History LandslideElection / RealLife

** Simultaneously, incumbent secretary of state Jocelyn Benson won by a 14% margin over Republican challenger Kristina Karamo thanks to the latter's support for conspiracy theories such as [=QAnon=], support of controversial policy stances, and believing the 2020 election was "fraudulently stolen" from Donald Trump, who is loathed in Michigan. Not helping Karamo was a 2021 court filing which revealed that she attempted to kill herself and her daughters in a car crash when her ex-husband sought parenting time following their divorce in 2014, which made voters feel she was unhinged.

* In the 1972 election, Richard Nixon framed his challenger George [=McGovern=] and the Democrats as the party of "[[DrugsAreBad acid]], [[DraftDodging amnesty]], and [[GoodGirlsAvoidAbortion abortion]]" — riddled with the excesses of the 60s' counterculture that wanted immorality to run amok everywhere and combined with the Democratic Party's handling of the unpopular Vietnam War — compared to the GOP that supported the GoodOldWays of the flag, faith, and family values. Although it was Thomas Eagleton who quipped the quote, Nixon used it as part of his "Southern Strategy" to court the conservative "silent majority" of white Northerners and Southerners, who had consistently supported Democrats since the 1930s, by appealing to their backlash against the antiwar and the [[UsefulNotes/CivilRightsMovement civil rights]] movements. Not helping [=McGovern=] were the clusterfuck that were the 1972 Democratic primaries,[[note]]which was basically a four-way Mexican standoff between [=McGovern=], George Wallace, Ed Muskie, and Hubert Humphrey[[/note]] [=McGovern=]'s ineffectual campaigning and ultra-liberal policy stances that alienated powerful Democrats[[note]]such as withdrawing from Vietnam altogether in exchange for the return of American [=POWs=], amnesty for draft dodgers, drastic cuts to defense spending, and guaranteed minimum income for the poor[[/note]], and the revelation that his initial pick for VP (again, Eagleton) had mental health issues. Eagleton was quickly replaced with JFK's brother-in-law Sargent Shriver, but it also undermined [=McGovern=]'s candidacy. Not only did Nixon win by taking 60.7% of the popular vote and 520 electoral votes[[note]]Nixon was originally pledged 521 electoral votes, but a faithless elector in UsefulNotes/{{Virginia}} voted for the Libertarian Party ticket of John Hospers and Theodora Nathan instead. Many states [[ObviousRulePatch now have laws]] to deter this, something the Supreme Court upheld in the 2020 ''Chiafalo v. Washington'' decision[[/note]], but he became the first Republican to sweep the South, which had been solidly Democratic since the Civil War. Since then, the South remains a GOP fiefdom with a few exceptions.

* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1997_Polish_parliamentary_election In 1997,]] an alliance of small right-wing parties called the Solidarity Electoral Action (AWS) took power in UsefulNotes/{{Poland}}, in coalition with the liberal Freedom Union (UW). The government became hugely unpopular, and four years later was completely wiped out: the two parties won 9% of the vote ''between them'', and lost all their seats, while the opposition Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) won 41% of the vote and 216 seats, the largest number of seats a Polish party has ''ever'' managed.

* A similar case with U.S. Senator [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Stevens Ted Stevens,]] who won his first election (in 1970) by a comfortable margin, and then proceeded to win every election with ''over 60%'' of the vote, most of them with ''over 70%''. This was attributed partly due to the state's conservative bent and partly due to Stevens being ''extremely'' effective at bringing in "pork";[[note]]Basically, monetary projects diverted to a particular constituency, such as Alaska in Stevens' case.[[/note]] he wouldn't be dethroned until [[UsefulNotes/BarackObama 2008]] (and only then because he had just been convicted of federal corruption charges, later vacated due to prosecutorial misconduct), and died in a plane crash less than 2 years after.

* Why did incumbent UsefulNotes/{{Georgia}} governor Brian Kemp beat his opponent, former Sen. David Perdue (who was endorsed by former president UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump), by ''a much larger margin'' of 52 points in the 2022 GOP primary? Well you can blame it on Perdue's ties to the controversial Trump. Many Georgia Republicans hate Trump for his fixation on losing the 2020 election and subsequent voter fraud conspiracy theories, which they blame for depressing Republican turnout and alienating moderate voters in the 2021 Senate runoff elections, resulting in a Democratic victory and subsequent control over the US Senate. Kemp also outfoxed Perdue by courting some of the latter's past supporters and the GOP establishment to his camp, who poured in millions. Trump's anemic support for Perdue was another factor as despite being awash with money in his PAC, he came off as TheScrooge by spending little on ads and hoarding most of it to himself. Many have noted that this was a sign that Trump's status as the GOP's kingmaker is starting to wane.

