Of one-term presidents and 2020 ballot - GulfToday

Of one-term presidents and 2020 ballot

  • 17 Oct 2020
US-Presidents

John F Kennedy, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and George H W Bush. File

James Crump, The Independent

Washington: Only ten presidents have failed to win re-election and it is 28 years ago since the US has gone without a president failing to win a second term. Gulf Today political team connects the dots

The office of the US president was established in 1789, and in the 231 years since the first man was elected to the highest office in the country, 45 have people have held the title.

US Presidents are only allowed to sit for a maximum of two, four year terms, but although any gender can hold the position, every president so far has been a man. Of the 45 who have held office, only ten presidents have failed to win re-election for a second term, when they have attempted to.

One US presidents, John F Kennedy was assassinated before he could run for re-election.

The longest period the US has experienced without a president failing to complete two terms, was between 1932 and 1976. The last president to have failed to win re-election was George H W Bush, who lost to Bill Clinton in 1992.

The US has gone 28 years without a president failing to win a second term as president Donald Trump faces Joe Biden in the presidential election, with the former attempting to win re-election.

The president’s who failed to win re-election:

John Adams: The first US president to fail to win re-election for a second term, was John Adams, who also served as the country’s first vice president. When the position was created in 1789, George Washington was the first to have the honour, and Adams served under him.

After Washington completed his two terms, Adams ran for the position with the Federalist party and took his place as president.

He came third in the next election, behind the two candidates the Republican party ran, with Thomas Jefferson eventually becoming the new US president.

John Quincy Adams: Another of the Adams family, John Quincy Adams, was unable to win re-election for a second term as US president.

During his time as president, there were big rifts in his party, the Democratic-Republican party, and it stopped him from making much progress. The party split after Adams failed to win re-election, with the two sides becoming the Democratic party and the Whig party.

Grover Cleveland and Benjamin Harrison: Martin Van Buren was the next president to fail to win re-election in 1840, but Grover Cleveland proved that a lost election does not stop you from getting your second term.

Cleveland, a Democrat, was the 22nd and the 24th president of the United States, after he won both the 1884 and 1892 elections. He won the popular vote in 1888, but lost the election to the Republican Benjamin Harrison, who served for the next four years.

The 1888 election was tight and in 1892, Cleveland defeated Harrison, to win back the presidency and cause Harrison to become the fifth president to fail to win re-election.

William Howard Taft: He was the next US president to fail to win re-election, 20 years later in 1912.

Taft, a Republican, is the only person in US history to have held both the position of president and chief justice of the United States. He served as president from 1909 to 1913 and lost the 1912 presidential election to Woodrow Wilson.

Herbert Hoover: Elected as US president in 1928, he was faced with helping the country rebuild after the stock market crash of 1929. His presidency was overshadowed by the economic crash in 1929, and he spent most of his one term attempting to improve the country’s economy.

The US had not recovered by the time of the 1932 election, and he lost to Franklin D Roosevelt.

Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter: Gerald Ford not only failed to win re-election as the US president, but also never won a presidential election. Ford, a Republican, became the president after Richard Nixon resigned, following the Watergate scandal. He served from 1974 to 1977, when Jimmy Carter defeated him in the 1976 election.

Carter, a Democrat served as the US president from 1977 to 1981, but lost the 1980 election to Ronald Reagan. Despite the fact Gerald Ford never won a presidential election, Carter’s loss, meant that for the first time, two US presidents in succession failed to win re-election.

George H W Bush: He was the last president to fail to win re-election, when he was beaten by Democrat, Bill Clinton, in the 1992 election.

In 2000, his son, George W Bush was elected as president and completed two full terms, before Barack Obama took over as US president.

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