2020 US Presidential Election (Part of me Died)

==2020 Presidential Primaries==
===Republican Primary===
After the surprise victory of Donald Trump in 2016, many Republicans who were calmed by some of his promises became upset when he failed to go through with any of them. Ben Sasse, who refused to endorse Trump in 2016, was the first to announce his campaign on February 21st, 2018. Carly Fiorina, who ran against Trump in 2016, became the second candidate to announce her campaign on March 8th, 2018. Joe Scarborough announced that he would rejoin the GOP to run against Trump on March 11th, 2018. Evan McMullin, an Independent candidate for President in 2016, announced on April 3rd, 2018; and Ted Cruz, who also ran against Trump in 2016, announced on June 18th, 2018. With an unusually large number of high-profile primary candidates, President Trump announced that he would run an Independent campaign for President if he didn't win the Republican nomination. Within the next week, Ted Cruz and Ben Sasse announced in a joint event that they would both drop out to "avoid another 1912", referencing the historical belief that Teddy Roosevelt's third party Presidential campaign spoiled the election. Scarborough, McMullin, and Fiorina would all continue their primary campaigns, however. On April 3rd, Donald Trump became the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party.
President Trump cropped.jpg|President Donald Trump
EvanMcMullinClouds.jpg|US Senator Evan McMullin
Carly Fiorina by Gage Skidmore.jpg|Businesswoman Carly Fiorina
Ben Sasse Official photo.jpg|US Senator Ben Sasse
Cruz.jpg|US Senator Ted Cruz
JoeScarborough.jpg|Former US Representative Joe Scarborough
Candidate 	Votes 	Percentage	Delegates
Donald Trump 	1,093,617	70.5% 	1,783
Evan McMullin 	231,498 	14.9% 	394
Carly Fiorina 	109,223 	7.0% 	52
Joe Scarborough	83,274 	5.4% 	4
Write-in 	34,537 	2.2% 	2
At the convention, every candidate spoke, but none of the candidates endorsed Trump. McMullin particularly antagonized the pro-Trump crowd when he called for an Independent challenge to Trump, saying "Any of you would be amazing candidates to run against Trump as an Independent." 
===Democratic Primary===
John-F-Kerry-1.jpg|Former US Secretary of State John Kerry
Governor-McAuliffe.jpg|Former Governor Terry McAuliffe
Joe-biden-official-portrait 1600jpg.jpg|Former Vice President Joe Biden
John-hickenlooper-1-sized.jpg|Former Governor John Hickenlooper
Holder.jpg|Former Attorney General Eric Holder
Martin O'Malley by Gage Skidmore (cropped).jpg|Former Governor Martin O'Malley
Devalpatrick.jpg|Former Governor Deval Patrick
Tulsi Gabbard, official portrait, 113th Congress.jpg|US Representative Tulsi Gabbard
JerryBrownPortrait.jpg|Former Governor Jerry Brown
 In the aftermath of Hillary Clinton's loss, the Democratic Party was directionless, and this caused a large number of significant candidates to run for the nomination. Eric Holder became the first to announce on May 5th, 2018, followed by Deval Patrick on May 17th, Tulsi Gabbard and Jerry Brown on April 2nd, Martin O'Malley on April 4th, Joe Biden on April 9th, John Hickenlooper on April 19th, and Terry McAuliffe on April 21st. The primary was highly competitive, and in the end, no candidate won a majority of delegates. There was a large amount of anger and discontention until John Kerry spoke. His call for total unity around an experienced, well spoken candidate led many delegates to believe that Kerry wanted the nomination. After three votes, John Kerry won the nomination and selected Terry McAuliffe as his running mate. John Hickenlooper and Tulsi Gabbard both declined to endorse Kerry. Hickenlooper called for an Independent campaign, citing McMullin's call, and Gabbard famously called Kerry "[J]ust another war-loving Republican".
