Few former presidents have run again after leaving office | Pew Research Center simply notes that it doesn’t happen, and I was surprised to hear that Quincy Adams is actually the only case of a President returning to Congress. I knew he had done it because of a movie (Amistad?) where he’s portrayed as a Congressman well after his term ended, but it made me think that more of them back then had done it. There’s also Taft who was later on the Supreme Court, but other than that it seems like Presidents once out of office seem to not want to be in public life anymore. Given the drive that it takes to become President, I would expect more of them to want to continue in public service.
Is the weight of being President just such a burden that one is completely exhausted? Are they worried about being seen as too much of a influence on those actually in power, that they don’t want to be seen as someone that’s wielding power from a different position? Is it just 40ish different reasons for 40ish different people?
I’m aware that plenty of presidents didn’t survive their terms, and there are others who were definitely too old to go back into politics, one-term presidents might not think that they’re welcome in politics, but it seems like there were plenty of Presidents who would be reasonably good candidates to return to Congress or serve in another capacity in the executive administration. (If there have been former presidents in Cabinet positions, there’s nothing immediate that I’m aware of).
I think it’s that once you’ve reached the highest office in the land, taking any office below that is just going to be awkward and weird, both for the ex-pres and everybody in his orbit. You’re an 800 lb. gorilla stomping through a china shop, to mix metaphors. You’re used to telling underlings how to handle the china; you’re way past handling it yourself.
Probably for the same reason that former presidents don’t campaign viciously against successors of the opposite party. The position is unique among humanity. (Maybe being the Pope could compare.) Nobody else can understand what it’s like. No more than half a dozen other living humans have experienced that feeling. Being President is above mere politics. Adams lived in a different age when the Presidency was a high office but nowhere near godhood. You can’t compare it.
Do former U.S. Senators ever run for the House of Representatives? Do former state governers ever run for the state legislature? How often does any powerful elected official, after they leave office, run for a lower, less powerful and prestigious position?
And (though technically not a political role, but certainly a public office) William Howard Taft was appointed Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, nine years after losing his presidential re-election bid.
Edit: I missed that the OP mentioned Taft. My apologies!
Taft was an interesting case, as being Chief Justice was the job he had actually wanted for his entire adult life. His family more or less cajoled him into running for President.
Note that Adams, Johnson, and Taft all died no later than 1930. Back then there were few sources of money for ex-presidents like writing books and giving speeches. Now it’s pretty standard, so they don’t have to worry about having little to live on.
After he stopped being Governor of California in 1983, Jerry Brown was elected Mayor of Oakland CA and CA Attorney General before being elected Governor again in 2011. He finally seems to be done with politics.
Claude Pepper was a U.S. Senator from Florida from 1936 to 1951 and then a Representative for a Miami Congressional district from 1963 until 1989.
Matthew M. Neely basically played ping-pong among West Virginia’s Senate seats, House seats and Governor’s mansion in the mid-20th century, which included service in the House after he had been in the Senate.