15 VP went POTUS eight succeeded to the office on the death of a president, and four were later elected. Let’s our VP sweet 16.
The office of vice president—the second-highest position in the executive branch, and first in the constitutional line of succession—might seem like a good launching pad for a politician with aspirations of attaining the nation’s highest office.
But relatively few vice presidents—just 15 of the 49 who served between 1789 and 2021—became president, and eight of those did it by taking over after the death of a president, while another, Gerald R. Ford, rose to the office when his predecessor, Richard M. Nixon, resigned. Only six vice presidents managed to get elected president on their own.
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Overall, 29 of the 49 people who have served as vice president since the country’s founding have gone on to formally seek a party’s presidential nomination.