 	Votes 	Percentage	Delegates (Third Vote)
John Kerry (write-in)	18,735 	<0.1% 	1,534
Joe Biden 	6,735,274	26.5% 	451
Jerry Brown 	5,989,730	23.6% 	2
Terry McAuliffe 	4,527,624	17.8% 	0
Martin O'Malley 	2,938,710	11.6% 	78
John Hickenlooper 	2,107,635	8.3% 	37
Tulsi Gabbard 	1,325,773	5.2% 	209
Deval Patrick 	876,903 	3.5% 	1
Eric Holder 	298,724 	1.2% 	0
Write-in 	564,384 	2.2% 	1
=== Libertarian Primary ===
Justin-Amash-Portrait.png|Congressman Justin Amash
Williamweld 220px-William Weld by Gage Skidmore.jpg|Former Governor Bill Weld
Adam kokesh.jpg|Activist Adam Kokesh
In the aftermath of the best Libertarian Party performance in the history of the party, the Party was beginning to split into three factions: Centrists, Classical Liberals, and Radicals. Radical Libertarian Adam Kokesh announced his campaign in 2014, and Centrist Libertarian Bill Weld announced his campaign on May 5th, 2018. Weld was generally considered the frontrunner, but only due to the lack of another reasonable option. This angered Classical Liberals, who started a Draft Justin Amash campaign. The campaign picked up huge support, and Justin Amash announced his campaign on January 12th, 2019. Despite Bill Weld's backing and massive sums of money, the party nominated Amash because he was neither too moderate nor too radical. The party also nominated Ben Sasse as Amash's running mate.
Candidate 	Delegates	Percentage
Justin Amash	154 	62.6%
Bill Weld 	63 	25.6%
Adam Kokesh 	29 	11.8%
== General Election ==
=== Independent Candidacy ===
After the conventions in August, there was a lot of anger towards the major party nominees, between criticisms of Kerry's foreign policy beliefs and hardline social conservative views and the way Trump had governed. In late August, several prominent Republicans, Democrats, and others united to form an Independent ticket that could win. Notable figures involved in the discussion included Democrats John Hickenlooper, Tulsi Gabbard, and Joe Lieberman; Republicans Evan McMullin, John Kasich, and Larry Hogan; Independents Angus King, Bill Walker, and Greg Orman; and Libertarian Bill Weld. Eventually, John Kasich was selected as the favorite for the Independent candidacy, and Kasich decided to select Angus King as his running mate, but noted that everyone involved would have a place in his cabinet if elected. John Kasich announced his candidacy on September 12th, 2020, and qualified on the ballot in every state except for Georgia, North Carolina, and Oklahoma. Ted Cruz reportedly considered an Independent campaign as well, but ultimately endorsed Justin Amash.
=== CPD Lawsuit and General Election Debates ===
After several unsuccessful attempts to sue the Commission on Presidential Debates, the Libertarian Party settled with the commission: They would stop filing lawsuits, and in return, the CPD would lower the requirement to debate to 5% in 10 national polls. This allowed four candidates to be featured in two of the three Presidential and one Vice Presidential debate.
==== First Debate ====
The first debate between Trump, Kerry, Kasich, and Amash focused on foreign policy. Highlights of the debate were when Trump hit Kerry on foreign policy, saying "This guy is so far to the right of me, he's an extremist folks"; when Kasich said, "It's like I'm in an echo chamber on trade"; and when Amash said, "Clinton was a disaster, Bush was a disaster, Obama was a disaster, Trump is a disaster. Look at these guys. Do you really think John Kerry is going to be any different? He said Bush wasn't doing enough in the Middle East! And Kasich endorsed Kerry in 2004!"
Many pollsters asked who won and who lost the debate. The general consensus was that the debate was a draw between Amash and Kasich, but that Kerry lost the debate handily.
