Season 3 Presidential Election

The **Third United States presidential election** was held on Friday, January 30th, and January 31st, 2021. The Republican Party ticket of incumbent president Benjamin A. Bryant and vice president Jakob Ainsley defeated Democratic ticket of speaker Hillary R. Cunningham, and Senator Kenneth Allen. Bryant became the first president in DES History to win re-election. Bryant's 50% of the vote, coupled with the third party candidate Axl Rose's 7 electoral votes from Oregon being disqualified because of his Vice Presidential running mate being from Oregon as well, Bryant won the election by over 10% of the popular vote and 50 electoral votes. The election saw the highest voter turnout in the history of Discord Election Simulator.

#### **Campaign:**

The election cycle kicked of on January 12th following the announcement that Representative Hillary Cunningham was forming an exploratory committee for the top job. Cunningham had served as the third President of the United States and her tenure was filled with controversy. She took over the position after the resignation of President Joey, who had in turn taken over after President Edwin House's resignation. Cunningham criticized Bryant as too far right, and she said that it was time for America to have a president who "puts America first." Bryant responded by saying that he would "take no lessons from Ms. Cunningham on putting America first", calling her presidency a failure and a disaster, and that her inaction on Baltimore and Richmond should be disqualifying for holding the Presidency again.

On January 16th, the Republican Party was thrown through a tailspin when a self-described Fascist won the District Nine nomination. President Bryant took a firm stance against this and immediately denounced the member and "everything he represents." Bryant stated that he abhors fascism and white supremacy, and called on the staff team of D.E.S to ban him for touting his "White Pride", and using Nazi and White Supremacist symbols as profile pictures. Bryant contacted the staff team directly, and lodged a formal complaint with them. He also urged the GOP Leadership to strip him of the nomination. The GOP Leadership did just that, and after Bryant pressured the staff team to do so, the member received a permanent ban.

On January 17th, 2021 the Capitol Building was raided and attacked by members of the terrorist organization known as ISIS mere hours before President Bryant was set to deliver his State of the Union Address. 3 guards were killed by a small explosive which cleared the entry to the building which they rushed with automatic weapons. The senate and house were almost entirely evacuated, with the exception of Senators House, Senator Meyer, and Representative Hunt. Each of them were shot, but luckily survived. President Bryant took immediate action, grounding all flights closing all government buildings, federalizing the DC National Guard, and shutting off all travel in and out of the District of Columbia. President Bryant suspended all campaigning and urged all other candidates to follow suit, which Cunningham did. Despite many expecting otherwise, Bryant insisted that it was important to show that the attack had not halted the duties of the U.S government, and as such the State of the Union proceeded at the demand of President Bryant, which Speaker Bush completely supported. Many speculated that Bryant would declare War on ISIS, with Senator Kenneth Allen accusing the president of planning to re-ignite the "War-on-Terror", which Bryant afterwards called out as a move that would lend legitimacy to the Islamic State. Bryant delivered what many consider to be the speech of his political career, in which he rallied the country to support a recommitment to the Battle Against Terrorism. Bryant spurred on members of Congress to support a resolution that would have granted Bryant more authority to deal with the situation saying "Many may call into question my decision to seek a recommitment to the destruction of Terrorism. To them I ask one thing; WHAT WILL IT TAKE?! How much innocent American blood must be spilled before you stand up and do what must be done? How many bodies must fall needlessly before you stop cowering to ISIS? Many may regret what I have done today, but I am not one of them. I regret only two things; first, that we face the prospect of living in a nation that our Capitol, our people, our way of life, can come under attack and members of the congress sit back instead of standing up. But secondly, and more importantly, I regret that I only have one life to give to the United States of America." The resolution passed with near unanimous support.

