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Vice President Statistics

Vice Presidents who became President Fourteen U. S. Vice Presidents became President. Five were elected in their own right; four inherited the office through the natural death of the incumbent, four by assassination, and one by resignation.

Election to Office John Adams and George Bush were two term vice presidents and one term presidents. Adams served as vice president for George Washington from 1789 to 1797, and served as president from 1797-1801. Bush served as vice president for Ronald Reagan from 1981-1989 and served as president from 1989-1993. Thomas Jefferson was the only person to serve one term as vice president [John Adams 1797-1801] and two terms as president, 1801 to 1809. In addition Jefferson was the only incumbent VP to run against an incumbent president. Martin Van Buren is the only person to serve one term in each capacity. He was vice president for Andrew Jackson, 1833 to 1837 and elected president from 1837-1841. Richard Nixon is the only person to serve two terms as Vice President and be elected to two terms as President. He was vice president for Dwight Eisenhower from 1953-1961 and elected president in from 1969-1973. He won re-election but resigned from office on August 9, 1974. Therefore no person has ever served two terms as vice president and two terms as president. Nixon is the only Vice President to win election to the presidency after losing a previous attempt. He was defeated in 1960 by John Kennedy.

Assassination Four vice presidents succeeded to the presidency upon the assassination of the incumbent. Andrew Johnson for Abraham Lincoln in 1865, Chester Arthur for James Garfield in 1881, Theodore Roosevelt for William McKinley in 1901], and Lyndon Johnson for John Kennedy in 1963. Natural Death Four Vice Presidents inherited the presidency after the natural death of the incumbent: John Tyler for William Henry Harrison in 1841, Millard Fillmore for Zachary Taylor in 1850, Calvin Coolidge for Warren Harding in 1923, and Harry Truman for Franklin Roosevelt in 1945.

No Vice President Four Vice Presidents who succeeded to the presidency did not name a vice president to fill the vacancy: John Tyler in 1841, Millard Fillmore in 1851, Andrew Johnson in 1865, and Chester Arthur in 1881. At the time there was no law addressing the vacancy of the vice president.

Constitutional Amendment The Twenty-fifth Amendment now permits the succeeding president to name a second in command upon the consent of the Senate. Gerald Ford was the first such nominee after the resignation of Vice President Spiro Agnew in 1973. Ford became President after the resignation of Nixon in 1974, thus making him the only person to serve as Vice President and President without having been elected to either office. He lost re-election in 1976. While in office Ford also implemented the Amendment when he nominated Nelson Rockefeller to replace him as vice president in 1974.