* The 2008 U.S. Senate election in Montana provides an unusual example. With Democratic incumbent Max Baucus widely seen as a lock for reelection, the Republican primary was a largely overlooked affair which wound up being won by longtime perennial candidate Bob Kelleher in an upset. Kelleher was an unorthodox candidate, to say the least; having previously challenged Baucus on the Green party ticket, he was actually ''to the left'' of his Democratic opponent, as well as many of his more liberal colleagues, in several areas (most notably, he wanted to merge the executive and legislative branches into a parliamentary system akin to that of the United Kingdom). This left Kelleher without much of a base, and Baucus wound up getting 72 percent of the vote and winning every single county in the state, including ones that were normally Republican strongholds, by a wide margin.
* In the 1972 election, Richard Nixon framed his challenger George [=McGovern=] and the Democrats as the party of "[[DrugsAreBad acid]], [[DraftDodging amnesty]], and [[GoodGirlsAvoidAbortion abortion]]" — riddled with the excesses of the 60s' counterculture that wanted immorality to run amok everywhere and combined with the Democratic Party's handling of the unpopular Vietnam War — compared to the GOP that supported the GoodOldWays of the flag, faith, and family values. Although it was Thomas Eagleton who quipped the quote, Nixon used it as part of his "Southern Strategy" to court the conservative "silent majority" of white Northerners and Southerners, who had consistently supported Democrats since the 1930s, by appealing to their backlash against the antiwar and the [[UsefulNotes/CivilRightsMovement civil rights]] movements. Not helping [=McGovern=] were the clusterfuck that were the 1972 Democratic primaries,[[note]]which was basically a four-way Mexican standoff between [=McGovern=], George Wallace, Ed Muskie, and Hubert Humphrey[[/note]] [=McGovern=]'s ineffectual campaigning and ultra-liberal policy stances that alienated powerful Democrats[[note]]such as withdrawing from Vietnam altogether in exchange for the return of American [=POWs=], amnesty for draft dodgers, drastic cuts to defense spending, and guaranteed minimum income for the poor[[/note]], and the revelation that his initial pick for VP (again, Eagleton) had mental health issues. Eagleton was quickly replaced with JFK's brother-in-law Sargent Shriver, but it also undermined [=McGovern=]'s candidacy. Not only did Nixon win by taking 60.7% of the popular vote and 520 electoral votes[[note]]Nixon was originally pledged 521 electoral votes, but a faithless elector in Virginia voted for the Libertarian Party ticket of John Hospers and Theodora Nathan instead. Many states [[ObviousRulePatch now have laws]] to deter this, something the Supreme Court upheld in the 2020 ''Chiafalo v. Washington'' decision[[/note]], but he became the first Republican to sweep the South, which had been solidly Democratic since the Civil War. Since then, the South remains a GOP fiefdom with a few exceptions.
* Why did incumbent Georgia governor Brian Kemp beat his opponent, former Sen. David Perdue (who was endorsed by former president UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump), by ''a much larger margin'' of 52 points in the 2022 GOP primary? Well you can blame it on Perdue's ties to the controversial Trump. Many Georgia Republicans hate Trump for his fixation on losing the 2020 election and subsequent voter fraud conspiracy theories, which they blame for depressing Republican turnout and alienating moderate voters in the 2021 Senate runoff elections, resulting in a Democratic victory and subsequent control over the US Senate. Kemp also outfoxed Perdue by courting some of the latter's past supporters and the GOP establishment to his camp, who poured in millions. Trump's anemic support for Perdue was another factor as despite being awash with money in his PAC, he came off as TheScrooge by spending little on ads and hoarding most of it to himself. Many have noted that this was a sign that Trump's status as the GOP's kingmaker is starting to wane.

