So the title kind of sucks and this post is inspired by this thread.
Anyway, if that provision was to have never existed, who else would have had a legitimate shot at being a president?
It’s conceivable that Henry Kissinger would have entered politics, after serving as Secretary of State in the Nixon and Ford administrations, if he had been eligible for the presidency. (By “entered politics” I mean either run for the presidency directly, or sought a Senate seat a la Hillary Clinton to gain the political experience for a future run.)
Since I’m sure there are others like myself who are disinclined to click on a link just to discover what the OP’s question means, I’ll lay it out.
Which people might have become viable U.S. presidential candidates if the “natural born” provision did not exist?
Alexander Hamilton.
Hamilton was eligible to be President. He was a citizen of the United States in 1787.
There probably aren’t a lot of candidates, since few non-US born went into politics at a level where a presidential run was likely.
But one possibility would be Carl Schurz. He was elected to the Senate and a Civil War hero. He was very influential as an orator and in Republican politics, and quite possibly would have run for president in 1872 and gotten the Democratic nomination (it’s complicated). But I doubt he could have beaten Grant that year and it would have prevented a possible run in 1876. He would have been a strong candidate with the German vote – one of the larger voting blocs at the time – on his side.
Arnold Schwarzenegger.
I vote for Hurley.
Madeline Albright
Jennifer Granholm
George Soros might well have launched a self-financed campaign by now, if he hand’t been born in Hungary.
Swiss-born Albert Gallatin was Secretary of the Treasury under Thomas Jefferson and served in the U.S. Senate… I’m not sure if he, like Alexander Hamilton, would have been a naturalized citizen at the time the U.S. became an independent nation.
Kodos.
Hey! I voted for Kodos!
Hey, you stole my joke, except I was going to vote for Daniel Faraday or Miles Straume.