This is an adaptation of a timeline/story I originally wrote some time ago on alternatehistory . com and which I have modified revamped in the form of an in-universe article/history. It was inspired by a realization during the 2016 election that my favorite vampire Slayer was now 35, and thus legally old enough to run for President.
Please note that I am not an advocate of third party Presidential runs in real life, but it felt in-character for this story, and was an interesting scenario to explore. Sadly, real third party candidates aren't Buffy Summers.
Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, or any characters originating therein. This story is not for profit, and no money is being made off of it.
I also do not own American democracy. That belongs to the American people, although it is currently stolen property.
A Brief History of the Summers Presidency, Part I.
By Professor Andrew Wells, PHD.
"I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature."
President Abraham Lincoln, on the occassion of his First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1861.
The Candidate
Of all the people to hold the office of President, perhaps none is more peculiar, and certainly none is more unlikely, than my good friend Buffy Anne Summers. Born in Los Angeles in January 1981, Ms Summers was raised by her mother after her parents' divorce until her mother's death in 2001, after which she became the sole guardian of her younger sister Dawn Summers, forcing her to drop out of college. From 1996 until its destruction in 2003 by what is still officially regarded as the world's largest known sinkhole, Ms Summers lived in the town of Sunnydale, California, notorious both for its exceptionally high rate of murder and violent crime, and for its correspondingly low property values. She was twice expelled from high school, once on suspicion of arson and once on suspicion of murder, and was a subject of two separate homicide investigations as a minor, although she was subsequently cleared in both cases, and no formal charges were ever filed. She also made numerous connections with the shadier elements of society, particularly the occult community, as well as the controversial future Wolfram and Hart CEO Angel Galway. Despite this, she was widely praised for her willingness to lend her neighbors and classmates a helping hand, and those who were fortunate enough to know Ms Summers personally have never failed to remark upon her kind and passionate nature. Accounts of her high school class mates and students attribute her with preventing the suicide of classmate Jonathon Levinson in the spring of 1999, and with saving the lives of several of her fellow students during the riot which destroyed Sunnydale High and killed Sunnydale Mayor Richard Wilkins during her graduation ceremony later that year. During her high school and college years, she was sporadically employed in minimum wage fast food and retail jobs, before briefly achieving a position as councilor at the rebuilt Sunnydale High in the fall of 2002, where scurilous rumours claimed that she had engaged in a sexual relationship with a student. Ms Summers has always denied these claims, and no charges were ever filed, although one of her associates, who wished to remain anonymous, suggested that Ms Summers was in fact assaulted by a male student during this period. In any case, Ms Summers retained her position at Sunnydale High until the school's destruction with the rest of the town the following spring.
Following the destruction of Sunnydale, Ms Summers and her sister traveled the world, apparently living off of their home insurance and then Dawn's income, until Buffy returned to college in 2007 in San Francisco. She completed her Bachelors's degree in 2011 with a major in psychology, and spent the next several years working as a youth councilor to troubled teens, and teaching English as a second language, during which time she developed a close affinity for the immigrant and refugee communities. Despite having turned her financial life around, completed her degree, and entered into a steady relationship with her off-again on-again boyfriend William Pratt (better known by his colourful epithet of choice, Spike), Buffy Summers had no official political, legal, business, or military experience of note, and this combined with her youth and dubious past made her a highly unlikely contender for any government office, much less for the Presidency. Yet on January 9th, 2016, just days before her 34th birthday in a nearly-deserted public park in downtown San Francisco, Buffy Anne Summers announced her independent candidacy for the Presidency of the United States.
