Something I've heard for a long time is that Donald Trump is unlike any other candidate. He polled differently, he campaigned differently in 2016, and he was unlike most of any candidate who ran for president when becoming president. He was just not what most people had in mind when running a movement, which is probably why most pundits and analysts have written him off initially.
That being said, this year I've been studying up on the office of the presidency, and the previous inhabitants of the office. It seems most common-sense pathways to the oval office require some sort of federal leadership. For example, such as ultimately being a governor of a state, or it's a senator seat. A close tie and honorable mention might be the attorney general, and other smaller related positions to being a governor or senator, but it almost always runs through those two fields.
Some examples I thought of.
Barack Obama was a sitting senator from Illinois. First-term politician too.
John McCain was a senator from Arizona when he clinched the Republican party nomination.
Joe Biden was a senator from Delaware when he was elected to the vice-presidency and vice-president when he was elected to the presidency.
Sarah Palin was a governor of Alaska when she ran for vice-president.
Bernie Sanders was a senator from Vermont.
Mitt Romney was a governor from Massachusetts.
Ted Cruz was a senator from Texas.
Marco Rubio was a senator from Florida.
George W. Bush was a governor from Texas, and also had the good faith to run in his father's name.
And so on and so forth.
So that being said, can we surmise that the next politically-charged candidates run from someone in a major governorship and senatorial seat, either former or current?
My father bought this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_J._McSwain man's scrapbook accidentally at a garage sale a couple years ago. I want to take high quality-photos of every page and post them online where historians could use it as a primary source or anyone who is curious could read its contents, but I don't know how to take these photos without damaging its pages. I know I could use my phone to take photos and put an album on imgur, but I think the lighting would be poor and the image quality low. I am pretty certain it's authentic, it is mostly newspaper clippings related to court cases in South Carolina. I can post photos I took with my phone camera if there's interest but ultimately I want something better.
Edit: https://imgur.com/a/lvjmMBZ I know this isn't sufficient to verify it's real but here's a dated passage in the book from 1903.
Today, we officially recognize the Senator from Vermont, Bernie Sanders, as the Democratic nominee for President of the United States. As the youth who voted for the only candidate to win a primary state before the coronavirus outbreak began to seriously undermine the democratic process, we declare Joe Biden's presumptive nomination to be illegitimate, and the leadership in the Democratic party vacant. The American people have courageously spoken out against Biden and his regime and demanded a nomination process that does not suppress votes by senselessly jeopardizing human lives.
We will continue to use the full weight of United States economic and activist power to press for the restoration of American democracy. We encourage other Western Hemisphere governments, as well as Democratic primary voters over the age of 45, to recognize the Senator from Vermont, Bernie Sanders, as the Democratic nominee for President of the United States, and we will work constructively with them in support of his efforts to restore constitutional legitimacy. We continue to hold the illegitimate Biden regime directly responsible for any threats it has posed to the safety of the Democratic primary voter. As Senator Bernie Sanders noted yesterday: “The struggle continues.”
If Kamala Harris is elected Vice President of the United States, she would need to resign as a Senator from California. Harris was next up for re-election in 2022.
Governor of California Gavin Newsom would appoint the replacement Senator, and a special election would follow later in 2021.
My question is: who replaces Harris, and are they simply a placeholder or do they actively compete in the special election?
In 2018, the most notable Democratic Party challenger to incumbent Senator Diane Feinstein was Kevin de Leon, then a State Senator from California and now a Member-elect of the Los Angeles, California City Council. Meanwhile, when Harris first ran in 2016, her opponent was Representative from California Lorretta Sanchez.
