"You could still win," Andromeda whispered into my ear as we milled around thanking supporters and waiting for the results to roll in.
"I'm down six points," I whispered back. "I wouldn't just need a miss, I'd need a big miss." The awkward part of running for election is you had to pretend you weren't losing even when you very clearly were. My opponent had said I was 'running over the graves of our congresspeople and his wife's own co-workers' which was true in a technical sense, but I cannot emphasize how much it was not my fault that I had been mind controlled. Short of blowing my brains out, I can't think of a superior solution to Loki's attack other than, 'Don't have a public wedding' and 'time major events to avoid blockbuster season.' I'd had gun wielding drones and a massive security team and it hadn't cut it. Sometimes, you just lose.
"They'd have to be crazy not to listen to you," Andromeda insisted. I admired her belief in me, but it wasn't that well founded. My contributions had been essential to the defeat of Loki, but it had also been crucial to the Burning of the Capital. People might be able to separate out in their heads that I wasn't responsible, but I still teleported bombs into the White House. No matter how outdated much of it had been, people did not like that at all. And some people didn't believe I'd really broken my 'alien programming', putting aside that we had also neutralized the Monstrosity in the same way.
"It's not all about pure reason," I said.
"It should be," she said grumpily. I wrapped my arm around her waist and kissed her cheek. Of course she thought that, she was my wife. I shouldn't let her feelings about the results distort my own. The problem with thinking things like that is that they're usually signs of a battle I've already lost. I did feel like the fact that I was right meant that I should be Senator.
We made the rounds and stood around watching the election results roll in. At first, I felt a flare of hope - I did look to be doing better than I had expected in early ballots. But as the night drew on and the Election Day results rolled in, I knew I wasn't doing nearly enough better about three hours before the news networks called it. So I spent three hours, sitting with supporters who were full of hope and energy, cheering me on, saying how we could really do this. I did my best not to snap at them and to maintain a cheery demeanor. But it was immensely frustrating and by the end of the night, I was so ready for it to be over that I abbreviated my concession speech and set off to bed without much glad handing.
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As Andromeda curled against me in the dark, I couldn't help but appreciate the difference between Hydra and the public. For Hydra, what mattered was if you were right and if you delivered.
Los Angeles Times, Page 8, "The Trent Campaign Lost"
Energy and technology titan Michael Trent from California lost to incumbent Democratic Senator Anna Heartwood by a narrow margin of three percent. Once the clear favorite due to his massive war chest, personal charisma, and unbeatable name recognition as the first human to exit the solar system, the race tightened after Trent's enthrallment by the alien invader Loki.
Trent ran a campaign on futurist and security themes. In a year defined by the alien assault on the United States, the themes were immensely successful. The candidate was not. Once regarded as an extraordinary outlier on interstellar security, Trent's positions have become mainstream. In the aftermath of the Burning of the Capital, Senator Heartwood began to use her powerful position in the Senate Foreign Affairs committee to help empower the international project S.W.O.R.D. undercutting Trent's unique appeal on the issue.
Trent's contribution to political debate has become even starker as one of his chief opponents, Republican President Ellis, has been engulfed in scandal. Trent's hawkish approach to human experimentation might have taken a beating if the AIM conspiracy had escaped notice for longer - But thanks to the intervention of SWORD's North American Defense Team, it instead vindicated his own concern of non-state actors pursuing enhancement and the importance of state superiority.
Trent was also the only politician in this election cycle to receive an endorsement from any members of the superhero team known as the Avengers. Tina Minoru, also known as Ms. Wizard, had known Trent from his involvement with Los Angeles community organization PRIDE and attested to his character and reliability, as well as the deep importance to her of his actions protecting her family during the attack on his wedding. His wife, Andromeda Trent nee Albertson, also known as the Hornet was empowered by an experimental shrink suit that was subject of controversy at Mr. Trent's backtracking on previous promises to avoid human experimentation. Mrs. Trent was also an early subject of the new Super Soldier Serum, thanks to her status as a former federal agent and her connections with Synnergy.
Such a streak of political coups would have rendered most candidates unbeatable - But concerns about Trent's mental health and security viability following his enthrallment, as well as offense at the propriety of running in the aftermath of his own actions, plagued Trent through his run. Without a strong contrast in political positions between himself and his opponent, the choice was simply a matter of personal trust. On that front, the incumbent senator and long-time public servant with deep roots in California beat out the genius scientist superstar. Trent was conciliatory in his concession speech, remarking on the shared interests of himself and Senator Heartwood and pledging all his dedication to, "our common cause, the security of earth and the prosperity of her people." Senator Heartwood has said she, "intends to make the fullest use of every willing California citizen to face the challenges ahead of us."