The Campaign
For the first month of her campaign, Ms Summers' candidacy gained little attention outside of her inner circle of friends and family, her neighbours, and those who had known her from Sunnydale or her work with youth in San Francisco. She struggled to collect enough signatures to get her on ballots, and raised less than 5,000 dollars in funding according to statements by campaign manager Willow Rosenberg, who had been close friends with Ms Summers since high school. Then, on February 7th, 2016, the first of several chance events occurred which would catapult Ms Summers to the highest halls of power. While campaigning in Pasadena, Summers saved a small child from a runaway car, and the event was captured on nearby security cameras and leaked on Youtube. It quickly went viral, gaining her slots on local news and late night talk shows, as well as the nickname "The Superhero Candidate". By the end of March, Summers had jumped to nearly 10% in California polls, and over 5% nation-wide, with Buffy Summers campaign offices being started up by supporters in several Western and Southwestern states, as well as Ohio. Despite some early missteps, Ms Summers proved to be a capable public speaker, and began to develop a platform emphasizing reforms in education, support for low-income families, prison and sentencing reform, mental health care, LGBT rights, gun control, immigration reform, and a balanced budget. She also benefited to an extent from the mainstream's initial dismissal of her candidacy, as she experienced little scrutiny of her colourful and checkered past in the early months of her campaign, although an episode of Last Week Tonight, focussing on third party candidates, drew attention to her mysterious background and association with known and alleged criminal elements. As the contentious Democratic primary dragged on, however, and Donald Trump became the presumptive nominee for the Republican Party, Ms Summers began to emerge as a tempting alternative to some. In April, she received her first major endorsement, from billionaire tech giant David Nabbit, who had reportedly been convinced to support her by their mutual acquaintance, the now-former Wolfram and Hart CEO Angel Galway. Mr Nabbig established a Super Pac that began funding nation-wide television adds in support of Summers, further raising her national profile. In May, she made her first major campaign trip outside of California (aside from a brief trip to Nevada the previous month), visiting relatives in Minnesota and holding rallies in Cleveland, Des Moines, and Madison Wisconsin. It was in Des Moines that she annoucned her selection of running mate- native son of Iowa and US Army General Riley Finn. General Finn had also known Buffy Summers since college, where he had been a TA for her psychology class and the two had begun a short-lived but passionate romance. Despite some raised eyebrows at the decision to pick her now-married ex as her VP candidate, Finn was widely-regarded as a strong choice for Summers, as he brought military experience to the ticket, and balanced it both regionally and demographically. National polling averages at the close of May had Ms Summers at 13%, and she had passed 25% in at least one credible California state-wide poll.
As the Democratic and Republican conventions were held that summer, Candidate Summers began a state-by-state tour of the entire United States, meeting with supporters across the country. The decision to visit every state was widely panned as a gimmick, but it nonetheless gained considerable media coverage. The campaign traveled by bus, the low-budget campaign relying on viral Youtube videos and social media posts to drum up excitement, an effort masterminded by the collaboration of Campaign Manager, LGBT activist and scholar of antiquity Willow Rosenberg, and by candidate Summers' sister Dawn Summers, the campaign's Communication's Director. Once again, Summers' tendency to rely on close friends and family to staff her campaign drew questions, but those who have the privilege of knowing Ms Summers personally can attest that her motive stems from a reliance on the few who have earned her trust, rather than a nepotistic desire to further her family's careers. The younger Summers sister certainly proved herself able for the position, with a knack for developing memetic content that raised her sister's profile while reinforcing her image as an honest outsider fighting for families and vulnerable communities. However, Ms Summers' support mostly came, unsurprisingly and perhaps inevitably given her liberal views, from the Left and from first-time youth voters, and it seemed increasingly certain that she would simply act as a spoiler, splitting Clinton's vote and resulting in the election of Donald Trump. Her unexpected strength lead to increased scrutiny as well, and on August 5th, a devastating expose was published in the Atlantic, detailing Ms Summers' former criminal investigations, expulsions, sketchy financial records, and involvement with known fugitives and missing persons as well as the occult. The source of much of the information, some of it obscure or confidential, remains unknown, though insiders to the Summers campaign assert that the campaign believed much of the information was leaked to the press by the law firm of Wolfram and Hart, which had donated heavily to support both of Ms Summers' major opponents. Whatever its sources, the story took a grievous tole on the long-shot campaign- in less than two days, as little response emerged from the beleagured Summers camp, her poll numbers fell by almost half, to only 9%. It appeared that the campaign was finished.
