The United States presidential election of 1964 was the 45th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on Tuesday, November 3, 1964, two years after the arrival of the Race's Colonization Fleet. Unknown to the electorate, incumbent PresidentEarl Warren had made decisions in 1962 that would later bring the country to the brink of war with the Race.
In terms of policy, both foreign and domestic, very little distinguished the two.
The Election[]
Humphrey's inability to distinguish himself led to his spectacular defeat. The country was comfortable with Warren, and saw no reason to replace him.
What the voters did not know was that in 1962, Warren had ordered an explosive-metal bombattack on the Colonization Fleet while it was in orbit. Countless Race civilians were killed. This fact came to light in 1965. In response to an ultimatum from FleetlordAtvar, Warren agreed to allow the Race to destroy the city of Indianapolis in retribution, rather than discontinue the country's space program. Warren committed suicide shortly after Indianapolis was bombed. He was succeeded by Harold Stassen, who had, among other causes for concern, no confidence in his electability in 1968; he assumed the Democrats would capitalize on Warren's serious lapse of judgment and use it to leverage themselves into an electoral landslide.
OTL Election[]
In Worldwar, 1964 was a landslide victory for the Republicans; in OTL, it was a landslide for the Democrats. Of the four national candidates who ran in Worldwar, one was on the historical ballot: Hubert Humphrey ran for Vice President as the running mate of the incumbent Lyndon Johnson; there was no incumbent Vice President, the office had been vacant since Johnson ascended to the Presidency upon the assassination of John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963.