* In the 2022 Pennsylvania gubernatorial election, why did then-state attorney general and Democratic candidate Josh Shapiro bag 56.5% of the vote over that of Republican Doug Mastriano's 41.7%? Pennsylvania was a key swing state of 2020, and it quickly became apparent that Mastriano really wasn't calibrated to win it, believing all that he had to do to win was to turn out his supporters. Mastriano ignored reaching out to moderates, who loathed his backing of Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election and his own refusal to dial down his far-right rhetoric, which included overt usage of anti-Semitic tropes against Shapiro (who is Jewish) and support for extremist groups such as [=QAnon=]. This in turn led to Republican fundraising groups shunning him in favor of more electable candidates elsewhere. That Mastriano didn't interview with mainstream media under the belief that it was "biased" nor did he air TV ads until a month before the election essentially allowed Shapiro to [[ScareCampaign portray]] Mastriano as someone whose rhetoric was out-of-touch with the average Pennsylvanian.
* Similar to Josh Shapiro, incumbent Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer's 2022 victory over Republican challenger Tudor Dixon[[note]]who was nominated after a clown-car GOP primary that resulted in several candidates being disqualified for submitting fake signatures to get on the ballot[[/note]] can be attributed to Donald Trump's endorsement of Dixon and his past efforts to overturn the state's 2020 election results, which alienated moderates. This, combined with a foiled kidnapping attempt of Whitmer by far-right militias in 2020 and public opposition to the controversial ''Dobbs'' SCOTUS decision[[note]]which reversed ''Roe v. Wade'' and stated abortion is not a right[[/note]] ensured Whitmer's win. GOP donors shunning Dixon and Whitmer's TV ads attacking her opposition to abortion didn't help either. Whitmer's victory also had a coattail effect as not only did Democrats gain control of the state legislature for the first time since 1984, but voters also enshrined abortion rights in the state constitution.

* UsefulNotes/FranklinDRoosevelt won his first two elections in 1932 and 1936 with political landslides because let's face it, Roosevelt was and still is very popular. In 1932, his predecessor UsefulNotes/HerbertHoover had the misfortune of having had the Great Depression happen on his watch and start within a year of his inauguration, meaning that he had had most of his term to fix it, but nothing he did seemed to make anything any better with the predictable result that everyone but the most doctrinaire Republican turned to his opponent to fix things. In 1936, the Great Depression was still in full swing and FDR ran on a 'we got you Social Security, now let me do the rest' campaign, and simply ''crushed'' Alf Landon, who only managed to win two small, then-usually-Republican states, Maine and Vermont. Even Landon's ''home'' state, Kansas, voted against him. Roosevelt's 1936 victory remains the biggest non-unanimous one of any president, taking 98.49% of the electoral vote. Notably, a magazine named ''The Literary Digest'' actually [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literary_Digest#Presidential_poll predicted]] a ''Landon'' landslide after conducting a straw poll;[[note]] The magazine polled its own readership, which skewed towards the upper class and Landon, and didn't try to correct for it. [[/note]] it ceased publication shortly after the election. This also ended Maine's status as a "bellwether state" in presidential politics (the saying went, "As Maine goes, so goes the nation"; Maine's September gubernatorial elections had usually predicted which party would win the November presidential election since ''1832''), leading FDR's campaign manager James Farley to quip "As Maine goes, so goes Vermont."
* UsefulNotes/RichardNixon's 1972 re-election was primarily because many, many Americans still supported UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar and his election team engaged in some of the dirtiest politics known to man. It's suggested that Nixon was an idiot (or, more accurately, paranoid, see [[UsefulNotes/RichardNixon his page for more info]]) for breaking into the Watergate because he was so popular [[DickDastardlyStopsToCheat he could've won this election without the dirty tricks]]. The only state to vote against him, Massachusetts, famously produced "Don't blame me, I'm from Massachusetts" bumper stickers during the height of the Watergate scandal.