On August 8th, the campaign struck back. First, candidate Summers made a major prime time speech, both acknowledging her past and preemptively releasing several details which had not yet come to light. Rather than attempting to deny or apologize for her past, she turned it into a strength, describing how her experiences growing up in a broken home, struggling to support her sister as a single parent, and being a victim of Sunnydale's constant violence and crime, had taught her both self-reliance, and a greater empathy for those people struggling with similar problems, and how with the right support and encouragement, anyone could change their circumstances and world for the better. She also addressed the issue of sexual violence explicitly for the first time, acknowledging that she herself had been a victim of sexual harassment and assault- and turning it into a powerful condemnation of candidate Trump, who's own history of misconduct with women was increasingly coming to light. The speech was and is widely regarded as Ms Summers strongest. Meanwhile, her campaign released two videos- one detailing the ties between the reporter who had written the expose and the Clinton campaign, the other a moving testimonial by over 20 former Sunnydale residents, who described how Ms Sumemrs had personally helped them or, in several cases, saved their lives. General Finn also released a statement, decrying the personal attacks on Ms Summers as "shameful acts of cowardice", and infamously describing Ms Summers as "the truest soul that I have ever known." The counter-offensive worked- the plummeting poll numbers slowed, halted... then began to slowly climb once more. But would it be enough? To ensure that it was, the Summers campaign made a strategic pivot, sharpening their attacks on Trump while softening their blows against Clinton, employing his own rhetoric to expose him as a corrupt "establishment" candidate while playing up their status as independent outsiders, and appealing to Libertarian Republicans disgruntled at Trump with pledged to support the legalization of marijuana, reduce taxes, and protect gun rights. Leaked reports from inside the campaign suggest that the latter position was strongly resisted by Ms Rosenberg and Summers herself, but that she was persuaded to adopt it on the advice of General Finn. When the first debate came, Buffy Summers met the 15% polling threshold- by a hair. For the first time since Ross Perot, an independent candidate would share the Presidential debate stage.
The Shadow of Death
Unfortunately, the first debate went poorly for the Summers Campaign. Clinton picked numerous holes in the inexperienced Summers' arguments and policies, particularly on defense and foreign policy, and Ms Summers appeared visibly angry and hostile at times, provoked by Trump's bullying and insults. Post-debate polling saw her fall to 10% once more, and it appeared that her campaign was again on its way to certain defeat. But then came another of those twists of fate, by which Buffy Summers had consistently exhibited her uncanny ability to turn seeming disaster into triumph.
On the evening of October 6th, while speaking to a small crowd of supporters at an outdoor event in Reno Nevada, Summers was shot by an assassin armed with a sniper rifle, firing from a nearby rooftop. The bullet struck Ms Summers in the chest, and the lights went out inexplicably a moment later, plunging the panicked crowd into pitch darkness and hampering emergency response efforts. All over the country rumours flew- some claimed that the assassin was a Trump supporter, others a Clinton supporter, and some rumours even claimed that Ms Summers had been killed.
