Unelected Presidents - Those Who Held Office Without Winning The Election

[DonRocks]

*1841 - John Tyler: The only year we saw three different Presidents, as William Henry Harrison passed away after only one month in office

*1850 - Millard Fillmore: The first two Presidents to die in office were ex-soldiers, Harrison (Battle of Tippecanoe) and Zachary Taylor (Mexican-American War)

*1865 - Andrew Johnson: Shortly after Abraham Lincoln won his second term, he became the first President to be assassinated

*1881 - Chester Arthur: Assumed office after the assassination of James Garfield

1901 - Theodore Roosevelt: After the assassination of William McKinley, Teddy Roosevelt became the first unelected President to subsequently be elected

1923 - Calvin Coolidge: Assumed office after Warren Harding died after two years as President

1945 - Harry Truman: Yes, he was Franklin Roosevelt's Vice-President for 82 days during Roosevelt's fourth-and-final term

1963 - Lyndon Johnson: Sworn into office aboard Air Force One after the assassination of John Kennedy

*1974 - Gerald Ford: The only U.S. President never to be on a Presidential ticket, becoming Vice-President for Spiro Agnew, then President after Richard Nixon resigned

The country went 52 years without an unelected President, and we are now on our second-longest streak at 42 years.

* The United States has had a total of five presidents who were never elected, i.e., after they assumed the Presidency, they never won reelection.

Died in office: William Harrison, Taylor, Harding, and Franklin Roosevelt

Assassinated: Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley, and Kennedy

Resigned: Nixon

A small sample size to be sure, but over a 20% chance of vacating the office early, by one means or another.

[DonRocks]

On 4/10/2016 at 2:25 PM, DonRocks said:

*1841 - John Tyler: The only year we saw three different Presidents, as William Henry Harrison passed away after only one month in office

"'His Accidency': The First President To Die in Office and the Constitution Crisis that Followed" by Ronald G. Shafer on washingtonpost.com