** There was also an almost perfect storm of catastrophe for the Democratic candidate, George [=McGovern=]. He didn't clinch the nomination until the convention because the second-place finisher Hubert Humphrey contested the California primary results.[[note]] Humphrey actually beat [=McGovern=] in total primary votes, but this meant nothing because, in 1972, most states didn't have primaries and operated on a caucus system. [[/note]] The fight to win the nomination itself consumed so much attention that his campaign team didn't pick a VP candidate until the convention's second day. They had more than half a dozen people turn the slot down (and one UsefulNotes/JimmyCarter actually [[PlayingBothSides leading a last-minute "Anybody but McGovern" push while simultaneously campaigning to become McGovern's running mate]]) before they essentially picked Thomas Eagleton at random. The balloting for President and Vice President took so long that by the time [=McGovern=] delivered his acceptance speech, the only U.S. media market where it was still UsefulNotes/PrimeTime was Guam. And, finally, it was revealed that Eagleton had a history of mental health problems, involving institutionalization and electric shock therapy, and [=McGovern=] had to dump him, by which time the only replacement he could get was Sargent Shriver, a man whose extensive record of public service did not include any prior elected office. Basically, the last good day of the campaign for [=McGovern=] was the California primary. It was all downhill from there. (You can read an excellent--if biased[[note]] Absurdly, extremely, unabashedly biased. [[/note]]--account of [=McGovern=]'s campaign in Creator/HunterSThompson's seminal ''Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72''.)
* UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan's 1984 re-election yielded him 525 out of 538 electoral votes, the most taken by any US presidential candidate ''ever'', and as a percentage of the Electoral College has not been equaled or surpassed by any president since and only three previously (George Washington in both of his elections, and James Monroe and Franklin Roosevelt in their second elections). He won about 59% of the popular vote and every state with the sole exception of Mondale's native state Minnesota, and even then only lost that state by a little over 3,000 votes. After winning, he famously declared it to be "Morning in America." In this case, Reagan took credit for economic recovery following the stagflation of the 70s. Real gross domestic product (GDP) showed steady increases and unemployment was decreasing. The voters probably hoped for more growth in voting for him. And unlike Nixon's victory over [=McGovern=], Democratic candidate UsefulNotes/WalterMondale didn't even run that bad of a campaign (at worst, he was hurt by his association with Jimmy Carter's unpopular administration, and by admitting early in his campaign that he would raise taxes); Reagan was just ''that'' insanely popular.
* Ron [=DeSantis=] was reelected governor of Florida in 2022 against Charlie Crist by more than ''19'' points in what was supposed to be a swing state. Not only was the reelection win considered a significant improvement for [=DeSantis=] from the 0.5 point margin that won his first gubernatorial term, but it was also the largest statewide win since 1982, the first time a gubernatorial election in Florida had a margin of victory of over a million votes and the largest for a Republican since ''1868''. Even better for [=DeSantis=] is that he flipped the Democratic stronghold of Miami-Dade County and won 58% of Latino voters, who historically leaned Democratic in most races. Some pundits have cited [=DeSantis=]' win to his opposition to strict COVID-19 restrictions, which helped the economy and energized Republican turnout. It also helped [=DeSantis=] that Charlie Crist, who served as governor from 2007 to 2011, was a Republican turned independent turned Democrat, demotivating many Democrats who felt like they would effectively be forced to vote between two Republicans. Because of [=DeSantis's=] massive win, some have speculated that Florida will turn from a traditional swing-state into a solidly Republican state; while [=DeSantis=] began to be mentioned as a potential presidential candidate for 2024. [[note]](At one point, Crist tried to make an issue of that speculation by attempting to get [=DeSantis=] to pledge that he would not run in 2024)[[/note]]

* The [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Nevada_gubernatorial_election 2014 Nevada election for Governor]]. The popular incumbent, Brian Sandoval, faced zero effective opposition in the Republican primary, while on the Democratic side, basically, everybody with any sort of name recognition sat out the election; the result was a clown-car primary ''where "None of the Above" got the most votes'';[[note]]This meant nothing, as under Nevada law the second-place candidate wins the election if NOTA comes first.[[/note]] in the end, Sandoval would go on to crush Democratic nominee Bob Goodman, winning '''''70.5% of the vote'''''.

* A similar situation happened two years later in Vermont, where, despite the state being strongly Democratic on a federal level and giving UsefulNotes/JoeBiden his best result of any state in the concurrent 2020 presidential election, incumbent moderate Republican governor Phil Scott, who had similar levels of popularity to Baker, won reelection by a whopping 41% victory margin, the highest for the state in decades.

* One of the most prominent examples of HowTheMightyHaveFallen in American politics (at least in the 2010s) is UsefulNotes/NewJersey Governor Chris Christie. First elected in 2009, then riding handily to re-election as a very popular Republican Governor in an otherwise Democratic state in 2013 due to his reputation as a warrior against corruption (among other things), many believed he was a serious contender for the Republican nomination in 2016. However, his fortunes quickly took a nosedive in the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Lee_lane_closure_scandal Bridgegate scandal,]] where people in his government closed down lanes on the George Washington Bridge between Fort Lee and New York City, something widely believed to have been done as retribution against Fort Lee's mayor's refusal to endorse Chris Christie. With this scandal tanking his chances to earn the presidential nomination or even a position in UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump's cabinet despite supporting him loyally, his last few years as New Jersey governor were marked with a seeming apathy for actually governing the state, most epitomized with the time he was infamously caught on a state beach that was closed to the public due to a state government shutdown. This all led to Chris Christie leaving office as [[https://morningconsult.com/2017/10/31/americas-most-least-popular-governors-october-2017/ the least popular governor in the entire country,]] and the attempted Republican successor Kim Guadagno, Christie’s own lieutenant governor, stood no chance, losing to Democrat Phil Murphy 56–42, with the networks called the governorship for Murphy with the first batch of votes released that night.

