Every Vice President of the United States

Given that, to be as generous as possible, Donald Trump was an atypical Presidential candidate, there were questions about who would be chosen to balance the ticket. The ultimate choice was Pence, who was the Governor of Indiana and calls his wife “Mother.”

Currently, Biden is the Democratic nominee for the 2020 election. He’s tried on multiple occasions to get the nomination previously, but this time he finally did it. This may be in part because he was Vice President under Barack Obama for eight years, and Obama remains popular with the Democratic voters.

How many Vice Presidents get movies made about them? That happened for Cheney, though Adam McKay’s “Vice” is not exactly a positive look at his career. Cheney, who served under George W. Bush, is often thought of as one of the most-involved Veeps ever. Some say he held excessive sway over the Bush administration. Halliburton would probably disagree.

Gore served two terms under Bill Clinton, and was known for his somewhat dull personality. He then ran for President and lost to George W. Bush despite winning the popular vote. After he lost, Gore became an environmental advocate, mostly focused on global warming.

Quayle, who was a one-term Veep, is remembered for two things. One is having a beef with “Murphy Brown.” The other is for misspelling “potato.” Not exactly the best legacy.

Quayle was the Vice President for Bush, who was the Vice President for Ronald Reagan. Before becoming Veep, Bush’s greatest political success was being the director of the C.I.A. That’s quite the unusual career arc for the elder George Bush.

Mondale, a senator from Minnesota, was Vice President under Jimmy Carter. He then ran for President himself in 1984 and was the candidate for the Democratic Party. Notably, he chose Geraldine Ferraro as his running mate, making Ferraro the first female Vice Presidential candidate for a major party. Of course, Mondale got absolutely trounced by Reagan, so that wasn’t great.

Prior to Rockefeller taking on the role, the office of Vice President was vacant for a few months. That’s because the former Veep, Gerald Ford, had been named President after the resignation of Richard Nixon. This gave Rockefeller a brief, unremarkable run as Vice President.

Ford has an ignominious political career, given how he rose to power. The former Michigan football player was not elected to be Vice President, as he took over under Nixon after the former Veep resigned. Then, he took over as President after Nixon’s own resignation. Yes, a man never elected to office for the executive branch rose to become President of the United States.

Agnew in some ways presaged what would happen to Nixon, the man he served with. The former Governor of Maryland got caught up in a bribery and extortion case. Agnew pled no contest to tax evasion in a deal and resigned from office. Maybe that gave Tricky Dick an idea once Watergate happened.

Humphrey took over as Veep when Lyndon Johnson rose to President. When LBJ decided not to run for reelection in 1968 he threw his hat in the ring and, after a ton of chaos, ended up the Democratic nominee. When he failed, he ended up back in the senate until he retired. Also, his name was Hubert Horatio Humphrey, which is delightful.

Johnson’s rise to President was a result of tragedy. After the assassination of John F. Kennedy, LBJ was sworn in as President. Interestingly, the brash Texan was chosen to balance the ticket alongside JFK, and then he ended up unexpectedly having to take over the role as President himself.

We’ve been on a run of Veeps with short tenures in office. Finally, we find another Vice President who served a full eight years. That’s more than Nixon could say about his time as President. Nixon was Dwight Eisenhower’s Veep, and then he ran for President to replace him. While Nixon lost to JFK, he had better luck in 1968.

Barkley was a sight for sore eyes when he took over as Veep. That, or nobody noticed any difference. When Truman took over as President for FDR, he did not name a Vice President during his first term. Barkley didn’t take on the role until Truman’s reelection. That meant almost four years without a Vice President of America.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt won four terms as President, something no longer possible. He did not manage to see out that fourth term, though. He died fairly early into that term, leaving Truman, the last President not to graduate college, in the role. Given we were still in World War II, that was a lot to handle.

Prior to Truman, FDR’s Veep was Wallace. Wallace had been serving as FDR’s Secretary of Agriculture before that for seven years. However, the party leaders voted down Wallace having another term as Veep, which is how Truman ended up in that role. Wallace ended up running for President himself in 1948 for the newly-founded Progressive Party.

