The Jaffeland presidential election of 2004 was between President Ron Johnson of the Republicans and Governor of Taroom John Richer of the Democrats. It was notable for the fact that, despite being a Republican, Ron Johnson was more liberal than Richer, who has since switched parties. This caused the election to go up for grabs, with some Republican strongholds going Democratic for the first time in many years and ordinarily left-leaning states voting strongly to re-elect Johnson. Despite being too liberal for many members of his own party, Ron Johnson won a very close election.