Presidents obtaining office without being elected?
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Poseidon (
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January 26th, 2023
I have been Watching “Commander in Chief” and the President died so the Vice President (VP) of course took over the Presidency.
As the VP took office without being actually elected to become President is this considered their first term or if he/she runs for re-election and wins is this considered their first term or their second term?
If it is considered their first term I assume they can run for a second?
Am I correct?
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9 Answers
If the VP comes to office during the first half of a president’s term, s/he is considered to be in their first term, and they are eligible to run for a second term. If s/he comes to office during the second half of a president’s term, they are considered to be filling out that president’s term, and they are eligible to run for their own first term in the next election. So it depends on when the president dies. In the first half of a term, then the VP is considered to be in their own first term. In the second half of a term, then the VP is finishing the president’s term.
If President Biden were to die today, VP Harris would be finishing Biden’s first term. She would then be eligible to run for her own first term in 2024.
For Hawaii_Jake
although I have to wait for other answers I thank you for yours and feel that you have covered the question fully for which I thank you
@Poseidon, @Hawaii_Jake is correct. Like in the case of Lyndon B. Johnson. He served only one year following Kennedy’s assassination, and won the following year, and was expected to run again but bowed out because of the Vietnam War.
The VP is elected. The VP is elected to be VP, and the understanding is that part of h/h role Is to complete a president’s unfinished term.
I know that’s not the point of your question, but still, it’s a false premise.
Expanding on @Jeruba‘s comment: Gerald Ford replaced Spiro Agnew after the election. He then replaced Nixon before the middle of Nixon’s 2nd term. Therefore, he was President without benefit of election, and he was running for a 2nd term in 1976.
“In response to the unprecedented length of Roosevelt’s presidency, the Twenty-second Amendment was adopted in 1951. The amendment bars anyone from being elected president more than twice, or once if that person served more than two years (24 months) of another president’s four-year term. Harry S. Truman, president when this term limit came into force, was exempted from its limitations, and briefly sought a second full term—to which he would have otherwise been ineligible for election, as he had been president for more than two years of Roosevelt’s fourth term—before he withdrew from the 1952 election.[150]
Since the amendment’s adoption, five presidents have served two full terms: Dwight D. Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama. Jimmy Carter, George H. W. Bush, and Donald Trump each sought a second term but were defeated. Richard Nixon was elected to a second term, but resigned before completing it. Lyndon B. Johnson, having held the presidency for one full term in addition to only 14 months of John F. Kennedy’s unexpired term, was eligible for a second full term in 1968, but he withdrew from the Democratic primary. Additionally, Gerald Ford, who served out the last two years and five months of Nixon’s second term, sought a full term but was defeated by Jimmy Carter in the 1976 election.”
@filmfann You didn’t mention Gerald Ford’s V.P., Nelson Rockefeller. After the Nixon debacle, the U.S. had both a president and vice president who hadn’t been elected.
@Love_my_doggie Correct. And Rockefeller dropped from the VP slot in the 76 election, and was backfilled by Bob Dole.
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