The day after the attack, many had believed that this may have paved a path for increased bipartisanship, however this was thrown out the window following the defection of Representative Ed O'Donnell from the Republicans to the Democrats, granting the democrats their first majority in D.E.S History. In response to this, Representative Hillary Cunningham, now the Majority Whip, put forward a resolution to recall Speaker Tom W. Bush. This move was met with disgust from many including the president as it was seen as a political power grab, less than 24 hours after a terrorist attack on the capitol. The resolution was failed, with Cunningham and other congressional Dems who supported the move subsequently being roundly condemned. Days later on January 23rd, the Republicans won the largest House Majority in DES History with 9 seats to the Democrats' 2, and 1 independent, which was largely viewed as a stark rebuke of Cunningham's actions. The same day as the attempted removal of the Speaker, President Bryant signed the Access to Rural Farm Stress Assistance Act into law. Days later, President Bryant signed H.R.1423, otherwise known as the Bush-Bennett Buy American Act. This bill was heavily supported by the President and Vice President because it established a discount program that encouraged consumers to purchase American made automobiles. He also signed the Assisting America's Manufacturers Act into law on the same day, a bill that was written by Vice President Ainsley and delivered another major accomplishment for the administration.

With a divided congress still in power until the swearing in of the new elected house, President Bryant and Congressional Republicans now had to be even more bipartisan to pass legislation, and this went especially for the budget. Speaker Bush, Vice President Ainsley, President Pro-Tempore Bennett, and President Bryant reached out to congressional democrats to reach a budget deal. After weeks of consultations, Bryant and the GOP worked out a bipartisan budget which increased defense spending, cut middle class taxes, and cut excess government spending.

On the 25th of January, Bryant and Cunningham, who had both won their party nominations, agreed to have two debates on the following Wednesday and Thursday, the first of which was cancelled due to staff team complications. The Thursday debate was confrontational, with Bryant continually attacking Cunningham's inaction after the attacks on Richmond, with Cunningham focusing on Bryant's support of Don't Ask Don't Tell, which Bryant pointed out she signed into law. Bryant was largely viewed as winning the debate following attacking Cunningham as weak on terror, and incompetent.

On January 27th, Democratic Vice Presidential nominee Kenneth Allen came forward with accusations of corruption against President Bryant, alleging Bryant had purposely edited a bill which had already passed in order to prosecute Allen. The senate investigated the claims and quickly cleared the President of all wrongdoing, which many think may have gotten more Republicans fired up to vote for the President and against what many saw as a petty political attack.

The same day as the allegations made by Allen, the Chinese Military began to invade Tibet, which Bryant had freed earlier in the term. Bryant released a statement that gave the Chinese 24 hours before the United States would retaliate, using whatever force necessary. The Chinese ignored this threat by Bryant, and then sank the U.S.S Roosevelt, leading to Bryant taking one of the strongest targeted military responses in recent American history; the destruction of the Yulin Naval Base in the South China Sea. Bryant also stated that if China did not withdraw troops from Tibet and Taiwan in 24 hours additional hours, he would take further responses including sanctions and the deployment of 400,000 troops to the nations of Tibet and Taiwan. Hours later, Bryant brokered a deal to de-escalate tensions with China, and end the invasions of Tibet and Taiwan by the PRC. Bryant was widely lauded for delivering a peace in the situation.

#### **Election:**

On January 30th the 3rd DES General Election was held and it was the largest turnout in the history of the community. After hours of there being no clear frontrunner, Third Party candidate Axl Rose won Indiana and Oregon, and Cunningham state of California, all states Bryant won in season 2, throwing his re-election into serious doubt. Many networks began to predict that a Cunningham victory was imminent, with some even going as far to print stories titled "Madam President!". However in the hours that followed, several races tightened, including the state of New York, which Bryant lost in season 2. After much anticipation, Bryant carried Vice president Ainsley's home state of Washington and the crucial state of New York, delivering him re-election.

Following the election being called, Cunningham called Bryant to concede the election. Bryant delivered a victory speech which called on the Americans to respect the will of the people and unify behind what they voiced support for. Bryant called for an end to "cutthroat political toxicity" and asked for the chance to lead based on what he had been re-elected on.