CONTINGENCY 2028 United States Presidential Election

The 2028 United States Presidential Election was the 61st quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 7, 2028. The Democratic ticket of Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff defeated incumbent Republican president Ron DeSantis and incumbent Vice-President Josh Hawley; and American Patriotic candidates Former Vice-Presidential nominee Marjorie Taylor Greene and Arizona Representative Paul Gosar. The Election took place amid rising tensions with China; the aftermath of the signing of the Donetsk Accords; and the 2027-2029 Recession. It was the third election in a row where an incumbent failed to win a second term. It was also the first election to take place after the signing of the Federal Election Integrity Act which caused ballots to only be counted the day before, the day of, and the day after the polls closed. Turnout rose compared to 2024 in spite of the FEIA. The Election is also considered to be the culmination of the political reallignment that began with former president Trumps' victory in 2016 and the beginning of the Seventh Party System.

President DeSantis only faced token opposition in the Republican Primaries. However the Democratic Primaries were highly competitive. The two main front runners were former Vice-President Kamala Harris and former Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg. After Super Tuesday and narrow wins in the Industrial Midwest Buttigieg took a narrow but decisive lead over the former Vice-President. On April 2nd Buttigieg became the presumptive nominee. The American Patriotic Party easily nominated Georgia Representative and former Vice-Presidential candidate Marjorie Taylor Greene for the Presidency. The main battle occurred for the Vice-Presidential nomination where the moderate wing battled with the far-right wing. In the end the far-right wing won the Vice-Presidential nomination through Arizona Representative Paul Gosar.

The central issues that the election revolved around was the signing of the Donetsk Accords which was seen as a major blow to American Prestige. The accords forced Ukraine to abandon all claims to the oblasts the Russian Federation annexed in September 2022 and the further occupation and annexation of all Ukrainian territories east of the Dnieper River which was seen as a total humiliation for NATO and the United States. Another major issue was the 2027-2029 Recession which erupted right after President DeSantis' third State of the Union where his party regained a House majority and defended their Senate majority. The Recession coupled with the signing of the Donetsk Accords greatly diminished DeSantis' popularity. The 2025 Blockade of Taiwan was also a major issue in the campaign where President DeSantis campaigned hard on how he was able to strong arm China into ending the blockade.

Buttigieg ultimately won a majority in the Electoral College; winning 277 Electoral Votes while DeSantis' received 206 and Greene received 55. Key to Buttigiegs' victory were narrow wins in the old Blue Wall states of the Rust Belt and in Arizona which was the tipping-point state. Another contributing factor was the death of President Biden about a week before election day. His death allowed the Buttigieg campaign to run ads of DeSantis bashing his now popular policies which caused DeSantis's narrow polling lead to dissipate. Nevada was cemented as a lean-red state after the election with it continuing to back President DeSantis, the last time Nevada backed a Republican Presidential candidate in 2 elections in a row was former President George W. Bush' elections of 2000 and 2004. Most pundits confirmed that with the APP not fading away that the United States had entered into a new Party System. Greene performed much worse than former President Trump in 2024 but continued to maintain a base of support in the South and the Plains.

After election day President DeSantis made hints that alluded to an accusation of electoral fraud. Greene for her part openly claimed that the election was stolen from her and that both parties had engaged in rigging the election. On January 6, 2029 DeSantis held a rally at the Ellipse which greatly resembled former President Trumps' Stop the Steal rally in the same location 8 years earlier. Luckily no violence came of the rally. An hour after the Joint Session began Buttigieg and Ossoff were confirmed as President and Vice-President respectively. On January 20th Buttigieg and Ossoff were inaugurated without incident. Ossoff became the first Jewish Vice-President in American history and Buttigieg became the first openly gay President.