.95	−0.16	81	45	126	3
	Union Total		87,718,388	37.43	−5.42	505	278	783	108
	Democratic Republican Party		69,031,326	29.45	−2.68	365	251	616	47
	Free Democratic Party		17,899,640	7.64	+2.30	9	145	154	49
	Christian Conservative Union		17,210,894	7.34	+1.55	51	86	137	31
	The Greens		16,648,502	7.10	+0.61	20	125	145	19
	Farmers Federation		13,143,201	5.61	+1.23	46	56	102	26
	Socialist Party		6,764,540	2.89	−0.13	1	27	28	3
	National Freedom Party		5,952,839	2.54	+2.54	2	31	33	33
Turnout			234,369,207	90.59	+0.04	–	–	–	–
Registered voters/turnout			258,715,972	–	–	–	–	–	–

Background

Union Instability

Since the formation of the Southern Social Democrats in the early 1970s as a separate brand of Social Democratic candidates, the demarcation line had been strictly enforced. The line explicitly curtailed the national Social Democratic Party from attempting to coerce the affiliation of state, county or sub-branches of the Southern Social Democrats to defect and instead elect delegates and participate in the SDP ecosystem. This line was first eroded at the 1998 Conference, where a majority of delegates from Florida voted to amend the provisions required, and return the state branch of the Southern Social Democrats into the national Social Democratic Party. In 2004, efforts to draw away Texas, narrowly failed. In 2012, shortly into the Obama Chancellery, the Georgia branch of the SSD defected and in 2014, Oklahoma followed suit - though the two did so for wildly different reasons. In Georgia, an influx of urban Social Democrats, with opinions closer to the national median than the Southern median took control of the branch while in Oklahoma, the continued decline of the party saw cosmopolitan delegations outweigh conservative factions and in turn both branches were returned into the SDP proper by the 2015 general election.

At the 2015 general election, the Union was re-elected to a second term in coalition with the Greens. Then-Chancellor Barack Obama retired in 2017 and was succeeded by Obama-ally Terry McAuliffe of Virginia. McAuliffe had overseen the affiliation of the SSD-Virginia to the SDP ahead of the 2016 Social Democratic Union Convention. The continued decline of the SSD was met with strong demands from SSD MCs, hence McAuliffe who had been the subject of disapproval by SSD leadership and caucus members, was dismissed six months into his tenure. He would be succeeded by Bill Nelson (MC for Florida). Nelson was widely seen as a stand-in among the public due to his age and hence, the anticipation was that there would be a full party ballot for Union Leader in the 2018 convention. This proved inaccurate, as with no consensus candidate as an alternative, no ballot was ordered for the leadership of the party.

In 2019, the Nelson Government was dealt a serious defeat in the constituency of Zanuck at a by-election. SDP Incumbent Gaston Caperton had died of a heart attack and at the eventual by-election, the SDP experienced the largest single-seat swing for a political party since the adoption of full preferential voting. The result was seen as a wide rebuke of the collective SDP/SSD union brand and triggered calls for Nelson's resignation. At the ensuing leadership election, an upset was seen as backbencher John Fetterman, MC for Stern; was elected leader of the SDP/SSD.

Upon Fetterman's swearing-in, the Union vote experienced a fall in opinion polling to below 30%.