Harold Stassen

Harold Edward Stassen (April 13, 1907 – March 4, 2001) was the 25th Governor of Minnesota from 1939 to 1943 and a later perennial candidate for other offices, most notably and frequently President of the United States. He attepted to run for president in the 1940, 1944, 1948, 1952, 1964, 1968, 1980, 1984, 1988, and 1992 elections.

Harold Stassen in The Man With the Iron Heart
Harold Stassen, along with Thomas Dewey and Robert Taft, was an early contender for the Republican Party's presidential nomination in 1948.

Harold Stassen in Worldwar
Harold Stassen was Earl Warren's Vice President, and succeeded Warren when he committed suicide in the wake of the destruction of Indianapolis by the Race in 1965.

Stassen was not privy to Warren's decision to attack the Race's Colonization Fleet in 1962. In the aftermath Warren's death, Stassen set about removing those members of the administration who had known about Warren's actions. Stassen was already certain that he wouldn't be elected in 1968, a fact that he privately shared with his Soviet counterpart, Vyacheslav Molotov.

Stassen soon learned of the new American use of rocket propelled asteroids as a weapon. During a meeting with Sam Yeager, the man who revealed to the world Warren's actions, Yeager attempted to broach the subject with Stassen. Stassen pointedly shared nothing with Yeager.

Literary Comment
Turtledove's use of the then-living Stassen in an unaltered form as a character in a work of fiction is unusual. Typically, Turtledove makes broad references, leaves living people unnamed (see, e.g. G. Gordon Liddy), or somehow changes the name (see e.g. Kurt Haldweim). Stassen died only a month after Aftershocks was first published.

Harold Stassen in Joe Steele
Governor Harold Stassen received the Republican nomination for the 1948 presidential election just days before the outbreak of the Japanese War. As Stassen was a complete unknown outside of Minnesota, incumbent President Joe Steele had anticipated an easy victory. However, the new war meant that Steele actually had to campaign.

Stassen did somewhat better than expected. He carried Maine, Vermont, Delaware and Maryland (in private, Steele's aid Lazar Kagan was horrified by the loss of Maryland, suggesting Steele's machine had broken down there). Stassen was also able to pick up some of the states that contained resettled wreckers.

However, Steele carried the rest of the electoral vote, and won his fifth term.

Harold Stassen in Southern Victory
Minnesota's enthusiastic young governor was the Republican nominee for the presidency in 1944. While he didn't win and carried third in the election, he did manage to take the usual Republican states of Indiana and Kansas as well as Minnesota. More impressively, he took his homestate, as well as incumbent President Charles W. La Follette's homestate of Wisconsin, traditionally Socialist states.

Literary Comment
Stassen's name is not given in the text, but the description matches the historical figure.