Which US Presidents Were Never Elected?
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| Which US Presidents Were Never Elected? Photo KnowInsiders |
Here are all nine of the US presidents who became president without having been elected president. This list features four vice presidents who were sworn in after their commanders in chief were assassinated, four who were inaugurated after their presidents died of illness, and one who became president because of two resignations. If you ever wanted to know which man was never elected president of the United States, this list is for you.
While some others assumed the presidency under tumultuous or tragic circumstances and then went on to win a second term, Ford is among a handful who failed to convince voters to return him to power after he ascended to the White House because his predecessor resigned.
9 US Presidents Who Were Never Elected:
1.John Tyler
2.Millard Fillmore
3.Andrew Johnson
4.Chester A. Arthur
5.Theodore Roosevelt
6.Calvin Coolidge
7.Harry S. Truman
8.Lyndon B. Johnson
9.Gerald Ford
1.John Tyler
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| Photo ranker |
10th President, inaugurated in April 1841 - vice president to William Henry Harrison, who died of complications from pneumonia on his 32nd day in office. The first ever non-elected president, Tyler's opponents regularly called him "His Accidency" and addressed correspondences to him as "Vice President" or "Acting President" (letters which he returned unopened).
When his term ended in 1845, he did not seek election.
Age: Dec. at 71 (1790-1862)
Party (if partisan): Whig
2.Millard Fillmore
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| Photo insider |
13th President, inaugurated in July 1850 - vice president to Zachary Taylor, who died of an attack of cholera one year and four months into his term.
Though he wanted to serve as president again, Fillmore lost the Whig Party's nomination to General Winfield Scott - who then lost the 1852 election to democrat Franklin Pierce. Fillmore didn't have a vice president during his time in office.
Age: Dec. at 74 (1800-1874)
Party (if partisan): Know Nothing
3.Andrew Johnson
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| Photo ranker |
17th president, inaugurated April 15, 1865 - vice president to Abraham Lincoln, who was assassinated one month into his second term.
In 1868, amidst the high tension of the Radical Reconstruction of the South, Johnson became the first ever US president to be impeached. He was eventually acquitted of all charges and sought and lost the Democratic nomination for the 1868 election.
Age: Dec. at 66 (1808-1875)
Party (if partisan): Democrat
4.Chester A. Arthur
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| Photo ranker |
21st president, inaugurated September 19, 1881 - vice president of James Garfield, who was assassinated after 200 days in office.
Though he considered running for a full term in the 1884 election, Arthur ran only a lackluster campaign due to limited support and his ailing health.
Age: Dec. at 57 (1829-1886)
Party (if partisan): Republican
| Arthur's critics tried to persuade the public that the presidential hopeful was not actually an American citizen. He was born in Vermont. |
5.Theodore Roosevelt
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| Photo Delphi |
26th president, inaugurated September 14, 1901 - vice president of William McKinley, who was assassinated six months into his second term.
Considered one of the best US presidents of all time, Roosevelt easily won a second term in a landslide victory during the 1904 election. He also had the support of the public during the 1912 primary, but lost the nomination to William Howard Taft, the favorite of GOP party leaders.
Age: Dec. at 60 (1858-1919)
Party (if partisan): Republican
6.Calvin Coolidge
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| Photo Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation |
30th president, inaugurated August 2, 1923 - vice president to Warren G. Harding, who died following a respiratory illness after two years and four months in office. Calvin was actually his middle name — he was born John Calvin Coolidge.
When his first term was up, Coolidge easily won the 1924 election, securing just about every state outside of the South.
Age: Dec. at 60 (1872-1933)
Party (if partisan): Republican
7.Harry S. Truman
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| Photo baotintuc |
33rd president, inaugurated April 12, 1945 - vice president to Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who died after 12 years in office, three months into his fourth term.
The president once said that the "S" in Truman's name didn't actually stand for anything and it's been the subject of controversy ever since.
Though Truman's public approval was low at the beginning of 1948, he won the election that year with 303 electoral votes (over Thomas E. Dewey's 189), securing a second term.
Age: Dec. at 88 (1884-1972)
Party (if partisan): Democratic Party
8.Lyndon B. Johnson
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| Photo Greelane |
36th president, inaugurated November 22, 1963 - vice president to John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated after almost three years in office.
In the 1964 election, Johnson won a second term by defeating GOP candidate Barry Goldwater in a landslide, with 486 electoral votes to his 52.
Age: Dec. at 64 (1908-1973)
Party (if partisan): Democratic Party
| Johnson nearly died in World War II. He boarded a plane, then exited to use the restroom. When he came back, he boarded a different plane. The original plane he was on was destroyed in battle but the second plane survived. |
9.Gerald Ford
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| Photo thanhnien |
Age: Dec. at 93 (1913-2006)
Party (if partisan): Republican
Ford is also among fewer than a dozen one-term presidents who ran for a second term but were denied by voters.
Ford was serving as vice president in 1974 amid scandal in President Richard M. Nixon's administration. He ascended to the presidency when Nixon resigned before he was to face prosecution over the 1972 break-in at the Democratic Party's headquarters in what became known as the Watergate scandal. Nixon was facing certain impeachment at the time.
As Ford said in taking the oath of office:
"I assume the Presidency under extraordinary circumstances. This is an hour of history that troubles our minds and hurts our hearts."
| Ford won the Republican presidential nomination in 1976 but lost in the general election to Democrat Jimmy Carter, who went on to serve one term. Ford's political fortunes sank amid a depressed economy, inflation, and energy shortages at home. Ford and Carter had engaged in what is believed to be among the most important political debates in political history. The debate, many historians believe, proved disastrous to Ford's bid for a second term in the White House. Ford famously claimed, erroneously, the following: "There is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe and there never will be under a Ford administration." Ford's statement was met with incredulity from moderator Max Frankel of The New York Times and served to tarnish his campaign. |
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