* In the 1998 Tennessee state senate elections, Democratic candidate Charlotte Burks won 30,072 votes while her Republican opponent, Byron (Low Tax)[[note]]not a nickname, he had his middle name legally changed to "(Low Tax)"[[/note]] Looper, won just 1,494 votes. This was caused by the fact that Burks was the widow of Tommy Burks, the long-serving, popular, and recently deceased previous senator ... whom Looper had just been charged with ''murdering'', a crime for which he was eventually convicted two years later. On top of that, all votes for Charlotte Burks' were write-in ones, as [[SuddenlySignificantRule an obscure Tennessee law]] meant that all the candidates had to be registered 30 days before the election and could not be replaced if they died. Even the state Republicans ran a campaign urging their voters not to support Looper after his arrest. On a positive note, considering her husband's murder, Burks was re-elected three times before her eventual retirement in 2015, and in her first term, one of her first actions was adding a law to allow candidate substitutions if they had died to prevent future occurrences of this scenario.

** In South Carolina, Republican incumbent Jim [=DeMint=] was expected to win easily given South Carolina's status as a solid red state, and midterm elections, in this case in the middle of Barack Obama's first term, are usually favorable to the party not holding the presidency. The Democratic primary was won by Alvin Greene, an unemployed military veteran who has never held public office. The primary victory was a surprise as Greene had not campaigned in any way, nor did he explain how he came up with the $10,400 filing fee to run in the primary. To say Greene came with baggage would be an {{understatement}}: he had been arrested a year earlier for showing pornographic images to an 18-year-old female while trespassing in a University of South Carolina computer lab. Greene agreed to a few television interviews and gave short, nonsensical responses, such as claiming he would create jobs by manufacturing toys of himself. According to the FEC, Greene's campaign received a grand total of $0 in campaign contributions. [=DeMint=] easily won 61%–28% on election day.

* The 2012 Missouri U.S. Senate race, where long-time representative Todd Akin ran against incumbent Claire [=McCaskill=], was ultimately decided by a major gaffe by Akin. In talking about abortion, specifically his opposition to allowing abortion even in the case of rape, he claimed (using a ''very'' poor choice of words) that "...If it's a legitimate rape, [[ArtisticLicenseBiology the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down]]...". This quickly went memetic for all the wrong reasons and ensured [=McCaskill=]'s re-election by nearly 16 points, 54.8%–39.1%, in a state that Republican Mitt Romney easily won by 9 points in the presidential election. [=McCaskill=] [[https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/08/todd-akin-missouri-claire-mccaskill-2012-121262?o=1 would later admit]] she deliberately tried to ensure he was her opponent, [[BatmanGambit banking on his propensity for controversial statements to do him in]]. Naturally, the seat went red the next time it was up in 2018.

* The 1976 race for Missouri's 6th Congressional District[[note]]then covering most of northwestern Missouri[[/note]] eventually developed into this. The race pitted Republican State Representative Tom Coleman against Democratic businessman Morgan Maxfield for an open House seat whose previous occupant, Democratic incumbent Jerry Litton, had given up the seat to run for the Senate seat opening up following the retirement of Democratic Senator Stuart Symington (Litton, who many - among them UsefulNotes/JimmyCarter - felt could potentially have been President, had won in an 11-candidate primary that included fellow Congressman James Symington (Stuart's son); Kansas City Mayor Charles Wheeler and former Governor Warren Hearnes but was tragically killed on August 3, 1976 along with his entire family and the pilot while flying to the Litton victory celebration[[note]]Hearnes would win the Democratic nomination in a special primary but was defeated in the general election for the Senate by Republican John Danforth, Missouri's Attorney General and an heir to the Ralston Purina fortune who had previously ran against and lost to the elder Symington in 1970[[/note]]); resulting in a simultaneous special election to finish the term alongside the regular election for the term starting in 1977. Maxfield - citing his association with the late Jerry Litton as well as his friendship with [[UsefulNotes/NationalFootballLeague Kansas City Chiefs]] owner Lamar Hunt - had a big lead for much of the race until a report by the Kansas City Star revealed that Maxfield had lied about almost everything pertaining to his personal background, with the biggest bombshell being that Maxfield - who claimed to have been a bachelor - was separated from his wife and children in Texas. This led to Maxfield's campaign manager resigning in protest, the St. Joseph News-Press switched their endorsement from Maxfield to Coleman and Coleman won both the special and general elections by landslides; [[https://mcimaps.com/the-most-tragic-election-victory-in-us-history/ beating Maxfield by a 61%-39% margin in the special election to finish the term Litton had most recently been elected to and a 58.5%-40.5% margin in the general election.]] Coleman would hold the seat until his defeat in 1992 by Democrat Pat Danner.[[note]]Danner had run in 1976 to succeed her boss but lost the primary to Maxfield.[[/note]] As for Maxfield, in an eerie twist of fate he would lose his own life in 1981 in a plane crash.

