2076 US Presidential Election

The 2076 Presidential Election was the 72st quadrennial election in U.S. History. It is widely concidered to be the bgeining of the New Conservatism Movement in the United States, resulting in the Balanced Budget Ammendment and the 4th Immigration Act.

Since the election of Ralph Walderman in 2072, the United States had undergone a series of Libertarian reforms, chief among which was the Balanced Budget Act of 2074, which required Congress to pass a balanced budget every year. It also whitnessed a nativist approach to foreign policy, with President Walderman widely favoring avoiding foreign conflicts except in cases of genocide and national security.

Primaries
Libertarian Party

President Ralph Walderman announced he would seek a second term on March 4th, 2075, and was unchallenged in the primaries. Abigail Richards remained the party's Vice-Presidential nominee, despite talk of replacing her with Gary Johnson Jr., who had been the party's nominee for President in 2060. The party platform was essentialy an extension of Walderman's first term policies, promicing a Balanced Budget Ammendment and a new Immigration Act simplifying the Immigration code while at the same time calling for harsher punnishments on illegal immigration.

Democratic Party

The Democrats were largely divided in the 2076 primary. The front runner was former Congressman Keith Adams of Georgia, who was endorsed by former President Clara Caal. Adams was challenged in the primary by Senator Dwainn Bridges and Governor Christina Duffeild of New Hampshire. Adams eventually surpassed Bridges and Duffield and became the Democratic Nominee. Both candidates endorsed him.

At the Democratic National Convention, Adams announced Duffield as his running mate, despite public speculation that Robert Maan would be the party's VP nominee. The nomination of Duffield stemmed partly from the ned to unify the party, which was still in dissaray from its defeat in the 2074 midterms.

Independence Party

At their convention in Fort Wayne, the Independence Party nominated John Wayne III for President and Alicia Jones for Vice President. Wayne was the decendent of 20th century actor John Wayne.

American Democracy Party

The American Democracy Party nominated Frederick Cho for President, who had been the party's nominee in the 2072 election as well. Andy Cokee was nominated for Vice President.

General Election
Throughout the election, Walderman remained a few percentage points ahead in the polls, although Adams posed a significant challenge, particularily after the 2nd debate, of which Adams was proclaimed winner. However, Walderman's relative popularity, the power of incumbency, and Adams' ties to former Vice President Phillip Schuller, proved advantageous to the Libertarians. With a stable economy and peace abroad, along with strong relationships with America's allies, there was very little against Walderman's record. Adams made a brief surge in the polls when it was claimed that Walderman had had a child with another woman, but this was quickly proven false and Adams plummeted from a 51% lead to trailing Walderman by 43%.

One of the major issues of the election were evolving views on sexuality. Both Walderman and Adams were relatively liberal on this topic, with the exception that Walderman believed the government should stay out of such business altogether, while Adams proposed providing legal rights for children born from extramartial reproduction. These views were at the time deemed too radical by the American public, and Walderman's approach of "let things be" had wide appeal to those on both sides of the argument.

Results
Walderman won reelection by a slim margin, with just thrirty more electoral votes than Adams and far ahead of Wayne and Cho. In his victory speech at Grant Park in Chicago, he promiced a new era of bipartisanship and a return to so-called American values.