Walter Mondale got the nomination in 1984 and lost big time. I’m wondering if the Republicans are even going to consider Mike Pence after the loss of this election.
I am aware the VP used to be the losing candidate, but if we only go by the time we have utilized the “running mate” version of the VP-slot, has any losing VP gone on to win?
FDR was the VP candidate for the Dems in 1920.
Looks like Ulf_the_Unwashed got it
Based on the article to which @mikecurtis has linked, it looks like the answer is FDR (as @Ulf_the_Unwashed notes), and that’s technically it.
John Tyler (lost as VP candidate in 1836) became president, but because he had been elected vice-president in 1840, under William Henry Harrison, who died a month after his inauguration.
I’m a little surprised he’s the only one. Then again, I couldn’t think of another. (Then again, I’m not real familiar with all the losing VP candidates of the nineteenth century…)
I think it’s important to realize that for most of the history of the Republic the Vice Presidency was NOT something that ambitious politicians sought out – Vice President John Nance Garner famously described the vice presidency as being “not worth a bucket of warm piss.” Particularly early in the Republic, Secretary of State was seen as a grooming post for potential future Presidents. The Vice Presidency, on the other hand, was seen as a dead-end position and Vice Presidential nominations generally went to inoffensive party men who checked whatever geographic box the ticket needed to fill.
But he was not the actual vice president, right?
Mondale and Quayle didn’t win and I am certainly hoping Pence doesn’t run or doesn’t win.
Oh, you were talking about people who were already vice president. I thought you just meant losing vp candidates. Judging from the link @mikecurtis provided, there aren’t any.
Thanks. I kind of think the Republican party will push Pence out now. Total disaster.
So you’re asking about individuals who lost reelection as Vice President and then went on to win the Presidency? That’s a pretty small pool to begin with – particularly prior to the mid-20th century, it was common for Presidents to change VPs for their reelection campaign. FDR ran with three different VPs in four elections.
Maybe I’m too tired and giddy to think straight, but could you explain what you mean by this? Who are you referring to as “VP” - Biden or Pence? What did they “used to be” the losing candidate for?
Not that it matters - your overall question is clear and has been answered - but I’m just curious.
The Vice Presidency was originally given to the 2nd place finisher in the Presidential election.
Munch is right about what I was thinking about.
Ah, thank you! I did not know that.
My American history knowledge is weaker than it should be - there was a required year-long course in my high school, but in what I now think was monumentally bad judgment on the school’s part, I was taken aside and asked if I, as one of my class’s more thoughtful students, would rather do an independent research project instead.
Of course I jumped at the chance - and I ended up producing a rather fine, in-depth paper on colonial American music. But I wish I’d taken the history class.
I predict we’ll be hearing this in Denny’s from now on:
“How do you want your Pence? White, Wheat or Rye?”
One other data point, although a bit of a tangent - I believe Richard Nixon is the only person to have served as VP, lost a run for POTUS, and then later run again and won. Or am I forgetting somebody…?
It only comes in white.
edit: Nevermind….
It was really only in place for the first four elections. The framers of the Constitution didn’t really anticipate party politics, and realize that the system would eventually result in the President and Vice President being political rivals. In the first two elections, Washington and John Adams were of the same party, but in the election of 1796 Adams won the presidency and Thomas Jefferson, his rival, the vice presidency. Understandably, the relationship was tense. The election of 1800 became so messed up between Jefferson and Aaron Burr that it led to the Twelfth Amendment and the current system.
Imagine a system in which Trump was elected in 2016 with Hillary as his Vice President.
Mike Pence is a poor man’s Dan Quayle.