2020 Presidential Election Season 30

The Season 30 Presidential election was held on April 24, 2020, and saw for the first time in the history of MEC, a popular vote tie between the two major candidates, Ethan Fitzgerald of the Democratic Party and Andrew Dominguez, an independent. This tie resulted in an electoral college vote where no candidate received a majority of 275, as Dominguez had a plurality of 267, followed by Fitzgerald at 266, Republican Aaron afafnias at 14 and Senator Jakob Tawney coming in last with 1. Season 30 was the first Presidential election to see the implementation of ranked choice voting (RCV).

## Candidates

### Democratic Candidates

* **Ethan Fitzgerald**(nominee, incumbent) - President of the United States

### Democrats Declined to run

* **Vice President Tom Kirkman (D-AZ)** *(Endorsed Fitzgerald)*

* **Secretary Pluto Bennito (D-VA)** *(Endorsed Fitzgerald)*
* **Attorney General Nate Brown (D-GA)**
* **Secretary of State Ben MacKay (D-MA)** *(Endorsed Fitzgerald)*
* **Secretary Ashton Shabazz (D-IL)** *(Endorsed Fitzgerald)*
* **U.S.** **Senator Fernando Diaz (D-CA)** *(Endorsed Fitzgerald)*
* **Former Vice President Raymundo Felix (D-CA)**
* **U.S. Senator Kenneth Quinones (D-MN)** *(Endorsed Fitzgerald)*
* **U.S Senator David Soriano-Garcia (D-NC)** *(Endorsed Fitzgerald)*

### Republican Candidates

* **James Hiatt** - Former D-9 Representative **(Withdrew)**

* **John Geller** - Governor of Caesarea **(Withdrew)** *(Endorsed Dominguez)*

* **Stephen Bryant** - Former Acting Secretary of Energy **(Withdrew)** *(Endorsed Dominguez)*
* **Aaron afafnias** (aka Baron Bemann) - Former Speaker of the House **(Nominee)**

### Independent Candidates

* **Andrew Dominguez** - Former Secretary of the Treasury
* **Jakob Tawney** **-** Senator from Washington

### Independents Declined to run

* **Joseph Brosnahan** - Perennial Candidate and Former D-3 Senator from Tennessee. *(Endorsed Fitzgerald)*

## Campaign

Following the Dominguez Snapshot-Resignation controversy, there were calls for him to run for president against President Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald soon confirmed that he was indeed seeking a fourth-term, a first in MEC history. Vice President Kirkman was again his running mate. They won the primary essentially uncontested. The DNC was held in Arizona. Andrew Dominguez announced he would be running as an independent. The election was seen as a campaign between the two, and in a way a referendum on Fitzgerald's presidency. However, this was thrown into the air when Aaron afafnias announced he was making a serious run for president, with Sheriff Yimby (aka David Davidson) as his running mate. afafnias was nominated by the Republican Party, although no primaries or convention was held.

The first debate was held on Sunday, April 19. Pres. Fitzgerald and Sec. Dominguez attended; afafnias was not invited. During the debate, Dominguez announced that Mayowa Olabode would be his running mate. The second debate was held on Tuesday, April 21. Both Fitzgerald and Domgiuez participated, and this time afafnias also participated. The vice-presidential debate was set for Wednesday April 22, but that morning Olabode announced he was dropping from the ticket and leaving MEC due to personal issues. Thus, the VP debate was cancelled, and was not held. Dominguez soon announced his replacement to be Sen. Roman Thaddeus of Jefferson. Right before Election Day, Jakob Tawney announced he was putting his name on the ballot, but not as a serious candidate.

The campaign saw it's most activity on Thursday and Friday, Election Day. Fitzgerald, Dominguez, and afafnias all campaigned across the nation, and the Fitzgerald and Dominguez campaigns made heavy use of surrogates to help campaign. The two campaigns focused heavily on Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Florida during the last two days, while afafnias focused mainly on the South. Most observers expected the election results to be very close.

## Election Day

Polls opened on Friday, April 24, and closed on Saturday the 25th. It saw the presidential election being contested, as well as House elections, local elections, and a referendum on mayors. This was the first presidential election in MEC to use "ranked choice voting," rather than the long-used "first past the post."

The exit poll showed President Fitzgerald winning the election outright, but there were questions as to how accurate the exit poll actually was. As results began to come in, it soon became clear that afafnias had under-performed as Dominguez was winning states that were seen as competitive (Tennessee and Kentucky, for example) and even states that were widely expected to go for afafnias (Mississippi and Alabama.) Likewise, Dominguez had strong performances in the suburbs, as well as among Catholics.

While afafnias lacked support in western and northeastern United States, he consolidated support in the Midwest and the south. In the bible belt afafnias swept many areas and carried his home state of South Carolina as well as West Virginia. This was due in large part to afafniass high performance with ancestral Democrats, registered Democrats who used to be loyal Democrats but now tend to vote against the Democrats, especially at the federal level. Many ancestral Democrats reside in the south and Midwest. Areas such as the coalfields of Appalachia and the Tennesee Valley Region is where there are high concentration of ancestral Democrats, as well as high support for afafnias.

By the end of the night, Dominguez had won several states that Davidson lost the election before. However, once Fitzgerald won Iowa, no candidate had enough electoral votes to win outright. Thus, the election went to the House of Representatives. afafnias conceded the race, endorsed Fitzgerald for the House vote, and announced he would be joining the Democrat Party.

## Contingent Election

Going into the contingent election for president and vice-president, there was much debate over how and for whom the members should vote. Many in the Dominguez camp believed that representatives should vote for whoever won their district, which would make Andrew president as he won 5 out of 9 districts. Fitzgerald supporters said that reps should vote for the candidate with the largest share of first preference votes, which would elect Ethan.

On Sunday April 26th, the Senate held a vote to elect the vice-president. Incumbent VP Tom Kirkman was re-elected with all 8 votes.

On Wednesday April 29th, the new House was sworn in. They re-elected Speaker Uberfeld, and then held the election for president. Ultimately, the vote was 5 for Fitzgerald, 2 for Dominguez and 2 not voting, thus re-electing President Ethan Fitzgerald to an historic fourth-term and ending the dramatic Season 30 Presidential Election.