Telling Numbers: How many US Vice Presidents have gone on to become President

It is fairly common for vice presidents to run for the top job after their term. But very few of them actually succeed.

29 US VPs have sought presidency, only 10 have won

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at her Presidential Campaign headquarters in Wilmington. (Reuters/File)

Vice President Kamala Harris is the presumptive presidential nominee for the Democratic Party. This makes her the latest US Vice President to try for the top job. According from the Pew Research Center:

49 people have served as the Vice President of the US.

29 Vice Presidents have gone on to formally seek a party’s presidential nomination, either immediately after their vice presidency or later on.

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10 of these vice presidents have successfully secured the top job.

The trend of Vice Presidents seeking the presidency has become more common in modern times.

15 of 18 Vice Presidents have launched presidential campaigns, since the first term of President Franklin D Roosevelt began in 1933.

5 of these 15 have emerged victorious. They are Democrats Harry Truman, Lyndon B Johnson and Joe Biden, and Republicans Richard Nixon and George H W Bush.

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This list does not include Gerald R Ford, who took over as President following Richard Nixon’s resignation, but lost the subsequent election to Jimmy Carter. This is unlike Truman (FDR’s successor) and Johnson (Kennedy’s successor) who won subsequent presidential elections.

3 modern Vice Presidents — Henry Wallace (1948), Walter Mondale (1984), and Al Gore (2000) — have won their party’s nomination but lost the general election.

5 modern Vice Presidents — John Nance Garner (1940), Alben Barkley (1952), Hubert Humphrey (1972), Dan Quayle (2000), and Mike Pence (2024) — have failed to secure their party’s nomination.