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RE-ELECTED RUNNING-MATES

© John S. Cooper

Many Presidents have been re-elected. A lesser number of Vice Presidents have been re-elected. Two Vice Presidents were re-elected even though their Presidents were not. Vice President George Clinton (no relation to our recent President) was elected Vice President in 1804, and served during Thomas Jefferson’s second term. He was then elected in 1808 as James Madison’s Vice President. John Calhoun was John Quincy Adams’ Vice President from 1825-1829. In 1828, he ran on the ticket opposing John Quincy Adams’ re-election and, after winning the election, served as Andrew Jackson’s Vice President from 1829-1832.

But throughout our history, few President and Vice President teams have been re-elected. In fact, it has only happened eight times in fifty-four elections. The first was in 1792, when the ticket of George Washington and John Adams was elected for a second term. John Adams went on to be elected President in 1796.

In 1820, President James Monroe and Vice President Daniel Tompkins were elected for a second term. This was no surprise, as the Federalist Party had died out as a national party, and Monroe and Tompkins had no opposition and carried every state. In this election, one New Hampshire elector pledged to Monroe and Tompkins voted for Secretary of State John Quincy Adams instead, not wanting anyone other than George Washington to win unanimous election. So, although Monroe had no opposition, he did not win unanimous election.

In 1912, Woodrow Wilson was elected President and Thomas Marshall was elected Vice President, even though they won only 45% of the popular vote. The majority Republican Party was split between the regular Republican candidate, President William Howard Taft, and the Progressive or “Bull Moose” candidate Theodore Roosevelt. This allowed Wilson and Marshall to win with a plurality of the popular vote in most states, but winning all the electoral votes in those states. In 1916, when Wilson and Marshall ran for re-election, the Republican Party was re-united behind one candidate, and they were not given much chance of winning a second term. In a close race, they managed to win a second term together by emphasizing the fact that the United States had managed to avoid entering World War I. It was during this second term that we entered World War I.

In 1936, President Franklin Roosevelt and Vice President John Nance Garner won a landslide re-election, carrying every state but Maine and Vermont. Four years later, Garner expected Roosevelt’s support for the Presidential nomination, but Roosevelt ran for an unprecedented third term instead and, after a falling out, Garner was dropped from the ticket and retired. Roosevelt ran for a third and fourth term with different Vice Presidential running mates.

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