 	Trump	Kerry	Kasich	Amash	Nobody
Who won the first debate? 	14% 	4% 	39% 	34% 	9%
Who lost the first debate?	16% 	72% 	8% 	3% 	1%
==== Second Debate and Vice Presidential Debate ====
The second debate between the four was a town hall style debate, and it was all about the candidates' scandals. Trump was asked about the tape about his lewd comments made in 2016, his firing of special counsel Robert Muller, and the mass amounts of shuffling in the cabinet that was revealed to be a cover-up for the Russiagate Scandal, where it was proven that the Trump Administration had been in direct contact with the Kremlin. Kerry was asked about his degrading comments on military service members in 2006, his racist remarks regarding Barack Obama in 2007, and his endorsements of Republicans in 2014, 2016, and 2018. Kasich was asked about a tape that showed him yelling at several citizens who came to speak with him, problems with charter schools as Governor, and a financial scandal, which had just broken. Amash was asked about his extreme positions on drug legalization, war, and hardline constitutionalism. In his closing statement, Amash said "This debate was about scandals -- but I was asked about policy. Why do you think that is?" This led to a bump in polling for Amash and a general consensus that he had won the debate, but eventually backfired when Trump alleged that Amash had worked closely with the CPD to hurt everyone else and help him. Amash dropped in the polls, and as a result, was barred from the third debate.
Because qualifying for the second debate was the only precursor to qualify for the Vice Presidential debate, all four Vice Presidential candidates (Mike Pence, Terry McAuliffe, Angus King, and Ben Sasse) still debated. The debate was generally not watched by the public, and those who watched mostly said that nobody won. Angus King, however, came in first amongst the candidates. Sasse had no reaction to the allegation that the CPD worked with the Amash campaign, so most people thought he lost the debate
 	Trump/Pence	Kerry/McAuliffe	Kasich/King	Amash/Sasse	Nobody
Who won the second debate? 	3% 	4% 	3% 	89% 	1%
Who lost the second debate? 	12% 	63% 	22% 	1% 	2%
Who won the Vice Presidential debate? 	6% 	13% 	32% 	0% 	59%
Who lost the Vice Presidential debate?	11% 	2% 	1% 	69% 	17%
==== Third Debate ====
After Justin Amash dropped in the polls, his average dropped to 4.8% in the 10 national polls. This meant he would not be allowed to debate. In the third debate, Trump opened by calling the CPD a 'huge scam', and said he was only debating to expose that. Trump refused to actually answer the questions, and instead attacked Kasich and Kerry. Because of this, the general consensus was that Trump lost. People still agreed that some of Trump's attacks were valid, and Kasich only won the debate by a plurality as a result.
 	Trump	Kerry	Kasich	Nobody
Who won the third debate? 	8% 	23% 	41% 	28%
Who lost the third debate?	91% 	3% 	1% 	6%
=== General Election Polls ===
Final Average:
Trump	Kerry	Kasich	Amash	Others
36.8%	40.8%	14.9% 	6.9% 	0.6%
=== General Election Results ===
 	Popular Vote	% 	Electoral Vote	%
Donald Trump	49,534,272 	38.22%	312 	58.0%
John Kerry 	51,567,903 	39.78%	187 	34.8%
John Kasich 	23,804,193 	18.37%	39 	7.2%
Justin Amash	4,412,374 	3.40% 	0 	0.0%
Others 	298,401 	0.23% 	0 	0.0%
==== Close States ====
===== Within 1%: =====
* Virginia - 0.032%
* Maine CD-1 - 0.13%
* Pennsylvania - 0.86%
* Minnesota - 0.92%
===== Within 5%: =====
* Florida - 1.67%
* Arizona - 1.84%
* Maine - 2.34%
* Michigan - 2.87%
* Texas - 3.07%
* Colorado - 3.21%
* Maine CD-2 - 3.45%
* New Hampshire - 3.56%
* Wisconsin - 4.01%
* Nevada - 4.21%
* Delaware - 4.98%
===== Within 10%: =====
* New Mexico - 7.23%
* North Carolina - 8.65%
* Iowa - 9.87%
Category:PartOfMeDied
Category:Part of me Died
Category:US Elections 2020