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.

The Return of Tim Salas in the 2060 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.

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.