Biden would have faced unusual situation as VP running for President

Vice President Joe Biden ended the speculation about a possible presidential run early Wednesday afternoon, but his campaign would have been unique for several historical reasons.

 

 

Going back to 1789, the United States has had 57 presidential elections. A sitting Vice President has won just four of those elections. In other cases, former Vice Presidents who became President after a death in the White House gained election, such as Theodore Roosevelt, Calvin Coolidge, Harry Truman and Lyndon Johnson.

 

But of the 114-plus major-party candidates in those 57 elections, only eight were sitting Vice Presidents, and two of the candidates were Founding Fathers in the pre-modern election era: John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.

 

Since the modern election era stated in 1804, only Martin Van Buren (in 1836) and George H.W. Bush (in 1988) were able to win the White House while campaigning as a sitting Vice President. In 1860, John C Breckinridge lost to Abraham Lincoln; in 1960, Richard Nixon lost to John F. Kennedy; in 1968, Hubert Humphrey lost to Nixon; and in 2000, Al Gore lost to George W. Bush.

 

Nixon is also the only former Vice President who won the presidency after failing to win the White House as a sitting or former Vice President. Henry Wallace and Walter Mondale also failed as former Vice Presidents trying to win a presidential election.

 

Part of the reason for a lack of candidates from the pool of Vice Presidents has been the definition of that very office. Traditionally, some Presidents thought that Vice Presidents should not be seen or even heard.

 

Another factor is the desire of voters to see a change in power after a President serves multiple terms in office. Breckinridge, Nixon, Humphrey and Gore all lost after their party had held the White House for two consecutive terms.

 

Van Buren and George H. W. Bush stand out for several reasons. Both were highly visible party leaders and public figures. Van Buren was a top political organizer in the nascent Democratic Party. Bush had run against Ronald Reagan before becoming his Vice President, and he was a frontrunner in the 1988 GOP primaries with Reagan’s support.

 

In that sense, Biden as the ninth sitting Vice President to secure a major party nomination would have had some similarities to Van Buren and Bush.

 

However, in six recent polls, Biden also finished third in national polling against Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders as a potential Democratic nominee.