Politician/Jake Parker

Jake Parker is an American politician who's currently serving as the senior Senator of Arizona and is the current Senate Majority Leader, beginning his term in 2053. A member of the Democratic Party, he served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2021 to 2053 (from 2021 to 2048 as the representative from New Jersey's 6th congressional district and from 2049 to 2053 as the representative from Arizona's 3rd congressional district), and is currently the senior Senator of Arizona, being elected in 2053. He served as the House Majority Leader from 2029 to 2031 and 2035 to 2037, the House Minority Leader from 2037 to 2039 and 2049 to 2051, and the Speaker of the House from 2039 to 2048 and 2051 to 2053. He was also the Chair of the Progressive Democrats from 2027 to 2029 and 2033 to 2035 during his tenure in the House.

Born in Middlesex County, New Jersey, he started his career at the age of 18 and ran for Congress and quickly became a new member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New Jersey's 6th district in 2019. He would be the Chair of the Progressive Democrats multiple times and become House Minority Leader and House Majority Leader during his tenure.

Parker would remain in that seat for 14 terms before moving to Maricopa County, Arizona and running for election in Arizona's 3rd congressional district. He would only hold that position for 2 terms before setting his eyes on retiring Senator Salvador Rovirosa's seat in 2052.

After winning his Senate race, Parker would immediately be voted to be come the new and current Senate Majority Leader. He was the only Senate race in 2052 to flip from Republican to Democrat and would be the crucial win that was needed for the Democratic Party to keep control of the Senate at 50-50 with a new Democratic president being newly elected.

Up until the election of 2060, which saw the incumbent Democratic president Olive Tayler being term-limited due to the Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution, the Democratic party was the majority party in both houses of Congress with a Democratic president in power. Since being elected to his Senate seat in 2052, Parker had been the Senate Majority Leader, being responsible for helping pass bills that would help reduce the national deficit which had been starting to grow the last few years. In the other Senate race for Arizona, the incumbent Byron Lomax decided against running for re-election which provided an opportunity for Parker's new protégé, Bernie de la Cruz, to run for the seat. This would end up not coming to fruition, as Tim Salas, the same man Parker defeated 2 years prior, would end up winning and flipping that seat to Republican.

After the results of the 2060 election, which prior to that had a Democratic-controlled Senate of 52-48, a Democratic-controlled House of Representatives of 226-206, and Democratic President Olive Tayler, Parker would become the Senate Minority Leader, due to the Democrats losing 3 seats, those being Arizona, Pennsylvania, and Florida, with the new layout being 49-51 Senate in Republican control. The House of Representatives would also lose a Democratic majority and be 202-233 in Republican control. In the presidential race, Wilford Hawley, the 3-term U.S. Senator of Alaska, would go on to defeat the current Governor of Nevada, Merv Fernandez 315-223. This would result in both the upper body and lower body of Congress as well as the presidency flipping to Republican Control, leading to a Republican trifecta.

Early life and education
Born and raised in Middlesex, New Jersey, Jake Parker would complete his education in his hometown and graduate from Rutgers University-Newark with an undergraduate degree in Political Science before going onto getting a Masters Degree in Political Science. He became interested in politics at a young age and wanted to run for a seat House of Representatives. At the age of 18 he would run for the NJ-6 seat in the 2020 elections, and would go onto win the general election. While still being in school earning his degrees, he used that to his advantage in his marketing messages to voters saying that his views were what the public agreed with and that he saw a future for the new generation.

Personal life and family
Parker married Mallory Tammy Brown on July 24th, 2055. They have a daughter, Sofia who was born in 2056. Parker met Mallory shortly after moving to Arizona while he was at a charity event for his election campaign to Arizona's 3rd congressional district where she was working as one of the organizers. They dated for 7 years before getting married and having a child.

Mallory was a teacher of 30 years prior to meeting Parker and was getting ready to retire and enjoy life at home until Parker gave her the idea to run for public office like he had been doing for almost the same amount of time. Her first venture into politics was running for the open governor's seat of Arizona in 2062 which was being held by term-limited Democrat Lincoln Sandoval. Even with the help from her husband, she would end up losing to Republican Julius Dickerson, who was the current 4-term U.S. Representative of Arizona's 8th district. She would wait 2 years before running for public office at the age of 61 for the position of State Senator for Arizona's 4th legislative district. She would be victorious in the race and defeat Republican dietician G.Y. Duran by a margin of 4%.