In the morning, however, more details began to emerge. Ms Summers had survived, though she remained in intensive care at a nearby hospital. The would-be assassin had been arrested attempting to catch a bus over the border to Mexico, and turned out to be a far Right conspiracy theorist and Trump supporter who had previously railed against feminists and women on social media. The next evening Summers delivered a short statement from her hospital bed, assuring supporters that she was recovering, and that she would remain in the race. The sympathy garnered by her shooting, her courage, and her seemingly-miraculous recover caused a nine-point surge in the polls over the week following the shooting, while Trump dropped five points, and Clinton two or three. The decision was also made, under intense public pressure, to postpone the next debate by three days so that Summers could participate. She did so seated in a wheelchair, but despite her visible exhaustion, it only reinforced her image as a courageous survivor, while a couple weak jabs by Trump backfired, eliciting boos from the audience. Following a strong performance in the third debate, a now-recovered candidate Summers reached a high of 26% in national polling averages, nipping at Clinton's heels while Trump retained a shrinking lead over both women. In the final weeks, the Summers campaign shifted away from their nation-wide strategy, focusing on a handful of key states in the Rust Belt and the Southwest and West Coast, including California and Nevada, where pre-election polling now showed Summers in a statistical tie for first place with Clinton and Trump respectively. A final rally in Los Angeles saw over thirty thousand supporters for the Summers campaign turn out, as the candidate urged an aggressive get out the vote effort.
Defeat, and Victory
Election night began brilliantly for Trump. Southern and mid-Western states fell quickly into his column, while the Democrats barely clung to most of New England and New York due to votes going to the Summers campaign. An atmosphere of despair seemed to settle over Democratic politicians and commentators, as it appeared a historic defeat was inevitable. But then, something began to shift. Summers picked up one Elector in Maine and ran neck and neck with Trump and Clinton in New Hampshire (she would ultimately loose the state by less than a thousand votes to Trump, with Clinton coming in third by some two thousand votes). Just before Midnight Eastern Time, Iowa became the first state to fall into Summers' column, vindicating her decision to selection General Finn as her running mate. By Midnight on the Pacific coast, Buffy Summers had claimed seven states: Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, and the populous Democratic stronghold of California, with one elector from Maine and one from Nebraska. New Hampshire, Ohio, Washington, Michigan, and Oregon remained too close to call- all but New Hampshire would ultimately go to Buffy Summers. The final results: no candidate received a majority of the Electoral College.
In the weeks that followed, confusion and chaos reigned. Numerous Electors considered breaking with their states' results, legal challenges flew, recounts were held, and major protests and riots occurred in several cities. Kremlin propaganda stoked the fires. Clinton supporters furiously claimed that Summers had cost them the victory, while Trump insisted that he had won the most votes of any candidate and should be elected President. It appeared likely that he would get his wish, as an undecided Electoral College would send the election to the Republican-held House of Representatives. Finally, barely a week before the Electoral College was due to vote, Buffy Summers met Hillary Clinton for the first time outside the debates. The intention of the meeting was understood by all- to negotiate for one or the other to drop out of the race, breaking the impass and freeing their Electors to unite behind one candidate in an unprecedented bid to keep the election from going to the House and prevent a Trump Presidency. Based on reports from sources close to the campaigns, both women entered the meeting intending to emerge the sole opponent to Trump. For a little under an hour, the two women who had come within a hairsbreadth of the Presidency spoke alone behind closed doors, while their respective Secret Service details stood guard outside, and the media, the nation, indeed the world watched with baited breath.
No one knows what was said in that room, but after it was over, Secretary Clinton announced that she was dropping out of the race, though she did not explicitly endorse Summers. When the Electors voted, no one was sure of the result-but in the end, Buffy Summers won the Electoral College by a total of two votes. The Trump campaign immediately filed suit, reversing his earlier position and challenging the Constitutionality of "faithless Electors". Another wave of riots broke out, while several prominent Republicans made comments insinuating their support for assassination, culminating in one of the Electors being injured in a drive-by shooting. However, this reminder of the earlier attempt on President-Elect Summers' life backfired, and the public mood seemed to quiet in the last week before Inauguration, while the Supreme Court dealt a 5/4 defeat to Trump's last-ditch court challenge. Finally, on January 20th, 2017, Buffy Anne Summers became the first female President of the United States and, at age 36, the youngest person ever to assume the office of the Presidency. She faced a divided country, a dubious mandate, and systemic economic and social problems. Would she be able to rise to these challenges as she had risen to every other she had faced over the course of her tumultuous life? Only time would tell.
Next- the first term of the Summers Presidency.