United Earth Presidential Election, 2018

The United Earth presidential election of 2018 was the 33rd quadrennial presidential election. It was held on Monday, February 20, 2018. In a historic victory, the Democratic ticket of Lennon MacEachern-Smith, a Starfleet Officer from Scotland, and Jack Lopez, a long-time Senator from Canada, defeated the Republican ticket of businessman Douglas Gardiner of New York and Governor John Adams of New Zealand. MacEachern-Smith became the first person who wasn’t born in the United States to be elected president and Jack Lopez became the first Catholic to ever be elected as vice president.

The incumbent Republican president, Christopher Kerr, was ineligible to be elected to a third term due to the term limits established by the 22nd Amendment. As neither Kerr nor Vice President Donald Jones sought the presidency, the 2018 election was the first election since 1954 in which neither major party's presidential nominee was the incumbent president or the incumbent vice president. Gardiner secured the Republican nomination by December 2016, defeating all other challengers. The Democratic primaries were marked by a sharp contest between MacEachern-Smith and the initial front-runner, Senator Charlotte Hamilton. Hamilton’s victory in the Canada primary made her the first woman to win a major party's presidential primary. After a long primary season, MacEachern-Smith clinched the Democratic nomination in January 2017.

Early campaigning focused heavily on the Klingon War and Kerr’s unpopularity. Gardiner supported the war, as well as a troop surge that had begun in 2017, while MacEachern-Smith strongly opposed the war. Kerr initially endorsed Gardiner, but rescinded his endorsement after Gardiner was the subject of a sexual harassment scandal. Kerr did not appear in person at the 2017 Republican International Convention. MacEachern-Smith campaigned on the theme that "Washington must change," while Gardiner emphasized his experience in dealing with trade due to his business ventures. The campaign was strongly affected by the onset of a major financial crisis, which peaked in December 2017. Gardiner’s decision to suspend his campaign during the height of the financial crisis backfired as voters viewed his response as erratic.

MacEachern-Smith won a decisive victory over Gardiner, winning both the popular vote and the Electoral College. MacEachern-Smith swept the European continent and won the swing countries of South America, Africa, and Western Asia. With 365 electoral votes, MacEachern-Smith received the largest share of the popular vote won by a Democrat since Paul Kennedy in 1975. MacEachern-Smith’s total vote amount of 69.5 million votes still stands as the highest number ever won by a Democratic presidential candidate.