2214 Bradbury Gubernatorial election

The **2214 Brabury gubernatorial election** took place on November 8, 2214, to elect the governor of Bradbury. The Republican ticket of incumbent Governor Caspian Quick and former U.S. Representative Azura Francis, was re-elected the Democratic ticket of Public Defender and U.S. Space Force Veteran Karis Proctor and Former Assistant U.S. Secretary of Education for Martian Affairs Micaiah Ward . Quick and Francis were sworn into office on for a second term on January 16, 2215.

## Background

Bradbury is located in the Commonwealth of Tharsis. The state is a peninsula and borders the Mariner Sea as well as Hermosa Bay. The state is home to beaches and lakes, but also is home to both large and prestigious universities, such as Bradbury Western University and Stutzke College. Due to the heavy academic population, the state tends to lean Republican. However, the state is diversifying rapidly, and Democrats see this as an opportunity to take control of the state soon.

## Republican Primary

The current governor was Capsian Quick. Quick is a charismatic politician who formerly served as the state's attorney general before being elected to the governorship. He ran on the issues of immigration reform and crime control, as Bradbury has one of the largest populations of illegal immigrants on Mars. Quick was able to pass many of his agenda initiatives which included increasing security on the border, lowering the state deficit, getting rid of the state's income tax, and merging several small universities into two large ones. (Promise College, Rockwell College, and Ferraro Valley University became Bradbury State University; and Byrne University, Sherlock College, and Thunderburg State College became Bradbury Tech). Liberal Republicans did not like him, so they recruited State Representative Janetta Shpiece to run against him. Shpiece had been a critic of Quick's stances on immigration and taxes. However, she wasn't the best campaigner and lost handily in the primary. To satisfy liberal and moderate Republicans, Quick selected former U.S. Representative Azura Francis (whom he ran against in 2210) to be his running mate.

## Democratic Primary

The Democrats have had difficulty finding statewide candidates for Bradbury, this year was not much different. The primary was between two political outsiders: Public Defender and U.S. Space Force Veteran Karis Procter and U.S. Congressional Staffer Madelyn Rivas-Israel. Rivas-Israel was a third-way democrat who had returned to her home state to run for public office after working for U.S. Congresswoman Stella Ohly of North Kasei. Rivas-Israel did not have the support of the state party or the president. And to make matters worse, news broke that she was having an affair with Congresswoman Ohly's chief of staff, forcing all three of them to resign. Procter was relatively unknown outside of her hometown of Hermosa Bay. She was a progressive and ran on a message of increasing opportunities and expanding education. She also campaigned on benefits for veterans and criminal justice reform. Proctor easily defeated Rivas-Israel, who refused to withdraw. Proctor selected Former Assistant U.S. Secretary of Education for Martian Affairs Michaiah Ward to be her running mate.