U.S. House of Representatives from New Jersey's 6th district
After being elected to the House of Representatives in 2020, Parker would continue to hold the seat of NJ-6 up until 2048, for a total of 28 years. During this time, he would take the role of House Minority Leader, House Majority Leader, and Speaker of the House of Representatives. He would be responsible for helping pass a plethora of bills, such as federal drug courts, the legalization of cannabis, the replacement of income tax with a flat tax, comprehensive sex education, and universal health care. After heavy consideration, Parker decided to to run for re-election in the 2048 election. Instead, he moved to the state or Arizona, where he had spent time there as a child over the summers with his extended family.

Moving to Arizona
Parker had been to Arizona many times over the years and typically spent the summer there with his aunt and uncle. Here Parker would first get interested in politics, due to his uncle being a local representative in Maricopa County. After Parker grew up and graduated from college, he would run for the House of Representative seat in New Jersey's 6th district before moving to Arizona in 2048 after his term expired.

U.S. House of Representatives from Arizona's 3rd district
Parker would run for Arizona's 3rd congressional district in the House of Representatives in 2048 and become the new representative of that district for 4 years. During that time, he would again become the House Minority Leader and Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. His short tenure would be due to the incumbent Senator, Salvador Rovirosa (R), deciding not to run for re-election. Parker would go on to defeat Vincente Haro (R) and Ivan Romero (I) in the general election of 2052 and become the new Democratic Senator of Arizona.

2066 United States Senate election in Arizona
Incumbent Senator of Arizona, Tim Salas was up for re-election and Parker encouraged de la Cruz to run for the seat for a second time. While he was reluctant to accept at first, after a few weeks of talking to each other, Parker and de la Cruz came to an agreement that de la Cruz would run for the seat again under one condition. If de la Cruz won his race, Parker would run for President of the United States, and Parker accepted. As Parker was currently 64 and would be 69 by the next time he was up for re-election, Parker indicated that it would be sooner rather than later.

In the primary elections, both de la Cruz and Salas ran unopposed and would therefore be facing each other in the general elections.

In the general election, de la Cruz would go on to defeat Salas by a margin of 1.9%, performing better than his mentor against Salas just 8 years prior. This would be the first protégé of Parker's that would initially lose an election for a senate seat and then win it the next time it was up for re-election. As promised by Parker and de la Cruz, Parker announced his candidacy for President of the United States in 2068 when incumbent President Wilford Hawley will be unable to run for re-election as he is term-limited.

2060 - The Return of Tim Salas in the Arizona Senate Election
After losing in the 2058 General Election for United States Senator of Arizona against Parker, Tim Salas was determined to try again the next time a Senate seat in Arizona opened up, and he only had to wait 2 years. Incumbent Democratic Senator Byron Lomax had decided not to run for re-election, seeing as Parker's new protégé, veterinarian of 20 years, Bernie de la Cruz, was going to run for the seat. Due to the popularity of Parker and how much power and notoriety he had gained over his career, de la Cruz ran unopposed in the 2060 Senate Democratic Primary. Salas would run against Logan Durrant and Alec Barns and would garner 43% of the vote and become the Republican nominee for the Senate seat in Arizona.

Weeks preceding the 2060 elections showed polls describing what was known as a potential Red Wave election, which is when one party wins a substantial amount of seats in an election. Wave elections typically occur during midterm elections (elections not coinciding with a presidential election), but seeing as 2060 was not a midterm election year, it was not a typical Red Wave election. Instead, this occurred at the end of the incumbent Democratic President Olive Tayler's second term and was term-limited from running for a third term, by reason of the 22nd Amendment.

In polls of other states, there were 5 Democratic states that had the potential of flipping from Democratic to Republican, that being New Mexico, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Florida, and Arizona. Polls leading up to the election showed the possibility of Arizona and Pennsylvania being the most likely to flip, with the other states being more competitive for both parties.

