July 31, 2007
Department of Useless Presidential Trivia Posted by Joshua Zeitz at 10:05 AM EST From the Department of Useless Presidential Trivia, I realized this weekend that there’s an outside possibility that next year’s presidential election will come down to an all-Tennessee final. Should Fred Thompson win his party’s nomination (not implausible), and should Al Gore throw his hat into the ring and win the Democratic nomination (less likely, but also not implausible), both candidates will be resident Tennesseans. This is not a situation that occurs often. In the last century, Franklin Roosevelt, a resident New Yorker, squared off against Wendell Willkie in 1940 and Thomas Dewey in 1944, both resident New Yorkers. Though born in Indiana, Willkie had lived and worked in New York City since 1929; Dewey was a native of Michigan but served as governor of New York from 1943 to 1953. FDR, of course, was a native and lifetime resident of the Empire State. Looking back in time, the most famous example of this rare phenomenon was the presidential election of 1860, which saw longtime rivals Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas face each other for one last battle. Though Douglas was born in Vermont, and Lincoln in Kentucky, both men had lived out their adult lives in Illinois. The only significance of this possible but unlikely scenario is that Tennessee would be in play. In theory, candidates should easily carry their home states, which usually results in the home states of both nominees being overlooked in the larger campaign strategy. Al Gore took a drubbing in Tennessee in 2000, and then he took a second drubbing from the pundits for having lost his home state. In fact, it’s not that uncommon a phenomenon. Wikipedia has compiled a list of major party nominees who lost their resident or native states, and it’s fairly extensive. This list aside, there’s a prevailing assumption that candidates should be able to carry their home ground. Should Gore and Thomspon face each other next year, Tennessee might very well be up for grabs.
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