2012 Newreath Presidential Election
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410 Electoral College Votes 206 votes needed to win | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Electoral College Map [Cyan = McDowell] [Red = Nielson] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The 2012 Newreath Presidential Election was held on November 10th, 2012. The Republican Nominee, incumbent Vice-Presidnet Branden Nielson, and his running mate, Senator Laura Chambers of Berkshire, were elected President and Vice-President respectively. They defeated the Liberal ticket of Governor Devan Mcdowell of Calhoun and Lieutenant Ben Foster of Kiowa.
As the vice-president to the incumbent popular Republican President Dawson, Nielson was seen as the heir to the republican nomination and used his status as Vice-President to the popular president to gain a lead in the Republican Primaries. However, many of his opponents pointed to VP Nielson's different position on illegal immigration to President Dawson. This resulted in the primaries being contested rather than what had expected to be a 'coronation' of Nielson as the nominee. Nielson emerged the victor of the primaries shortly after West-Friday and made the historic decision to nominate Senator Laura Chambers to be his running mate, making Chambers the first woman to be on a presidential ticket of a major party.
The Liberal party had now lost the previous 2 presidential elections and were desperate to re-take the State House (presidential residence). With President Dawson term-limited and unable to run for a third term, many liberals saw his vice-president, Nielson, as a much lesss formidble opponent and many of the liberal rising stars who had 'skipped' the 2008 presidential election (fearing a liberal wipe out which is what happened), many of them now tossed their hat into the ring. This resulted in a large liberal field which in turn resulted in a contested convention as no single candidate was able to secure enough delegate votes in the primaries. The convention was a hostile one with the different factions of the liberal party picking candidates. In the end, after 2 rounds of voting, Calhoun Governor Devan Mcdowell secured the nomination and chose his one-time primary campaign rival, Ben Foster of Kiowa, to be his running mate.
Branden Nielson was able to capitalise on the liberal party's divisions, and with a growing economy, was able to win the presidential election, all-be-it at a much reduced majority from the 2008 election which saw a Republican wave.