# If a less than 2 term president is impeached and thrown out of office, can s/he be reelected? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 12, 2018, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-less-than-2-term-president-is-impeached-and-thrown-out-of-office-can-s-he-be-reelected/812256 "2018-04-12T00:57:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2018, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-less-than-2-term-president-is-impeached-and-thrown-out-of-office-can-s-he-be-reelected/812256/1 "2018-04-12T00:57:51Z")
Title says it all. Edit: I guess any political office really, not just pres. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2018, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-less-than-2-term-president-is-impeached-and-thrown-out-of-office-can-s-he-be-reelected/812256/2 "2018-04-12T01:01:31Z")
In the case of the president, if he serves more than two years of his second term, then he is ineligible to be reelected. But even if he hasn’t, if a president is impeached and convicted, the Senate has two options for punishment: Removal, or Removal and ineligibility to hold federal office If they choose the latter, then he can never be eligible to be elected again. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2018, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-less-than-2-term-president-is-impeached-and-thrown-out-of-office-can-s-he-be-reelected/812256/3 "2018-04-12T01:02:05Z")
It depends. After conviction, the Senate may, but is not required to, impose a ban on holding any federal office. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2018, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-less-than-2-term-president-is-impeached-and-thrown-out-of-office-can-s-he-be-reelected/812256/4 "2018-04-12T01:03:09Z")
> [@friedo](#): > > In the case of the president, if he serves more than two years of his second term, then he is ineligible to be reelected. If he was elected to both terms, he’s ineligible, period. Two elections is the absolute maximum, no matter how long he served. ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2018, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-less-than-2-term-president-is-impeached-and-thrown-out-of-office-can-s-he-be-reelected/812256/5 "2018-04-12T01:08:01Z")
Ignorance fought. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2018, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-less-than-2-term-president-is-impeached-and-thrown-out-of-office-can-s-he-be-reelected/812256/6 "2018-04-12T01:08:08Z")
> [@Lord\_Feldon](#): > > If he was elected to both terms, he’s ineligible, period. Two elections is the absolute maximum, no matter how long he served. Right, but a person could become president by succession in the third year of their predecessor’s term, then get reelected. That person would not be eligible to run again once two years of their second term elapse. However, if they were to resign or be removed (without a ban) before two years are up, there is no theoretical bar to running again in the future. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2018, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-less-than-2-term-president-is-impeached-and-thrown-out-of-office-can-s-he-be-reelected/812256/7 "2018-04-12T01:11:41Z")
Actually, I misremembered the text of the 22nd Amendment > [@](#): > > No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once. So a person could succeed to the presidency and still be elected twice, for a total of just under 10 years of service. The likelihood of this occurring is narrow, of course. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2018, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-less-than-2-term-president-is-impeached-and-thrown-out-of-office-can-s-he-be-reelected/812256/8 "2018-04-12T14:16:14Z")
Technically, an impeachment could also render an office-holder ineligible to any future office, without removing them from the one they currently hold. But I’m not sure why the Senate would do this. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2018, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-less-than-2-term-president-is-impeached-and-thrown-out-of-office-can-s-he-be-reelected/812256/9 "2018-04-12T14:53:36Z")
> [@friedo](#): > > So a person could succeed to the presidency and still be elected twice, for a total of just under 10 years of service. > > The likelihood of this occurring is narrow, of course. Lyndon Johnson came close to doing it. He succeeded Kennedy in 1963 and served the last fourteen months of Kennedy’s term. He was then re-elected in 1964. If things had gone differently, he could have been re-elected in 1968, which would have given him over a nine year term as President. He might have also has the shortest post-presidency. Johnson died on January 22, 1973, which would have been two days after his successor was inaugurated. ---
**Author:** ![turtlescanfly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/65b543/32.png) [@turtlescanfly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/turtlescanfly)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2018, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-less-than-2-term-president-is-impeached-and-thrown-out-of-office-can-s-he-be-reelected/812256/10 "2018-04-12T15:59:37Z")
I find it hard to imagine a scenario in which an elected official who had been impeached COULD win another election, regardless of whether there were legal barriers. Presumably, their opponent would simply have to run ads that say “Hey, at least I wasn’t impeached!” or “Hey, remember when you hated that guy so much you threw him out?” ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2018, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-less-than-2-term-president-is-impeached-and-thrown-out-of-office-can-s-he-be-reelected/812256/11 "2018-04-12T17:14:57Z")