** The Colorado 5th district[[note]]centered around Colorado Springs[[/note]] saw first-term incumbent Republican Congressman Joel Hefley facing Democratic challenger John J. Mitchell. However, Mitchell got into a dispute with TWA and - at the height of fears regarding the AIDS crisis - tried to retaliate by claiming that "AIDS is spread through TWA". The Democrats quickly washed their hands of Mitchell, who ended up losing to Hefley 75%-25%; by roughly a three-to-one margin.

* In the 1964 U.S. presidential election, the Republican Party nominated the outspoken conservative UsefulNotes/BarryGoldwater for president, instead of the easy-going moderate UsefulNotes/NelsonRockefeller. Goldwater won only ''six'' states out of fifty, and President UsefulNotes/LyndonJohnson won 61% of the popular vote, ''still'' the highest popular percentage won in a contested election. (Goldwater carried his ''home state'' of Arizona by ''exactly 1%'', 4,782 votes.) Johnson's biographer Robert Caro says that this is likely the single best election performance in the history of modern democracy. \\\

* In 2012, in the Australian state of Queensland, the Australian Labor Party was reduced from 51 seats (out of 87) to only seven. The Liberal National Party won 78 seats, and Katter's Australian Party won two. [[FromBadToWorse It got worse]] for the Labor Party when one LNP member defected to the KAP, and predicted more would follow, raising the possibility of KAP replacing Labor as the official state opposition.
** And just three years later, Campbell Newman's LNP was dumped and Labor was back in power, with some seats registering swings of over 20%.

* In the 1972 election, Richard Nixon framed his challenger George [=McGovern=] and the Democrats as the party of "[[DrugsAreBad acid]], [[DraftDodging amnesty]], and [[GoodGirlsAvoidAbortion abortion]]" — riddled with the excesses of the 60s' counterculture that wanted immorality to run amok everywhere and combined with the Democratic Party's handling of the unpopular Vietnam War — compared to the GOP that supported the GoodOldWays of the flag, faith, and family values. Although it was Thomas Eagleton who quipped the quote, Nixon used it as part of his "Southern Strategy" to court the conservative "silent majority" of white Northerners and Southerners, who had consistently supported Democrats since the 1930s, by appealing to their backlash against the antiwar and the [[UsefulNotes/CivilRightsMovement civil rights]] movements. Not helping [=McGovern=] were the clusterfuck that were the 1972 Democratic primaries,[[note]]which was basically a four-way Mexican standoff between [=McGovern=], George Wallace, Ed Muskie, and Hubert Humphrey[[/note]] [=McGovern=]'s ineffectual campaigning and ultra-liberal policy stances that alienated powerful Democrats[[note]]such as withdrawing from Vietnam altogether in exchange for the return of American [=POWs=], amnesty for draft dodgers, drastic cuts to defense spending, and guaranteed minimum income for the poor[[/note]], and the revelation that his initial pick for VP (again, Eagleton) had mental health issues. Eagleton was quickly replaced with JFK's brother-in-law Sargent Shriver, but it also undermined [=McGovern=]'s candidacy. Not only did Nixon won by taking 60.7% of the popular vote and 520 electoral votes[[note]]Nixon was originally pledged 521 electoral votes, but a faithless elector in Virginia voted for the Libertarian Party ticket of John Hospers and Theodora Nathan instead. Many states [[ObviousRulePatch now have laws]] to deter this, something the Supreme Court upheld in the 2020 ''Chiafalo v. Washington'' decision[[/note]], but he became the first Republican to sweep the South, which had been solidly Democratic since the Civil War. Since then, the South remains a GOP fiefdom with a few exceptions.

* A similar situation happened two years later in Vermont, where, despite the state being strongly Democratic on a federal level and giving UsefulNotes/JoeBiden his best result of any state in the 2020 presidential election, incumbent moderate Republican governor Phil Scott, who had similar levels of popularity to Baker, won reelection by a whopping 41% victory margin, the highest for the state in decades.

* UsefulNotes/TheodoreRoosevelt had quickly proven himself popular during his presidency and when he ran for a full term in 1904, he had the vast support of the American people. His opponent Alton B. Parker didn't differ too much when it came to issues, so the election mostly came down to the personalities of the candidates. Parker, who was seen as boring and stiff, couldn't stand a chance at Roosevelt's popularity and charisma. Roosevelt swept the popular vote by a margin of 18.8%, the largest since UsefulNotes/JamesMonroe's uncontested election in 1820.

* Despite Vermont being a Democratic bastion, governor Phil Scott won re-elected in 2022 by a whopping ''43'' points against Brenda Siegel, giving him the biggest margin for a gubernatorial win in the state since Howard Dean won in ''1996''. As for how it happened, Scott was insanely popular among voters as a moderate Republican with socially liberal yet fiscally conservative positions. It also helped that Scott supported abortion rights and denounced Donald Trump, thus sparing him from the liberal backlash to both Trump and the ''Dobbs'' decision, which overturned abortion rights.

