The 2016 Presidential Campaign

What inspired you to have Julie become President?
Not the 2016 campaign in Real Life, before you ask. I needed an ultimate end-state for Julie's character arc, and given her background the only thing that made sense was to have her become President. This was a decision I made back in 2012; the direction the Real Life campaign has taken as of this writing has been fortuitous happenstance.
Was Julie's snark to a young David Sutherland in "The Strange Secret of Matthew Fuseli" comparing their chances of going out on a date to running for President against each other someday intentional on your part, then?
Damn straight it was. The brick for that joke took 34 years in-universe to land. I think big when I plot.
Why is Julie running as a Republican?
Julie's starting political beliefs were libertarian in nature, and could be best summed up by the phrase "Self-Defense and Being Left Alone By Your Government are fundamental human rights." Both of these positions are anethema to the Democratic Party -- and in her defense, almost as intolerable to the Republican Party anymore. Also, as she continued her run she began to espouse more populist positions on things such as trade and immigration. Depending on your political persuasion, this is either called "Jacksonian Politics" or "Racism".
Secondly, I specifically want her running against David 'Invictus' Sutherland, who canonically since his introduction in 4th edition Champions has always been a Democrat.
Thirdly, third parties in America have never done well running for President, either historically or in my lifetime. In my lifetime alone they have operated as spoilers throwing the election to one of the major parties (John Anderson in 1980, Ross Perot in 1992, and Ralph Nader in 2000 all spring to mind)
Finally, in the epilogue to "World War VIPER," Bob comments to Ted about how the Republican and Democratic parties had ceased to exist after VIPER was liquidated due to how deeply it had penetrated the establishment of both parties. He then goes on to add that if Julie stands for re-election she will have to do so as an independent. If it helps, think of her as a Republican in Name Only (RINO)
What are the changes between our 2016 Presidential Election cycle and the TASK FORCE version?
On the Republican side, Julie replaces Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, and Carly Fiorina. Everything from 'Mechanon, Inc.' to the primaries otherwise runs as it did in Real Life. I used actual polling data for every state except Iowa, simply adding Cruz and Fiorina's polling and vote percentage numbers to Trump's. Most of the news snippets until July 2016 in "Citizen Hawkins" are cribbed from actual articles from Real Life political magazines and websites, edited solely to make them fit with the TASK FORCE universe.
On the Democratic side, retired super'hero' David Sutherland, current Governor of Maryland in the TASK FORCE universe, takes the place Martin O'Malley does in Real Life -- only with much better traction and success in getting his message out just before the Iowa Caucus. I remove Hillary Clinton due to medical problems in February 2016 exacerbated by relentless attacks on her various scandals by both Julie and Governor Sutherland.
You missed some events which happened in Real Life. Why?
Of all my stories, "Citizen Hawkins" was the first one which caught up to -- and PASSED -- Real Life in the course of its writing. As a result of uploading it on July 7th of 2016, I missed events such as the Dallas Police Sniper incident, the Bastille Day attack in Nice, France, Wright State University deciding not to host the September 26th debate, and a lot of interesting news articles I could have used right around the time of the Republican National Convention.
Also, by the time of the Democratic National Convention the TASK FORCE 2016 election had pretty much jumped the rails compared to the Real Life 2016 election. At some point, I was going to have to say "screw it" and continue the story on its own without any connection to what we're living through as I write this.
Why did you remove Hillary Clinton mid-campaign?
Because I could.
My original plot outline for the 2016 Presidential Race had Hillary vs. Julie, with Hillary stroking out during their first debate. My daughter Raychel talked me out of that, which actually freed me up to use David Sutherland -- a FAR more interesting character as an adversary and tailor-made for political intrigue within the original Champions Universe.
Why is Bernie Sanders running as an independent?
My original plan was to have a two-way race between Julie and HillaryGovernor Sutherland. When Senator Sanders began performing FAR above expectations in the Real Life Democratic Primaries, I took a look at the post-Hillary Democratic race and came to the conclusion that neither remaining candidate would have a majority of delegates for a first-ballot win. From there, it was a simple matter of having back-room machinations after the first ballot provoking Bernie and his delegates to walk out of the Democratic National Convention.
As for the impact of entering the Presidential Race so late as an independent, I realize that he will be unable to get on the ballot of all 50 states by how late he jumps. All he has to do is win enough states to force the election into the House of Representatives under procedures spelled out by the 12th Amendment, which is doable even in late July.
So if Julie replaces Donald Trump in the TASK FORCE campaign, does this mean she espouses the same racist viewpoints?
No -- when basically asked this question during the Charleston Debate in 'Citizen Hawkins', she throws it right back into the moderator's face by forcefully citing things that she has done throughout her life that have aided race relations. Also, when it comes to either the ability to articulate a coherent and logical argument or the ability to phrase a controversial idea tactfully (such as securing our borders against terrorist attacks), Julie is far better than Mr. Trump. Latent powers of temporal visualization translate into a HELLACIOUS bonus on interaction skills in the Hero System...
What the [BLEEP] happened in 2008 that required the 12th Amendment to be invoked?
I was inspired in part by the 5th edition adventure supplement "Foxbat for President" to add that supervillain as a third party candidate in that particular election. Those events will be taking place in the background throughout the story "Nine-Tenths of the Law" when I finally get around to writing it.
I should note that even with Foxbat carrying California and denying a clean Electoral College victory to Barack Obama, enough state delegations would vote for Obama in the subsequent House of Representatives vote that he is still sworn in on schedule as President. Even 8 years later, this incident is memorable enough in the minds of both the Supreme Serpent and American Media to get mentioned multiple times during "Citizen Hawkins".