As discussion of Vice President Joe Biden’s retention on the 2012 Democratic presidential ticket swirls —Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has been suggested as a possible replacement — here’s a look at the presidents who’ve sought re-election with a different running mate the second (or third) time around.
Living vice presidents have been dropped from the ticket 10 times, though not since 1976. Their respective presidents have won re-election on six of those occasions.
1804
President Thomas Jefferson replaces Vice President Aaron Burr Jr. with George Clinton (won)
After Burr fell out of favor with Jefferson and others in the Democratic-Republican Party, Jefferson sought re-election with New York Gov. Clinton as his running mate. Jefferson won, and Clinton served not only as his second vice president but also held the same office under President James Madison.
1828
President John Quincy Adams replaces Vice President John Calhoun with Richard Rush (lost)
Calhoun split with Adams and abandoned the National Republican ticket to run with Democrat Andrew Jackson, whom Adams had defeated four years earlier. Jackson won this time, however, making Calhoun the only other vice president to serve under two presidents. (George Clinton was the first).
1832
President Andrew Jackson replaces Calhoun with Martin Van Buren (won)
Calhoun, a South Carolina native, again ran afoul of his boss, this time clashing with Jackson over monetary policy that Calhoun believed favored Northern interests.
1864
President Abraham Lincoln replaces Vice President Hannibal Hamlin with Andrew Johnson (won)
With the young nation in the throes of Civil War, Hamlin, of Maine, was out in favor of Tennessee native Johnson as Lincoln sought Southern balance on his re-election ticket.
1868
President Ulysses S. Grant replaces Vice President Schuyler Colfax Jr. with Henry Wilson (won)
Colfax had been dogged by scandal linked to the building of the First Transcontinental Railroad, a scandal that later also touched Vice President Wilson.
1888, 1892
President Grover Cleveland replaces Vice President Thomas Hendricks with Allen Thurman (lost) and then runs with Adlai Stevenson (won)
Cleveland, the only U.S. president to serve two nonconsecutive terms, lost the presidency with Thurman in place of Hendricks in 1888 but regained it with Stevenson, of Illinois, four years later.
1892
President Benjamin Harrison replaces Vice President Levi Morton with Whitelaw Reid (lost)
Morton (after whom the Chicago suburb of Morton Grove is named) was blamed by Harrison for failing to adequately campaign for the Lodge Bill, which would have guaranteed voting rights for blacks.
1940, 1944
President Franklin D. Roosevelt replaces Vice President John Garner with Henry Wallace (won), replaces Wallace with Harry Truman (won)
Garner, vice president for FDR’s first two terms, was dropped in favor of Wallace after the former came to oppose Roosevelt on some issues and sought the presidency himself. Wallace later feuded with some high officials in the administration and was replaced by Roosevelt’s eventual successor, Truman.
1976
President Gerald Ford replaces Vice President Nelson Rockefeller with Bob Dole (lost)
Rockefeller, who was appointed vice president when Ford ascended to the presidency, retired from politics. Dole took his place on the Republican ticket, which could overcome neither a sputtering economy nor Ford’s pardon of his disgraced predecessor, Richard Nixon.
Unfortunate as it was for those who were bumped, at least it wasn’t because they were dead. That’s happened three times — James Sherman, William Howard Taft’s first vice president and 1912 running mate died just before the election; Garret Hobart, President William McKinley’s VP and 1896 running mate died in office; and, remember Clinton, the first VP to serve under two presidents? He died in office in 1812 and was replaced by Elbridge Gerry when Madison sought re-election later that year. Madison and Gerry won, and then, in 1814, Gerry died in office.
Sources: “Encyclopedia of American parties, campaigns, and elections,” by William C. Binning, Larry Eugene Esterly and Paul Sracic; “The Handbook of Rhetoric and Public Address,” by Shawn Parry-Giles and J. Michael Hogan; “The American vice presidency reconsidered,” by Jody Baumgartner; “Political Corruption in America,” by Mark Grossman; “Illinois: A Descriptive and Historical Guide,” by The Federal Writers Project; “U.S. Presidents Factbook,” by Elizabeth Jewell; Senate Historical Office (senate.gov); Monticello.org.