* Ron [=DeSantis=] was reelected governor of Florida in 2022 against Charlie Crist by more than ''19'' points in what was supposed to be a swing state. Not only was the reelection win considered a significant improvement for [=DeSantis=] from the 0.5 point margin that won his first gubernatorial term, but it was also the largest statewide win since 1982, the first time a gubernatorial election in Florida had a margin of victory of over a million votes and the largest for a Republican since ''1868''. Even better for [=DeSantis=] is that he flipped the Democratic stronghold of Miami-Dade County and won 58% of Latino voters, who historically leaned Democrat in most races. Some pundits have cited [=DeSantis=]' win to his opposition to strict COVID-19 restrictions, which helped the economy and energized Republican turnout. It also helped [=DeSantis=] that Charlie Crist was himself a former Republican governor for the state, demotivating many Democrats who felt like they would effectively be forced to vote between two Republicans. Because of [=DeSantis's=] massive win, some have speculated that Florida will turn from a traditional swing-state into a solidly Republican state; while [=DeSantis=] began to be mentioned as a potential presidential candidate for 2024. [[note]](At one point, Crist tried to make an issue of that speculation by attempting to get [=DeSantis=] to pledge that he would not run in 2024)[[/note]]
** While the media narrative around the election credited only [=DeSantis=] with a landslide win, in fact nearly every Republican candidate for statewide office performed just as well -- U.S. House candidates won by 15.6 points, Sen. Marco Rubio was reelected by 16 points, [=CFO=] Jimmy Patronis was reelected by 19 points, non-incumbent agriculture secretary candidate Wilton Simpson won by 18.6 points and Attorney General Ashley Moody was reelected by 21 points and actually outperformed [=DeSantis=] by 2 points. While a coattail effect is a possibility, it's more likely Florida voters have drifted more toward the [=GOP=].

* Similar to Josh Shapiro, incumbent Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer's 2022 victory over Republican challenger Tudor Dixon[[note]]who was nominated after a clown-car GOP primary that resulted in several candidates being disqualified for submitting fake signatures to get on the ballot[[/note]] can be attributed to Donald Trump's endorsement of Dixon and his past efforts to overturn the state's 2020 election results, which alienated moderates. This, combined with a foiled kidnapping attempt of Whitmer by far-right militias in 2020 and public opposition to the controversial ''Dobbs'' SCOTUS decision[[note]]which reversed ''Roe v. Wade'' and stated abortion is not a right[[/note]] ensured Whitmer's win. GOP donors shunning Dixon and Whitmer's TV ads attacking her opposition to abortion didn't help either. Whitmer's victory also had a coattail effect as not only did Democrats gain control of the state legislature for the first since 1984, but abortion as a right was enshrined in the state constitution.

* The [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_United_States_Senate_election_in_Illinois 2004 US Senate election in Illinois.]] UsefulNotes/BarackObama had been leading his initial challenger Jack Ryan ([[VideoGame/BioShock1 no]], [[Creator/TomClancy not he]]) in the polls, but then Ryan dropped out after a sex scandal and was replaced with Alan Keyes, a Maryland resident (cue accusations of carpetbagging) known for using extremist right-wing rhetoric. Obama won the election with ''70% of the vote''.

* The 2012 Missouri U.S. Senate race, where long-time representative Todd Akin ran against incumbent Claire [=McCaskill=], was ultimately decided by a major gaffe by Akin. In talking about abortion, specifically his opposition to allowing abortion even in the case of rape, he claimed (using a ''very'' poor choice of words) that "...If it's a legitimate rape, [[ArtisticLicenseBiology the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down]]...". This quickly went memetic for all the wrong reasons and ensured [=McCaskill=]'s re-election nearly 16 points, 54.8%–39.1%, in a state that Republican Mitt Romney easily won by 9 points in the presidential election. [=McCaskill=] [[https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/08/todd-akin-missouri-claire-mccaskill-2012-121262?o=1 would later admit]] she deliberately tried to ensure he was her opponent, [[BatmanGambit banking on his propensity for controversial statements to do him in]]. Naturally, the seat went red the next time it was up in 2018.

* The 2012 Missouri Senate race, where long-time Second District Representative Todd Akin ran against incumbent Claire [=McCaskill=], was ultimately decided by one major gaffe by Todd Akin. In talking about abortion, specifically his opposition to allowing abortion even in the case of rape, he claimed (using a ''very'' poor choice of words) that "...If it's a legitimate rape, [[ArtisticLicenseBiology the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down]]...". This quickly went memetic for all the wrong reasons and ensured [=McCaskill=]'s re-election nearly 16 points, 54.8%–39.1%, in a state that Mitt Romney easily won by 9 points. [=McCaskill=] [[https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/08/todd-akin-missouri-claire-mccaskill-2012-121262?o=1 would later admit]] she deliberately tried to ensure he was her opponent, [[BatmanGambit banking on his propensity for controversial statements to do him in]]. Naturally, the seat went red the next time it was up in 2018.

