1980 Presidential Election(TNO)

The 1980 United States presidential election was the 49th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 4, 1980. The National-Progressive Pact ticket of Henry 'Scoop' Jackson and Claud Pepper defeated the Republican-Democratic candidate of Vice President Donald Rumsfeld and senator George H. W. Bush.

Despite incumbent president George Romney's popularity the Republican-Democratic ticket would suffer following the nomination of Vice President Donald Rumsfeld. Rumsfeld would only narrowly win the primary and failed to connect with voters positioning himself as an 'arch-conservative.' President Romney would endorse his Vice President following his victory in the presidential primary, however, many Romney supporters did not appreciate the rightward turn of the R-D ticket and hoped that Rumsfeld would choose a moderate or someone from the Democratic wing of the RD party as his running mate. Instead, he chose RD-R Texas senator George H.W Bush which failed to balance the ticket and ended up causing George McGovern to run as an independent further damaging the RDs.

On Election Day, Jackson won the election by a decent margin, taking 349 votes in the Electoral College and 46.7% of the popular vote with a margin of 2.4%. Vice President Rumsfeld only got 185 electoral votes and 44.3% of the popular vote. George McGovern only won his home state of South Dakota and in an incredibly slim 0.2% margin it was, however, the first time a 3rd party candidate won a state since 1952. In the simultaneous congressional elections, the NPP won control of the United States Senate for the first time since 1974. Rumsfeld only offered his concession after nine days of silence which lead some editorials to poke fun at the Vice President theorizing that he had a mental breakdown after being seemingly confident he was going to win.

Background
Throughout the 1970s, the United States underwent a period of relative economic growth, low unemployment, and low interest rates. This gave George Romney relative popularity and allowed him to easily win reelection in 1976; and in this second term he implemented a set of economic polices known as Schultzomics which involved moderate tax cuts and deregulation. Despite fears that Romney would gut the NHS program established by president Robert F. Kennedy he actually expanded healthcare and social security services while cutting the military budget to balance the budget. As for foreign policy Romney helped shape the Lodge Doctrine which would end the rampant interventionism of the Kennedy-Nixon administrations. This would mean formally pulling the OFN out of the Suez Cannel and establish the Kingdom of Iceland ending over 20 years of US occupation. The US would also engage in more diplomatic actions with Japan in an attempt to sooth tensions.

Romney would have to oversee the 3rd Great Patriotic War of the Russian People's Union and the collapse of the German Reich into warlords. With the help of OFN allies such as France, United Kingdom, Spain, and Italy the United States was able to establish a OFN occupation zone in the lowlands and western Germany as well as Denmark. Norwegian rebels liberated Oslo and Norway joined the OFN. However waves of Economic devastation and EinheitsPakt refugees would descend upon Europe. The global economy would suffer greatly as well; the German economy had become more interconnected with the rest of the world thanks to the reforms done the Fuhrer Martin Borman. In response to the new occupation zones as well as the liberated countries of Belgium, Netherlands, Norway, and Denmark President Romney signed what would be known as the 'McCain Plan' which granted 23 Billion (105 Billion in today's money) dollar budget to the reconstruction of western Europe and the denazification of occupied Germany.

In the later years of his precedency the economy was entering into a downturn with inflation ticking upwards and a Nazi terrorist organization known as the 'Werwolfs' becoming more and more of a nuisance to the occupational authorities. Romney's handling of occupied Germany was drawing more and more criticism from the NPP that he wasn't doing enough to curb the terrorist threat. Internally Romney faced opposition as well in the form of democrat George McGovern who suggest that the OFN pull out of Germany and focus on rebuilding newly liberated countries. None the less Romney stayed the course not wanted to 'heat up' the situation close to an election year.

It is reported that Romney did not want Rumsfeld to run instead he privately urged house minority leader Gerald Ford to run however he declined. With no other Republican other that Rumsfeld he decided to stay out of the primary and simply endorse whoever the eventual nominee is. This greatly frustrated Rumsfeld who, at a certain point during the primaries, believed the only way forward was a Romney endorsement.

Other major candidates
The following candidates were frequently interviewed by major broadcast networks and cable news channels, were listed in publicly published national polls, or had held a public office. Rumsfeld received 4,875,635 votes in the primaries.

From the very start of the Primary it was clear that it was an open race. Senator George McGovern was the first to challenge Rumsfeld then California Governor Jerry Brown and Georgia Senator Jimmy Carter Jumped in the race. In the end, Jimmy Carter became Rumsfeld's strongest opponent. Carter won a surprise victory in Iowa which shook the Rumsfeld campaign as it was seen as a easy pick up. A string of defeats in Arkansas, New Hampshire, and South Carolina brought further instability into the Rumsfeld campaign. However a New York plurality win would help offset some of the more damaging loses. At this point the Democratic party was fully behind Carter to ensure that Rumsfeld couldn't capitalize on the vote split. Rumsfeld was able to secure a strong win in the Texas primary just barley mostly due to the fact many former southern Democrats leaving the RD coalition and joining the NPP. After the June 3rd primary neither Jimmy Carter or Rumsfeld was able to achieve a majority of delegates to their side and the battle went all the way to the convention. Despite Jimmy Carter winning the popular vote several 'super delegates' stepped in to help push Rumsfeld forward and he was selected the de facto nominee. There was originally a plan for a Rumsfeld-Carter Ticket to unify the party however negotiations fell through and George H.W Bush was selected. In response to the chaos of the convention Senator George McGovern announces he will continue his campaign as an Independent into the general.

Other major candidates
The following candidates were frequently interviewed by major broadcast networks, were listed in published national polls, or had held public office. Jackson received 10,043,016 votes in the primaries.