2020 Pacific Federal Election (Western Sunrise)

The 2020 Pacific federal election took place on November 3, 2020 to elect members to the House of Representatives, as well as to the governorships of the 13 states. Eleven parties won seats, with two parties registered in specific states. Issues dominating the election included the COVID-19 pandemic, a budget surplus created by the Cox-led Conservative government, and campaign finance scandals when Cox and other Conservatives took $6.8 million from Alaska oil and gas companies.

The Liberals, led by Michael Bennet of Colorado won the most seats, forming a coalition with Progressives, Farmer-Labor, and the Cascadians to form a 252-seat coalition. The newly-formed Mormon Party, while only gaining ballot access in Utah, elected Mitt Romney as their party leader and picked up 11 seats in the state. Conservatives and Red Dogs suffered some of their worst losses in recent memory, losing ground in Nevada and Pueblo and losing more than half of their seats in Utah.

Background
Representative John H. Cox was elected as Conservative Leader in the House on June 5, 2016. In November, the Conservatives and other allied parties gained staggering support in states like Nevada and Pueblo. They coalitioned with Red Dogs, the People's Party, and National Front for a governing coalition. Cox was elected President of the Pacific Coastal Union on January 3, 2017.

In the 2020 budget creation, a group led by rising Red Dog star Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona proposed a new budget plan that established an $895 million budget surplus. This new budget passed and the economy grew rather fast and approval rating for the governing coalition went as high as 81%, though this was from a Conservative internal pollster. Soon, however, the administration's approval rating began to dip quite considerably to the average 50's. On September 5, 2019, Cox announced he would retire as Conservative leader, requiring the party to elect a new leader.

COVID-19 pandemic
On January 20, 2020, the first case of COVID-19 was reported in Seattle, Washington. Despite much anti-Asian sentiment and initial downplaying of the virus's severity, President Cox cooperated with Liberals for relief plans and gave governors more resources to protect their citizens. Support for the cooperative solutions and relief bills was high, but soon support for the Conservative coalition eroded due to the other pressing events of the Cox administration.

After an outbreak in King County, Washington, Governor Jay Inslee ordered the county to shut down. This controversial order was followed by protests and marches in Denny Park. Soon, monuments and glass around the area was broken. Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan ordered police to clear the area, but a protestor by the name of Jake Angeli hijacked an armored truck and rammed it into a police squadron, killing 24 policemen in the Denny Park massacre. This led to much condemnation of protestors but also decreased approval of forced lockdowns to keep citizens safe. The Conservative, People's, Mormon, and National Front Parties rallied under a policy of mixed measures, only enforcing mask mandates in public places and leaving it to businesses and local governments to decide what's best for their citizens. In contrast, Red Dogs, Liberals, Progressives, and other left-wing parties pushed for a more unified control measure to evenly distribute PPE and other required resources and keep more civilians safe.

Campaign finance scandals
On January 2, 2019, President Cox and other Conservative leaders, such as future Opposition Leader Michael Crapo, boarded a plane to Fairbanks, Alaska to visit a meeting with the CEO of the Alaska Oil Committee, Dan Sullivan. Cox took a $6.8 million paycheck from AKOC for 2020 campaigns. In exchange, Cox would sign a permit to open up more space in northern Alaska for exploration and drilling. On January 28, Cox signed an executive order opening the Tongass National Forest, up to corporations for drilling and logging.

On May 16, 2020, the LA Times obtained recordings from the meeting and subsequent calls between Cox and AKOC. The next day, they released it to the public days before the re-election of Representative Michael Bennet as the Liberal leader. He and others made the recordings a key issue in the 2020 elections and after Election Day's results were finalized, some analysts claimed that the paycheck and LAT's leaks regarding the deal doomed their chances nationally.

On June 15, 2020, Bennet led a team to introduce a bill titled the New Campaign Funding Act requiring all candidates to disclose donations to political campaigns and the sources of these donations. The bill passed the House Committee on Elections and Government Oversight, but failed in the whole House vote. It garnered 229 votes for and 233 votes against. This was largely controversial and was a prime target for attack ads against Conservative leadership.

Declared candidates

 * Michael Bennet, incumbent leader
 * Ben Ray Lujan, Representative from New Mexico

Declared candidates

 * Kyrsten Sinema, Representative from Arizona

Withdrawn candidates

 * Dianne Feinstein, Representative from California and incumbent House Red Dog Leader, withdrawn April 26, 2020

Declared candidates

 * Michael Crapo, Representative from Idaho
 * Kevin McCarthy, Representative from California
 * Matt Rosendale, Representative from Montana and House Coalition Whip, eliminated on first ballot

Withdrawn candidates

 * Debbie Lesko, Representative from Arizona, withdrawn June 2, 2020

Polling
Throughout the election season, some pollsters, aggregators, and news networks surveyed the public to calculate predictions and trends. Below is the trendline displayed by the Western Political Activity Council, which polled an average of 26,932 likely voters in each poll and polled 21,446 voters in its exit polls.