Garner, known as Cactus Jack, is one of only two people to be both Vice President and Speaker of the House. He was Veep for two terms under FDR. How did he feel about the job? Well, he is famously quoted as saying the vice presidency was “not worth a bucket of warm p***.” So…you enjoyed it then, John?

Near as we can tell, Curtis was the last Vice President to have facial hair. He also served under Herbert Hoover, which meant he was Veep when the Great Depression started. This wasn’t great for his career.

Dawes’ career was built on his financial wisdom, and during World War I his Dawes Plan set a path to restabilize the economy of Germany. For this, he received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1925, the same year he was named Vice President. Not a bad year for Dawes.

Coolidge was known as “Silent Cal,” which may be partially why he was chosen to be Vice President under Warren G. Harding. Perhaps the thought was that he wouldn’t rock the boat. Well, eventually Harding died of a heart attack while in office, leaving Coolidge in charge. He would eventually win an election himself, though. We assume his inauguration speech was brief.

Marshall was Governor of Indiana heading into the 1912 election, back when that was an important swing state. Basically for that reason, Marshall was chosen as the Veep candidate alongside Woodrow Wilson. The two served together for two terms. Oh, and that quote from the introduction? Marshall is the one who said that.

Sherman has some firsts to his name. He was the first Veep to fly in a plane and to throw out the first pitch at a baseball game. He also has a notable last. As of right now, Sherman is the last Vice President to die in office. He died in 1912, right before the election. That left William Taft in a tough spot.

Fairbanks had some mighty fine facial hair and has a city in Alaska named after him. A city he presumably never visited. He too took on the role after it had been vacated for several years. This is because he served under Theodore Roosevelt.

Speaking of Teddy, his time as Veep was brief. He served in the role for only a handful of months before the assassination of William McKinley. This thrust Roosevelt into the job of President, which he took on with gusto. Only 42 at the time, he remains the youngest person to ever serve as the President of America.

Why did Roosevelt end up as Veep anyway? He wasn’t the first Vice President under McKinley. That would have been the popular Hobart. Unfortunately for him, and perhaps the party, Hobart died of heart disease in office, paving the way for Roosevelt’s rise.

No, we aren’t talking about the Stevenson who ran for President against Dwight Eisenhower twice. That is the grandson of this Stevenson. This Stevenson was the Vice President for Grover Cleveland and unlike his grandson never got to be the nominee for his party.

Morton had some truly wild facial hair. It was quite impressive, and would never fly today for a politician. And yet it worked for the former Governor of New York who was Veep one term under Benjamin Harrison.

Grover Cleveland is the only President who served non-consecutive terms. Why didn’t Hendricks, his first Veep, return alongside Cleveland? Well he only lasted eight months in the role before passing on. Hendricks was 66 at the time of his death, making him an older candidate for the time period.

Much like Teddy Roosevelt, Arthur’s run as Veep was brief. James Garfield was assassinated, leaving Arthur to take over as President. Arthur never had a Vice President of his own during his one term in office, and he never won an election of his own.

Old school politics were a different beast. Case in point, Wheeler being chosen as the running mate for Rutherford B. Hayes. This had not been Hayes’ choice. In fact, when he heard the news he wrote his wife to admit he had never heard of Wheeler before. Well, they still managed to win the election together.

Wilson was a longtime Senator from Massachusetts and built his political career on being anti-slavery. Well before the American Civil War he was a fierce advocate for abolition and even helped found the Republican Party. Eventually, he would become Veep under Ulysses S. Grant in his second term, but suffered a stroke and died while working at the Capitol Building.

In addition to his fantastic name, Colfax was the first person who was both Speaker of the House and Vice President. He was the first Veep under Grant, but was not chosen for his second election, with Wilson getting the nomination instead.

