I rationalize the TL-191 (191.2?) GOP as a relict, but as enough of a force in most Northron states to leave them basically 33-33-33: they're solid WASPs and probably isolationist; during the 1884-1920 party era their dominance would be restricted to New England and
the areas of Minnesota and Michigan settled by Yankees--Calvinist and Old Dutch; Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Maine (
later a Klan stronghold OTL) would become swing states with the militarist Dems
my revision's candidates are Maj. Gen. Garfield 1884 (lost, but not a knockout), John Sherman 1888 (as close as 1876 OTL), 1892 they end up in third place behind the Populists' Weaver, Benjamin Harrison 1896 (a tie with Bryan and the winner Reed), and after that a lot of AH no-names like
Fairbanks 1904,
Root 1912,[1]
Leonard Wood 1920,
Charles G. Dawes 1924, Hoover 1928,[2] Borah 1932, Dewey-Taft 1940 ... and then I stopped caring about the TL altogether
I also reformulated Turt's Dems as the "
National Union" Party--revanchist, pro-Hyphenated-American, one big machine party (where
commoners don't threaten to plunge the nation into Red Anarchy by daring to ask their elected superiors for anything); but despite flogging Remembrance since 1882 they're sorta haunted by their longtime reputation as the Slaveocracy's Northern poodles, imposing the laws of the unacknowledged traitors on the men who'd actually fought and bled for the nation after '62; if Bryan becomes a big figure TTL he'll shift the Dems to Populism, building a base that'll defect to the S.P.A. as the century turns--but also provide a base for Mr. Square Deal that gets Roosevelt in over Debs
[1] I think he was a figure in some Gore Vidal novel
[2] his presence makes SOME sense since he won the primaries OTL, while Cool Cal has nothing to offer TTL's Dems facing off against a S.P.A. with a cohesive agenda after both the Great War and the Crash: you lose!