Confederate States Presidential Election, 1939 (Southern Victory)

The Confederate States presidential election of 1939 was the fourteenth sextennial presidential election, taking place on November 7, 1939. Incumbent Jake Featherston was re-elected President of the Confederate States of America. The Whig Party and the Radical Liberal Party, while still being permitted to exist, never had a chance of removing the Freedom Party from its well-entrenched dominance of Confederate society. The Freedom Party had also successfully convinced the country (with very little effort) to amend the Constitution, allowing the popular Featherston to run for a second term. It was also the last presidential election held in the Confederate States; the C.S. ceased to exist in 1944 after it was defeated in the Second Great War.

The Seven Words Amendment[]

For most of Confederate political history the President was forbidden by the Confederate Constitution to run for a second term. Following the midterm elections of November 1937, Featherston directed the legislatures of South Carolina and Mississippi to call for a constitutional convention to remove that language from the Constitution^[1] The Freedom-dominated Confederate Congress and state legislatures easily ratified the Seven Words Amendment by the end of 1938.^[2] Featherston was now allowed to run for re-election for as many times as he wanted, a fact that horrified a comparatively small number of Confederates. Incumbent Vice President Willy Knight initiated a doomed plan to assassinate Featherston.^[3]

Nominations[]

The Freedom Party nominated its leader, President Featherston, for president. Knight was no longer on the ticket; the ex-vice president was by that time held in secret detention at Camp Dependable in Louisiana after failing to murder Featherston in December 1938. Knight was replaced by Tennessee senator Don Partridge, who was selected not least for his amiability and willingness to do whatever Featherston told him to do.

Prior to his death, Louisiana Governor Huey Long had planned on running for president on the Radical Liberal ticket in 1939 in order to defeat Featherston. However, his death in 1937 ended those plans.

The Fall Campaign[]

The campaign was dominated by Featherston speaking to the public on the radio, as well as slanted ads put out by the Department of Communications. The Whigs and Radical Liberals, with much of their membership driven underground or under arrest in concentration camps, had almost zero visibility on the airwaves, in the press, or on the streets, all of which were dominated by the Freedom Party.

Results[]

Featherston won every state in the Confederacy. Thanks to Freedom Party practices of dominating the voting booths with stalwarts and the vote count, the Whigs lost the remaining seats they had in the Confederate Congress. With a total victory coming out of the rigged election, Featherston could put more focus on his foreign policies; soon after taking the oath of office for the second time on March 4, 1940, he reimposed conscription. In June, 1940, he met with US President Al Smith and negotiated an agreement for plebiscites in Kentucky, Sequoyah, and Houston. Not long after that event, on June 22, 1941, the Second Great War broke out when Featherston ordered the invasion of the USA.