Johnson had the shortest run ever as Vice President. He was barely in the role for a month before Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. This was an issue, because Johnson was not as capable a leader as Honest Abe. Johnson was also a Democrat chosen as a compromise candidate in the wake of the Civil War. He was an ardent racist who got impeached and is considered one of the worst Presidents ever.

This was a completely different era of politics, obviously. Hamlin didn’t really know Lincoln and they didn’t work closely together. His job was mostly to work with the legislature as opposed to being part of the executive branch. When the Republican Party wanted to try and appease Southern loyalists to get Lincoln reelected, Hamlin, an anti-slavery politician from Maine, was out and Johnson was in.

James Buchanan is considered one of the worst Presidents of all time. What about his Vice President Breckenridge? Well, let’s just say during the Civil War he joined the Confederate Army. That outshines the fact he was the youngest Veep ever, as he was only 36.

King was Vice President for only three days longer than Andrew Johnson, but King’s story was different. He did not stop being Veep because he had become President. King had tuberculosis when he took the oath of office and died shortly into his term. He never did a single day of work in his job.

Fillmore ended up as President, but that’s not what’s most notable about him. What’s notable is that he was the last Whig President. Doing the math, you may also realize that he was the last Whig Vice President as well.

It’s up for debate whether or not Dallas, Texas was named after this Dallas, but a few cities were. Dallas, who started his political career as the mayor of Philadelphia, eventually rose to be Vice President under James K. Polk. As Polk had said he would only serve one term, and stuck to that, Dallas tried to get the nomination for the Democrats in 1948, but lost out to Lewis Cass.

Tyler is a famous first in American political history. William Henry Harrison died a mere month into office, and the country didn’t know what to do. This had never happened before. It fell on Tyler to serve as President for the rest of Harrison’s term, though not everybody was happy about that. By sheer number of days, Tyler served as Veep for a shorter time than anybody.

Johnson served Kentucky quite well. He was a senator for Kentucky and was a member of the House for the Bluegrass State before and after he was Vice President. Interestingly, Johnson is the only person ever elected to the role of Vice President by the Senate through the 12th Amendment. It’s a long story that involves “faithless electors.”

Johnson was the Veep under Van Buren, who had just been Vice President himself. He was the second Vice President for Andrew Jackson, taking on the role for the 1932 election. Interesting, he is the only President whose first language wasn’t English, as he grew up speaking Dutch.

Calhoun is notable for serving as Vice President under two different Presidents, John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson. In fact, he also was a member of two different parties in his time. During his tenure with Jackson, he was a member of the newly-founded nullifier party. Thought of as an independent at the time, he often rubbed people the wrong way. That includes Jackson, and Calhoun ended up resigning before his term was over.

The 1800s were a weird time for Vice Presidents. Case in point, only one Vice President served two full terms in the role. That would be Tompkins, who was the Veep for James Monroe for two terms. However, Tompkins would die in June of 1825, mere months after being out of office.

You know the term gerrymandering? The idea of drawing districts and regions for political favor? That’s named “in honor” of Gerry, who was Vice President under James Madison for a little over a year. Gerry, who signed the Declaration of Independence, died while in office.

While never President himself, Clinton was a key figure in earl American politics. He’s considered one of the Founding Fathers and was the first Governor of New York. Clinton also served as Veep under two different Presidents, Madison and Thomas Jefferson. He died in office during his second term, though, making him the first person to do so.

Did anything notable happen to Burr? Well, he’s the first person to be Vice President but never become President himself. The reason for that? It may be because of the fact he killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel. You may have heard about that. Perhaps in rap form.

George Washington decided that he only wanted to be President for two terms, which ended up setting a precedent that would eventually become law. Back then, there weren’t really tickets. Whoever won the election was President, and whoever finished second was Vice President. John Adams won the election, Jefferson finished second, and that was that.

Adams was a massive figure in early politics, even if he’s often forgotten among the biggest names. The man was the first Vice President ever. There was no way he would beat George Washington, the hero of the American Revolution. He finished second in the votes though, making Adams the inaugural person in this role of dubious reputation.