1916 was interesting. I wouldn’t have said vote fraud got Wilson a second term, but his deception of the public on the issue of war (somewhat similar to the crap LBJ pulled in ‘64, making warmonger threats against Goldwater when LBJ ended up doing everything he alleged of Barry, short of dropping a nuke — I horrified my liberal uncle back several years ago (he was an AF pilot in Vietnam) when I said we should’ve used tactical nukes against N. Vietnam (the idea of sparing scores of casualties of our men on the ground). But I’m getting off topic...).
Hughes was probably one of the finer individuals to run for office who never won. Had he run and won (two terms), he’d have spared the nation both Wilson’s second term (and Edith’s Presidency) along with Harding’s. The only downside is we wouldn’t have had Coolidge, most likely. Who would’ve succeeded Hughes would be up in the air. He chose ex-VP Charles Fairbanks as his running mate, and Fairbanks died in 1918, so who would’ve been Hughes’s VP in 1920 ? I suspect perhaps someone from out West or the Midwest (maybe Harding might’ve ended up as VP that year, and promptly dying as Fairbanks did). So, 1924 would’ve been a big open race...
Wilson won CA by less than 4 K and with it the EC. I remember hearing something on the history channel long ago about a missing ballot box that ‘turned up’. With such a small margin I got to wonder.
1916 was almost a mirror image of 2000. Right down to NH being the only Wilson state in the NE.
“Hughes’s VP in 1920 ?”
Rule out Coolidge because of the close proximity of NY and MA?
Maybe Governor Lowden of Illinois? Wasn’t he pretty good?
I chucked at that, since this conversion started cause someone made an offhand comment about Nixon. :D