* The 2012 Missouri Senate race, where long-time Second District Representative Todd Akin ran against incumbent Claire [=McCaskill=], was ultimately decided by one major gaffe by Todd Akin. In talking about Abortion, specifically his opposition to allowing abortion even in the case of rape, he claimed (using a ''very'' poor choice of words) that "...If it's a legitimate rape, [[ArtisticLicenseBiology the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down]]...". This quickly went memetic for all the wrong reasons and ensured [=McCaskill=]'s re-election 54.8%–39.1% in a state that Mitt Romney would easily win. [=McCaskill=] [[https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/08/todd-akin-missouri-claire-mccaskill-2012-121262?o=1 would later admit]] she deliberately tried to ensure he was her opponent, [[BatmanGambit banking on his propensity for controversial statements to do him in]]. Naturally, the seat went red the next time it was up in 2018.

** While the media narrative around the election credited only [=DeSantis=] with a landslide win, in fact nearly every Republican candidate for statewide office performed just as well -- U.S. House candidates won by 15.6 points, Sen. Marco Rubio was reelected by 16 points, [=CFO=] Jimmy Patronis was reelected by 19 points, non-incumbent agriculture secretary candidate Wilton Simpson won by 18.6 points and Attorney General Ashley Moody was reelected by 21 points and actually outperformed [=DeSantis=] by 2 points.

* Ron [=DeSantis=] was reelected governor of Florida in 2022 against Charlie Crist by more than ''19'' points in what was supposed to be a swing state. Not only was the reelection win considered a significant improvement for [=DeSantis=] from the 0.5 point margin that won his first gubernatorial term, but it was also the largest statewide win since 1982, the first time a gubernatorial election in Florida had a margin of victory of over a million votes and the largest for a Republican since ''1868''. Even better for [=DeSantis=] is that he flipped the Democratic stronghold of Miami-Dade County and won 58% of Latino voters, who historically leaned Democrat in most races. Some pundits have cited [=DeSantis=]' win to his opposition to strict COVID-19 restrictions, which helped the economy and energized Republican turnout. It also helped [=DeSantis=] that Charlie Crist was himself a former Republican governor for the state, demotivating many Democrats who felt like they would effectively be forced to vote between two Republicans. Because of [=DeSantis's=] massive win, some have speculated that Florida will turn from a traditional swing-state into a solidly Republican state; while [=DeSantis=] began to be mentioned as a potential presidential candidate for 2024[[note]]at one point, Crist tried to make an issue of that speculation by attempting to get [=DeSantis=] to pledge that he would not run in 2024[[/note]]. ** While the media narrative around the election credited only [=DeSantis=] with a landslide win, in fact nearly every Republican candidate for statewide office performed just as well -- U.S. House candidates won by 15.6 points, Sen. Marco Rubio was reelected by 16 points, [=CFO=] Jimmy Patronis was reelected by 19 points, non-incumbent agriculture secretary candidate Wilton Simpson won by 18.6 points and Attorney General Ashley Moody was reelected by 21 points and actually outperformed [=DeSantis=] by 2 points.

* Ron [=DeSantis=] won reelection for Florida governorship in 2022 against Charlie Crist by more than ''19'' points in what was supposed to be a swing state. Not only was the reelection win considered a significant improvement for [=DeSantis=] from the 0.5 point margin that won his first gubernatorial term, but it was also the largest statewide win since 1982, the first time a gubernatorial election in Florida had a margin of victory of over a million votes and the largest for a Republican since ''1868''. Even better for [=DeSantis=] is that he flipped the Democratic stronghold of Miami-Dade County and won 58% of Latino voters, who historically leaned Democrat in most races. Some pundits have cited [=DeSantis=] win to his opposition to strict COVID-19 restrictions, which helped the economy and energized Republican turnout. It also helped [=DeSantis=] that Charlie Crist was himself a former Republican governor for the state, demotivating many Democrats who felt like they would effectively be forced to vote between two Republicans. Because of [=DeSantis's=] massive win, some have speculated that Florida will turn from a traditional swing-state into a solidly Republican state; while [=DeSantis=] began to be mentioned as a potential Presidential candidate for 2024[[note]]at one point, Crist tried to make an issue of that speculation by attempting to get [=DeSantis=] to pledge that he would not run in 2024[[/note]].