The United States has had a two-party system for much of its history, and the two major parties have nominated vice presidential candidates in most presidential elections. Since the ratification of the United States Constitution in 1789, there have been 59 unsuccessful major party candidates for Vice President of the United States. Eight other individuals have served as the main running mate to a third party or independent presidential candidate who won at least ten percent of the popular or electoral vote.
Prior to the ratification of the Twelfth Amendment in 1804, each member of the Electoral College cast two votes for president; whichever individual who won the most electoral votes would become president, while the individual with the second-most electoral votes would become vice president. In the elections of 1792, 1796, and 1800, at least one of the major parties ran a candidate whom they intended to elect vice president. The Twelfth Amendment changed the presidential election process, requiring members of the Electoral College to cast separate votes for president and vice president. Since then, the two major parties have almost always nominated a ticket consisting of a single presidential candidate and a single vice presidential candidate. Before the election of 1832, both major parties used a congressional nominating caucus, or nominations by state legislatures, to determine presidential and vice presidential candidates.Morgan (1969), p. 195 Since 1840, each major party has consistently nominated a single ticket at their respective presidential nominating conventions.
The two current major parties are the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. At various points prior to the American Civil War, the Federalist Party, the Democratic-Republican Party, the National Republican Party, and the Whig Party were major parties. In the 1872 presidential election, the Liberal Republican Party put forward an unsuccessful major party vice presidential nominee, Benjamin Gratz Brown. Brown and his running mate, Horace Greeley, were also nominated by the Democratic Party.
List of unsuccessful candidates Major parties
These unsuccessful vice presidential candidates served as the main running mate of a major party presidential candidate who competed in multiple states, or they were a major party's main vice presidential candidate in multiple states.
* indicates that the candidate served as vice president at some point in their career
Election Candidate Running mate Candidate(Birth–death) Party Office at timeof election Homestate 1792 George Clinton*(1739–1812) Democratic-Republican Governor None 1796 Thomas Pinckney(1750–1828) Federalist Fmr. Ambassador John Adams Aaron Burr*(1756–1836) Democratic-Republican Senator Thomas Jefferson 1800 Charles C. Pinckney(1746–1825) Federalist Fmr. Ambassador John Adams 1804 Rufus King(1755–1827) Federalist Fmr. Ambassador Charles C. Pinckney 1808 1812 Jared Ingersoll(1749–1822) Federalist State attorney general DeWitt Clinton 1816 John E. Howard(1752–1827) Federalist Fmr. Senator Rufus King 1824 Nathan Sanford(1777–1838) Democratic-Republican State judge Henry Clay Nathaniel Macon(1757–1837) Senator William H. Crawford 1828 Richard Rush(1780–1859) National Republican Secretary of the Treasury John Quincy Adams 1832 John Sergeant1779–1852 National Republican Fmr. Representative Henry Clay 1836 Francis Granger(1792–1868) Whig Representative William Henry Harrison John Tyler*(1790–1862) Fmr. Senator Hugh Lawson White 1840 Richard M. Johnson*(1780–1850) Democratic Vice President Martin Van Buren 1844 Theodore Frelinghuysen(1787–1862) Whig Fmr. Senator Henry Clay 1848 William O. Butler(1791–1880) Democratic Fmr. Representative Lewis Cass 1852 William A. Graham(1804–1875) Whig Secretary of the Navy Winfield Scott 1856 William L. Dayton(1807–1864) Republican Fmr. Senator John C. Frémont 1860 Herschel V. Johnson(1812–1880) Democratic Fmr. Governor Stephen A. Douglas 1864 George H. Pendleton(1825–1889) Democratic Representative George B. McClellan 1868 Francis P. Blair Jr.