I kicked the living crap out of Taft quite easily (59% and 50 states). He was getting ahead in a lot of states by creating ads, while I was working on making HQs. About halfway through the game, his ads disappear. It turns out he ran out of money. From there on in, it was incredibly easy. I even won his home state. I worked on turning red states blue, national ads, and sending my VP to states that aren't worth the effort of building HQs (New Hampshire/Maine/Vermont and most of the midwest). Then I built up a lot of political capital, and won 4 endorsements in the last week, which tipped the balance. Oh, and my character was Chloe Sullivan and a character I designed to work well with her (full experience, money, fundraising, religion, and military experience at the expense of everything else).