# Winning (vice) presidency and another national office concurrently (Biden) **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 5, 2008, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winning-vice-presidency-and-another-national-office-concurrently-biden/471352 "2008-11-05T21:19:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2008, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winning-vice-presidency-and-another-national-office-concurrently-biden/471352/1 "2008-11-05T21:19:27Z")
As we all know by now, Joe Biden is now VP Elect and, at the same time, has won another six years as Deleware’s senior Senator. It’s quite clear that he can’t hold both positions on the board, but how often has something like this happened in our past? I didn’t even know that you could run for Senator and VP or President at once. How does this tend to affect the outcome of either race in one’s home state? In this case, it doesn’t seem to have hurt Biden a bit in Delaware. I’m 50 and I can’t remember such a thing before in my lifetime. That this should be happening now is in a way not surprising, since everything about this election was different in so many ways. I think JFK’s Senate term was running out in 1960, but I always assumed he didn’t run for Senator at the same time he was running for President. Is there a quick and handy list of this sort of thing somewhere? ---
**Author:** ![Billdo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/billdo/32/315_2.png) [@Billdo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Billdo)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2008, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winning-vice-presidency-and-another-national-office-concurrently-biden/471352/2 "2008-11-05T21:28:02Z")
I don’t know the answer to your question generally, but I recall that when Joe Lieberman was a Vice Presidential candidate, he simultaneously ran for re-election to his Connecticut Senate seat, something that was permitted by Connecticut law but prohibited in some other states (though not Delaware, it seems). ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2008, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winning-vice-presidency-and-another-national-office-concurrently-biden/471352/3 "2008-11-05T21:33:24Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > I’m 50 and I can’t remember such a thing before in my lifetime. That this should be happening now is in a way not surprising, since everything about this election was different in so many ways. I think JFK’s Senate term was running out in 1960, but I always assumed he didn’t run for Senator at the same time he was running for President. Your memory needs jogging: In addition to Lieberman in 2000, Lyndon Johnson in 1960 and Lloyd Bentsen in 1988 did it. I don’t know of any state that prohibits it. You usually can run for as many offices as you wish – but can only serve in one. ---
**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:** [November 6, 2008, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winning-vice-presidency-and-another-national-office-concurrently-biden/471352/4 "2008-11-06T03:23:54Z")
> [@](#): > > I think JFK’s Senate term was running out in 1960, but I always assumed he didn’t run for Senator at the same time he was running for President. No, Kennedy was elected in 1952 and re-elected in 1958. He resigned his Senate seat when he was elected President in 1960. Benjamin Smith was appointed to fill his Senate seat. Smith, in turn, resigned in 1962 and Ted Kennedy took over the seat via a special election. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winning-vice-presidency-and-another-national-office-concurrently-biden/471352/5 "2008-11-06T05:47:42Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Your memory needs jogging: In addition to Lieberman in 2000, Lyndon Johnson in 1960 and Lloyd Bentsen in 1988 did it. It would be expecting a lot of a two-year-old to know that there was an election going on :). Much less who was running. In any event neither Johnson nor Bentsen made it through the primary; nor did Liebermann win. To be honest, I wasn’t aware at the time that Liebermann was running for Senator at the same time, and only became aware of it after the fact. Nor did I realize until recently that Biden was running for Senate. I know this makes me sound utterly clueless, but I’m not. I’ve long known a good deal about Joe Biden, and for the most part have been at one with the kind of large-D Democratic positions he holds. I thought President-elect Obama made the perfect choice at the time he chose him. But even so I wasn’t up on the schedule of Delaware senatorial elections. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winning-vice-presidency-and-another-national-office-concurrently-biden/471352/6 "2008-11-06T14:23:36Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > It would be expecting a lot of a two-year-old to know that there was an election going on :). Much less who was running. > > In any event neither Johnson nor Bentsen made it through the primary; nor did Liebermann win. To be honest, I wasn’t aware at the time that Liebermann was running for Senator at the same time, and only became aware of it after the fact. Nor did I realize until recently that Biden was running for Senate. I know this makes me sound utterly clueless, but I’m not. I’ve long known a good deal about Joe Biden, and for the most part have been at one with the kind of large-D Democratic positions he holds. I thought President-elect Obama made the perfect choice at the time he chose him. But even so I wasn’t up on the schedule of Delaware senatorial elections. Lloyd Bentsen was Mike Dukakis’ VP candidate in 1988. He was also running for re-election of his Senate seat in Texas, and towards the end of the campaign, when it was obvious that Dukakis was going to lose, he pretty much gave up campaigning for the presidential election and put most of his effort into his Senate campaign, and won. I’m 9 years younger than you and I remember all this. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winning-vice-presidency-and-another-national-office-concurrently-biden/471352/7 "2008-11-06T15:06:15Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > In any event neither Johnson nor Bentsen made it through the primary; nor did Liebermann win. I think you’re missing something. Johnson, Bentsen, Lieberman, and Biden were all \*vice \*presidential candidates at the same time they were running for re-election to the Senate. Johnson and Biden won both their races. Bentsen and Lieberman won only their Senate races. ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2008, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winning-vice-presidency-and-another-national-office-concurrently-biden/471352/8 "2008-11-06T17:37:00Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > I don’t know of any state that prohibits it. You usually can run for as many offices as you wish – but can only serve in one. No, you can’t. Otherwise we would hear of more people doing it–for example, Representatives would run for re-election so as not to lose their House seat when they ran for the Senate. It never happens. Here is Illinois law on the subject: > [@](#): > > If petitions for nomination have been filed for the same person for 2 or more offices which are incompatible so that the same person could not serve in more than one of such offices if elected, that person must withdraw as a candidate for all but one of such offices within the 5 business days following the last day for petition filing. If he fails to withdraw as a candidate for all but one of such offices within such time his name shall not be certified, nor printed on the primary ballot, for any office. For the purpose of the foregoing provisions, an office in a political party is not incompatible with any other office. The vice-presidency is different because you get nominated via national convention, not via state primary. I can’t find anything in Illinois law that would prevent a person from running for VP and another office, although I didn’t search every line of the code. In Texas, apparently, there _was_ such a prohibition at one time, because sources often mention that Lyndon Johnson had to get the law _changed_ in 1960. Here is one such [source](http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/texas/entry/lbj_law_or_lyndons_law_or_lbj_rule_simultaneous_runs_for_senator_and_vice_p/). I don’t know if this was an issue in Connecticut and/or Delaware.