> [@turtlescanfly](#): > > I find it hard to imagine a scenario in which an elected official who had been impeached COULD win another election, regardless of whether there were legal barriers. I would have found it hard to imagine that we could have elected a shady real estate con-artist / reality TV show personality / serial adulterer / pathological liar as president, too, so stranger things have happened. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2018, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-less-than-2-term-president-is-impeached-and-thrown-out-of-office-can-s-he-be-reelected/812256/12 "2018-04-12T17:17:09Z")
> [@](#): > > I find it hard to imagine a scenario in which an elected official who had been impeached COULD win another election, regardless of whether there were legal barriers. I don’t know about federal positions, but Roy Moore got impeached and kicked off of the Alabama Supreme Court twice, before his Senate run. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2018, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-less-than-2-term-president-is-impeached-and-thrown-out-of-office-can-s-he-be-reelected/812256/13 "2018-04-12T17:21:27Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I don’t know about federal positions, but Roy Moore got impeached and kicked off of the Alabama Supreme Court twice, before his Senate run. Good example. Moore was like Dracula, if Dracula were a big fan of the Ten Commandments and teenaged girls. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2018, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-less-than-2-term-president-is-impeached-and-thrown-out-of-office-can-s-he-be-reelected/812256/14 "2018-04-12T18:20:19Z")
> [@turtlescanfly](#): > > I find it hard to imagine a scenario in which an elected official who had been impeached COULD win another election, regardless of whether there were legal barriers. We live in a country where people elect convicted crackheads mayor of the nation’s capital. Anything is possible. ---
**Author:** ![NeonMadman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/58f4c7/32.png) [@NeonMadman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NeonMadman)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2018, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-less-than-2-term-president-is-impeached-and-thrown-out-of-office-can-s-he-be-reelected/812256/15 "2018-04-12T22:48:35Z")
> [@friedo](#): > > Actually, I misremembered the text of the 22nd Amendment > > So a person could succeed to the presidency and still be elected twice, for a total of just under 10 years of service. > > The likelihood of this occurring is narrow, of course. It could have come pretty close with Lyndon Johnson, as I recall. He succeeded JFK in November of 1963 with a year+ of Kennedy’s term still unfulfilled. Johnson was then elected to his own term by a large margin in 1964. By 1968, largely because of Vietnam, LBJ was so unpopular that he decided not to run for another term. But had he done so and won the election, his term would have ended in January of 1973. Not quite ten years, but pretty close. He wouldn’t have survived much beyond that last term, though - he died on January 22, 1973. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2018, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-less-than-2-term-president-is-impeached-and-thrown-out-of-office-can-s-he-be-reelected/812256/16 "2018-04-12T23:54:46Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Technically, an impeachment could also render an office-holder ineligible to any future office, without removing them from the one they currently hold. But I’m not sure why the Senate would do this. The Senate could use that option of the offending officeholder resigned prior to the vote on whether to remove them rom office. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2018, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-less-than-2-term-president-is-impeached-and-thrown-out-of-office-can-s-he-be-reelected/812256/17 "2018-04-13T04:57:13Z")
> [@NeonMadman](#): > > It could have come pretty close with Lyndon Johnson, as I recall. He succeeded JFK in November of 1963 with a year+ of Kennedy’s term still unfulfilled. Johnson was then elected to his own term by a large margin in 1964. By 1968, largely because of Vietnam, LBJ was so unpopular that he decided not to run for another term. But had he done so and won the election, his term would have ended in January of 1973. Not quite ten years, but pretty close. He wouldn’t have survived much beyond that last term, though - he died on January 22, 1973. Good point. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2018, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-less-than-2-term-president-is-impeached-and-thrown-out-of-office-can-s-he-be-reelected/812256/18 "2018-04-13T05:03:59Z")
> [@turtlescanfly](#): > > I find it hard to imagine a scenario in which an elected official who had been impeached COULD win another election, regardless of whether there were legal barriers. > > Presumably, their opponent would simply have to run ads that say “Hey, at least I wasn’t impeached!” or “Hey, remember when you hated that guy so much you threw him out?” Alcee Hastings wasn’t an _elected_ official, but he was impeached and removed from his position as a federal judge. He has since been elected to the US House of Representatives 13 times (and appears to be heading for #14 this year). ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2018, 10:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-less-than-2-term-president-is-impeached-and-thrown-out-of-office-can-s-he-be-reelected/812256/19 "2018-04-13T10:05:13Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I don’t know about federal positions, but Roy Moore got impeached and kicked off of the Alabama Supreme Court twice, before his Senate run. Moore was removed from office, but was it via an impeachment process? ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2018, 10:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-less-than-2-term-president-is-impeached-and-thrown-out-of-office-can-s-he-be-reelected/812256/20 "2018-04-13T10:08:40Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Good point. 🙂 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-less-than-2-term-president-is-impeached-and-thrown-out-of-office-can-s-he-be-reelected/812256.md?page=2)