Prior to the election the makeup of the Senate would be 52-48 with Democrats in control. Polls for the presidential race showed with high certainty that the next president would be the 3-term senator from Alaska, Wilford Hawley. Meaning that in order to maintain the majority in the Senate, the Democrats could only afford to lose one net seat. Come election night, New Mexico and Michigan both stayed in Democratic control, but Pennsylvania, Florida, and Arizona all flipped to Republican, giving the Republicans control of the Senate for the first time in 21 years, sitting at 51-49. Salas would go on to defeat de la Cruz in the general election by 3% and would become the next United States Senator of Arizona, alongside the man he lost to just two years prior, Jake Parker, who would now become the Senate Minority Leader for the first time after being Senate Majority Leader for as long as he had been in the Senate.

2070
Three-term Democrat Jake Parker was re-elected in 2064 with 52.7% of the vote.

2064
This election would be the first Senate election that Parker would be facing a Primary challenger for the Democratic nominee for the Senator of Arizona. He would end up facing Gladys V. Johnson, the former Governor of Arizona from 2047-2055 as well as candidate on 2052 for the Democratic Presidential Primary. Since his unsuccessful bid for President, Johnson had not gone back to holding any office and this would be his first time back in the national spotlight, potentially for the last time.

At the end of the primary election for the nominees for Senator of Arizona, Parker would go on to defeat Johnson by a very impressive 27%, and would be facing Republican business analyst & investment banker, Luca Grande and Independent lobbyist, Carl Herber. Neither Grande nor Herber faced opposition in their primary races.

In the general election, Parker would go onto defeat Grande by 6.4% and remain the Senator of Arizona. Compared to Parker's last election in 2058, Parker was able to flip Navajo County and Yuma County blue and slightly weaken Republican's hold on Gila County.

While Parker was able to retain his seat in the Senate, the Democrats were still in the minority, as Republicans were able to flip the open seat of Georgia which was being occupied by a retiring Democrat, 1-term K.G. Bur who was 69 years old. This would cause the Democrats to remain in the minority at 48-52.

2058
In what would be Parker's first time defending a Senate seat as an incumbent, it would be a test to see whether or not his work in the Senate was a success or not thus far. He would have no opponents in the Democratic Primary and would therefore be heading to the general election to face Ned Macias, an independent, and one of three Republican opponents: Tim Salas, Ned Cowell, or Victor Arcos. Salas would end up garnering 45% of the votes in the Republican Primary and would face Parker in the general election.

While the race was very close, Parker would go on to defeat Salas by 1.52%. This election year would also see Georgia flipping from Republican control back into Democratic control and would make the Senate 52-48 with a Democratic majority.

This would not be the last time Salas would run for a Senate seat in Arizona.

2052
With the United States Senate at 51-49 in Democratic control prior to this election, and with polls from swing states such as Georgia and North Carolina (both with Democratic senators) being disadvantageous for the Democratic Party, there was a high likelihood that the Democrats would lose control of the Senate. Parker saw this as the perfect opportunity to move from the House of Representatives to the Senate, while also helping keep the Senate competitive.

While the Democratic Party had been the party in control of the Senate most of the time, the last few cycles prior to this election was showing dwindling support. From the year 2044 until 2052, the Democratic Party either lost seats in the Senate or managed to only retain the ones they had, without flipping any Republican seats to Democratic control. Parker felt this was the perfect time to run for the open Senate seat, facing off against Barrett Sierra, O.X. Vega, and Jan Jenkins in the Democratic Primary, garnering 42.3% of the vote and becoming the Democratic nominee. On the Republican side, Vincente Haro would defeat Emmett Aldridge and Norman I. Lyakhova to become the Republican nominee. Ivan Romero was the only Independent to run and therefore was the Independent nominee.

In the general election for the open Senate seat, Parker would go on to defeat Haro by a margin of 3.5%, and was the only seat to flip from Republican to Democrat in the 2052 Senate elections. Georgia and North Carolina, which had both had Democratic incumbent senators prior to this election, flipped to Republican control, as a result of this election. Parker's win would be the crucial win the Democrats needed in order to have a split 50-50 Senate, with a newly elected Democratic president, Olive Tayler, confirming the Democrats would stay in the majority.