(1821–1875) Democratic Fmr. Representative Horatio Seymour 1872 Benjamin G. Brown(1826–1885) Liberal Republicanand Democratic Governor Horace Greeley 1876 Thomas A. Hendricks*(1819–1885) Democratic Governor Samuel Tilden 1880 William H. English(1822–1896) Democratic Fmr. Representative Winfield Scott Hancock 1884 John A. Logan(1826–1886) Republican Senator James G. Blaine 1888 Allen G. Thurman(1813–1895) Democratic Fmr. Senator Grover Cleveland 1892 Whitelaw Reid(1837–1912) Republican Fmr. Ambassador Benjamin Harrison 1896 Arthur Sewall(1835–1900) Democratic None William Jennings Bryan 1900 Adlai Stevenson I*(1835–1914) Democratic Fmr. Vice President 1904 Henry G. Davis(1823–1916) Democratic Fmr. Senator Alton B. Parker 1908 John W. Kern(1849–1917) Democratic Fmr. state senator William Jennings Bryan 1912 James S. Sherman*(1855–1912) Republican Vice President William Howard Taft 1916 Charles W. Fairbanks*(1852–1918) Republican Fmr. Vice President Charles Evans Hughes 1920 Franklin D. Roosevelt(1882–1945) Democratic Fmr. AssistantSecretary of the Navy James M. Cox 1924 Charles W. Bryan(1867–1945) Democratic Governor John W. Davis 1928 Joseph T. Robinson(1872–1937) Democratic Senator Al Smith 1932 Charles Curtis*(1860–1936) Republican Vice President Herbert Hoover 1936 Frank Knox(1874–1944) Republican None Alf Landon 1940 Charles L. McNary(1874–1944) Republican Senator Wendell Willkie 1944 John W. Bricker(1893–1986) Republican Governor Thomas E. Dewey 1948 Earl Warren(1891–1974) Republican Governor 1952 John Sparkman(1899–1985) Democratic Senator Adlai Stevenson II 1956 Estes Kefauver(1903–1963) Democratic Senator 1960 Henry Cabot Lodge Jr.(1902–1985) Republican Fmr. Ambassador Richard Nixon 1964 William E. Miller(1914–1983) Republican Representative Barry Goldwater 1968 Edmund Muskie(1914–1996) Democratic Senator Hubert Humphrey 1972 Sargent Shriver(1915–2011) Democratic Fmr. Ambassador George McGovern 1976 Bob Dole(1923–2021) Republican Senator Gerald Ford 1980 Walter Mondale*(1928–2021) Democratic Vice President Jimmy Carter 1984 Geraldine Ferraro(1935–2011) Democratic Representative Walter Mondale 1988 Lloyd Bentsen(1921–2006) Democratic Senator Michael Dukakis 1992 Dan Quayle*(born 1947) Republican Vice President George H. W. Bush 1996 Jack Kemp(1935–2009) Republican Fmr. Secretary of HUD Bob Dole 2000 Joe Lieberman(1942–2024) Democratic Senator Al Gore 2004 John Edwards(born 1953) Democratic Senator John Kerry 2008 Sarah Palin(born 1964) Republican Governor John McCain 2012 Paul Ryan(born 1970) Republican Representative Mitt Romney 2016 Tim Kaine(born 1958) Democratic Senator Hillary Clinton 2020 Mike Pence*(born 1959) Republican Vice President Donald Trump 2024 Tim Walz(born 1964) Democratic Governor Kamala Harris
Major third parties and independents
These third party and independent candidates won at least ten percent of the electoral vote for vice president, or served as the main running mate to a third party or independent presidential candidate who won at least ten percent of the popular vote for president.Rosenstone et al. (2018), Appendix A
Election Candidate Running mate Candidate(Birth–death) Party Office at timeof election Homestate 1848 Charles Francis Adams Sr.(1807–1886) Free Soil Fmr. state senator Martin Van Buren 1856 Andrew Jackson Donelson(1799–1871)Southwick (1998), p. 251 American Fmr. Ambassador Millard Fillmore 1860 Joseph Lane(1801–1881) Southern Democratic Senator John C. Breckinridge 1860 Edward Everett(1794–1865) Constitutional Union Fmr. Secretary of State John Bell 1912 Hiram Johnson(1866–1945) Progressive Governor Theodore Roosevelt 1924 Burton K. Wheeler(1882–1975) Progressive Senator Robert La Follette 1968 Curtis LeMay(1906–1990)Southwick (1998), pp. 697–698 American Independent General George Wallace 1992 James Stockdale(1923–2005)Southwick (1998), pp. 768–769 Independent Vice Admiral Ross Perot
See also List of people who received an electoral vote in the United States Electoral College List of United States Electoral College results List of vice presidents of the United States List of unsuccessful major party candidates for President of the United States
Notes
References
Works cited