Cheney, Gore, Bush (elder), Quayle, etc. Did any of them actually try for President before being selected as VP nominees? How far back do you have to go?
How far back do you have to go for what?
George H.W. Bush ran for president in the year that he was picked as VP nominee. Al Gore ran for president in 1988, but not in the year that he was picked for VP (1992). Cheney and Quayle never ran for president.
So, it’s not exactly common for the eventual nominee to pick one of their fellow contenders?
And is a good example of why this isn’t more common. The phrase ‘voodoo economics’ as a disparaging description of Reagan’s ‘supply-side economics’ theory was actually popularized by Bush when he was running against Reagan for the Republican nomination. This led to some furious backpedaling after he became Reagan’s running mate and had to start campaigning in favor of this key concept in Reagan’s platform … Take a look at some of the sniping back and forth between the various Democratic candidates this year. If, say, Clinton wins the nomination, she’d think twice before picking Obama or Edwards as a running mate, and they’d think three times before accepting, I imagine.
Quayle did run for President. He tried unsuccessfully for the GOP nomination in 2000.
In the “modern era” (since 1972), in which presidents win the nomination in primaries and caucuses and then hand pick their running mates, there have been twelve situations in which a major party candidate had to pick a running mate (9 elections * 2 parties minus 6 cases in which the ticket was renominated intact). In only two instances (Reagan/Bush, R 1980 and Kerry/Edwards, D 2004) did the candidate pick a defeated rival from that year’s primary campaign. So no, it is not exactly common.
Before the 1970’s, convention delegates enjoyed significant decision-making authority, both for the presidential and vice-presidential nominations, and matters are harder to quantify. Kennedy chose defeated rival Lyndon Johnson (who hadn’t run in primaries) in 1960. The Democratic National Convention chose Estes Kefauver, who had run unsuccessfully for the presidential nomination, in 1956. Earl Warren ran as a favorite son and then won the Republican vice-presidential nomination in 1948. “Running” in that era often meant little more than locking down your home state delegation and maybe one or two others as bargaining chips–likewise with Garner in 1932, Coolidge in 1920, and many earlier examples in American history.
I am going back to 1948.
2004, 1980, 1960, 1956, 1948 are the years that I believe a Presidential nominee named a nomination opponent as the VP candidate.
In 1996, 1992, 1988 and 1964, the VP nominee was someone who had run for President in a prior election. (Kemp 1988, Gore 1988, Bentsen 1976 and Humphrey 1960)
In 2000, 1984, 1976, 1972, 1968 and 1952, I can’t see any evidence that a VP candidate had made a prior run for the Presidency outside of getting some ‘favorite son’ votes at the convention. Gore, Dole, Liberman, Muskie, Shriver and Edwards all ran for President after their VP runs.