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O'Brien-Montez 2016
O'Brien Logo
Campaign 2016 U.S. presidential election
Candidate Bill O'Brien
U.S. Senator from Arizona
Laura Montez
U.S. Senator from New Mexico
Status Announced: 2015
Lost election: January 3, 2017
Screen Shot 2016-12-30 at 4.16
This article is part of a series about
Bill O'Brien
Presidential campaigns
2016 (General election, Nevada recount, Contingent election)
Sticking By My GunsO'Brien Rules
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The 2016 presidential campaign of Bill O'Brien was announced in 2015. Bill O'Brien is a United States Senator from Arizona. His candidacy for president was presumably his first. The election on November 8, 2016, ended in an historic tie. Both O'Brien and his opponent President Selina Meyer failed to secure a majority of the vote in the congressional presidential election. The presidency was ultimately awarded to his running mate New Mexico Senator Laura Montez.

General election campaign[]

Within a week of the convention, both the Meyer/James and the O'Brien/Montez campaigns were out on the trail. The Meyer campaign began in Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and Maine. The O'Brien campaign began in Florida. Both campaigns were affected by a hurricane set to hit North Carolina. Meyer inadvertently grounded flights in the wrong state in an effort to use the hurricane as a photo op. The hurricane would end up hitting in Florida where O'Brien and Montez were campaigning, giving them a famous image of O'Brien pulling a teddy bear out of wreckage.

Following a shooting in Pittsburgh in September 2016, Tom James drew criticism for referring to the gunman as a victim too. James walked back his statements and offered a heartfelt apology to those he offended. His sincerity shocked members of Meyer's campaign.

In October 2016, the Families First Bill would see a vote in the House of Representatives. However, due to the bills growing unpopularity, the Meyer administration secretly lobbied for the bill to fail. Their efforts would prove successful. However, Representative Moyes suspected wrongdoing in this and called an investigation into why exactly the bill failed. During a congressional hearing, the extent of the Medileaks scandal would inadvertently be revealed. The Meyer team would exit the hearings relatively unscathed, legally, by scapegoating senior Meyer staffer Bill Ericsson. Ericsson was arrested on November 10.

Debates[]

  • In September 2016, the first presidential debate between President Selina Meyer and Senator Bill O'Brien took place. According to Wendy Keegan, Meyer won the first debate (mentioned in Mommy Meyer).
  • In October 2016, the vice presidential debate between Senator Tom James and Senator Laura Montez took place. (mentioned in B/ill)

Results[]

Polls for the election indicated that the race was extremely close between Selina Meyer and Bill O'Brien. At approximately 2:30 AM ET on November 9, CNN called the state of Virginia for Selina Meyer, resulting in a 269-269 electoral tie.

Nevada recount[]

See also: 2016 United States presidential election in Nevada

On November 9, with all of the votes counted, O'Brien's lead over Meyer's was less than half a percent, which by Nevada state law allowed for a possible recount. If Meyer were to win a recount, she would win Nevada's six electoral votes--and therefore the presidency.

Meyer senior strategist Kent Davison claimed that there was statistical evidence of missing ballots somewhere in the state. Meyer staffer Richard Splett discovered from O'Brien hire James Whitman that Washoe County was the location of the missing ballots. On November 17, acting on a tip, US Justice Department deputies found an estimated 10,000 uncounted mail-in ballots hoarded by an anti-Meyer postal worker. 54-year-old Vance Otlow was bitter with Meyer after the Meyer Postal Commission had shut down a plurality of post offices nationwide in 2015. The Nevada Supreme Court ruled that the recount deadline would be extended until these new ballots would be counted.

On November 18, the new ballots were leaning heavily towards O'Brien. It would soon be discovered that these uncounted ballots were military absentees. On November 20, O'Brien was officially certified the winner, extending his lead. This extension led to O'Brien overtaking Meyer in terms of the national popular vote.

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Economic fallout[]

See also: Black Wednesday (2016) and 2016 United States banking crisis

The uncertainty following the election would result in economic turmoil. On November 9, the Dow Jones experienced it's worst day since the 2008 economic crisis. Wanting to neutralize Tom James, Meyer made James economy czar, forcing him to take the fall for any financial woes. After taking over his economic task force, Meyer met E.M. Wheelright CEO Charlie Baird, and would develop a romantic relationship with the banker.

On December 9, 2016, the Dow Jones dropped 3,220 points. Meyer's economic task-force, led by Tom James, came to the decision that they had to bail out three banks. Meyer bailed out Janders Capital because they were based in Illinois, a crucial state in the upcoming congressional presidential vote. Having to choose between Paulsten-Berheim and E.M. Wheelright (Baird's bank), Meyer hesitated to make a decision. Meyer was frightful of the appearance of bailing out a cohort's bank, even though bailing out Wheelright would be a better decision for the economy. On December 11, E.M. Wheelright entered chapter 11 bankruptcy. This ended Baird's and Meyer's relationship. On December 12, the Dow Jones began to recover.

2017 contingent election[]

House of Representatives presidential vote[]

The House of Representatives presidential vote was held on January 3, 2017, following the provisions of the Twelfth Amendment to elect the president between candidates Selina Meyer and Bill O'Brien. Notably, Missouri, Pennsylvania, and Vermont abstained from the vote, in an effort to prevent any candidate from achieving 26 votes.

Neither O'Brien nor Meyer received a majority of the vote. On January 5, House Speaker Jim Marwood declared that the House of Representatives would not convene again to decide the presidency.

See also[]

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