2020 Presidential Election Season 32

The **Season 32 Presidential Election of Mock Election** will take place on August 14th, 2020. Incumbent President Tom Kirkman was eligible to run for a fourth term as President, but declined the possibility of running for re-election. Senator Roman Thaddeus is the Republican Nominee. He is running against the Democratic nominee, Robert Sanders, and the Libertarian nominee, and notorious election youtuber Harvey Long.

## Republican Party

### **Nominee**

* Roman Thaddeus, former President Pro Tempore of the Senate, former U.S. Senator from Jefferson, and former Representative from D3

### **Potential, But did not run**

* John Lampros, U.S. Senator from Jefferson and former Representative from D5
* Ethan Davis, U.S. Senator from Heartland, former Representative from D4, former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court and presidential candidate in S28

## Democratic Party

### **Nominee**

* Robert Sanders, former three-term President, former D9 Representative and Senator

## Libertarian Party

### **Declared**

* Harvey Long, State Senator, Former Vice President, Former Senator, Former Representative, and Former Deputy Vice Chairman of the Democratic Party

### **Potential- But did not run**

* Maleek Diaz, Vice President
* David Delaney, U.S. Senator from Caesarea
* Trey Cranfield, former president of the United States

## Early Campaign

On July 23, 2020, Sen. Roman Thaddeus announced he was running for president in the upcoming general election. He had long advocated a small government conservative platform, and he sought to bring these policies to the White House. These policies were also now becoming more mainstream both in MEC and in the GOP, which have both traditionally been more in the direction of bigger government. Two days later, in New York, Thaddeus announced that independent senator from Caesarea and former president David Delaney would join his ticket.

On July 31, Harvey Long announced his candidacy under the Libertarian Party. Long's goal was to make MEC fun again, as well as a form of Maine nationalism.

On August 1, Brett Patrick declared his candidacy as an independent candidate, citing policy disagreements with Thaddeus.

There was speculation as to whether President Kirkman would seek another term, but on August 4, he announced he would not do so. Vice President Diaz also stated he would not be running.

For most of this period, Thaddeus held a commanding lead in the polls, whether it was against Patrick or other potential candidates.

## General Election Campaign

Thaddeus and Delaney criss-crossed the country, touting their platform and citing the need for a change of direction. The campaign had been largely uneventful up until this point, but on August 9, Robert Sanders jumped into the race under the Democrats, citing a need for revolutionary policies. He immediately began racking up support. Patrick, with his support drying up, dropped out. However, Sanders quickly reached out to Patrick, and they formed a joint ticket.

The Republican National Convention was held from August 8-10, in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Thaddeus and Delaney were easily nominated, having only minimal resistance in the primaries. Sanders quickly blasted the RNC for hypocrisy, as the convention had stressed strong leadership at the same time that the Congressional Republicans were in a tumultuous state and were losing members.

The campaign quickly proved to be a frantic one, with both the House and Presidential elections seeing many attacks between candidates. Much of the attention focused on the failed term limits amendment, which had been championed by the GOP but vetoed by President Kirkman due to unforeseen flaws in the amendment. Brett Patrick had previously supported the amendment, but now was against it due to its flawed nature. Supporters of Thaddeus tried to paint Patrick as a hypocrite and a flip-flopper. In response, Patrick reversed the attack to paint Thaddeus as an inconsistent politician. All the while, Thaddeus continued to lead in the polls.

On August 12, Harvey Long announced his running mate would be pollster and Heartland politician Nick Silver. Which proved to be a wise choice because his poll numbers surged from 9.5% to 19.3%.

A vice-presidential debate was held between Delaney and Patrick on August 11. Sanders challenged Thaddeus to two presidential debates, which he accepted. The first debate proved to be a major success for the Sanders Campaign, with Roman Thaddeus failing to capitalize on his key policies and making numerous gaffes, the second presidential debate added more insult to injury as he didn't seem to improve on his previous debates performance, Sanders and Long came out as clear winners. In addition, a Unity Convention dinner held by Sen. Caleb Caron was held, and Long didn't seem to come out with any dashing humor, and instead treated it as a campaign rally.

Roman Thaddeus won the presidency with 277 electoral votes, Robert Sanders pulled 252 electoral votes, shockingly enough Harvey Long managed to get 19 electoral votes which is the largest amount of electoral votes for any third-party challenger since Mayowa Olabode in Season 28.

## Polling

### Hypothetical Polling

 Ben Q.
Poliphile

Roman Thaddeus (R) vs. Raymundo Felix (D)

Roman Thaddeus (R) v Ben MacKay (D)

Ethan Davis (R) v Tom Kirkman (D)

Ethan Davis (R) v Ben MacKay (D)

## Endorsements

### **Roman Thaddeus**

* Joseph Brosnahan
* Aaron Stemann
* John Lampros
* Matthew Volfson
* Andrew Dominguez

### **Robert Sanders**

* Monique Henderson
* Sean Washington
* David Soriano-Garcia
* Maleek Diaz
* Harry Biring

### **Harvey Long**

* Cameron Andrews
* Caleb Caron
* Mish Fox