Biden’s exit makes history, but 2 other sitting presidents cut it close to Election Day
President Joe Biden’s decision to drop out of the race just months before the election makes U.S. political history.
While sitting presidents eligible for another term have changed their minds about seeking reelection, never has one made that decision so late in an election year. The Democratic National Convention, when delegates will vote on the party’s nominees, is just weeks away, running Aug. 19-22 in Chicago.
“There have been a few presidents, I think most famously James K. Polk, who simply decided one term was enough,” said Steven Greene, a professor of political science at N.C. State University. “What makes this instance so interesting, though, is it would be the first since 1968, which means it would be the first since our modern presidential nomination system, which is a completely different way, honestly, of electing candidates since 1972.”
The political situation resulting from Biden’s decision is “entirely unprecedented in modern American history,” Greene said.
2 presidents who dropped out close to election day
Only a handful of U.S. presidents have decided not to seek reelection when they were eligible. Of those, just two — Lyndon B. Johnson and Harry S. Truman — dropped out of the race within one year of the end of their term. Here’s an overview of what happened.
Johnson, Truman drop out nearly eight months before Election Day
Former presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and Harry S. Truman announced they wouldn’t seek reelection in late March of their respective election years.
Both were vice presidents who ascended to the presidency after the deaths of John F. Kennedy and Franklin D. Roosevelt.
▪ Lyndon Johnson announced he would not seek reelection on March 31, 1968, in an Oval Office address.
“With America’s sons in the fields far away, with America’s future under challenge right here at home, with our hopes and the world’s hopes for peace in the balance every day, I do not believe that I should devote an hour or a day of my time to any personal partisan causes or to any duties other than the awesome duties of this office — the presidency of your country,” Johnson said. “Accordingly, I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your president.”
Johnson was facing a country upset over the worsening situation in Vietnam, coupled with increasing racial tension at home.
But health may have factored into the former president’s decision. One of Johnson’s former aides, George Christian, wrote in a 1988 article for “Texas Monthly” that in 1967, when Johnson asked Christian to begin working on a withdrawal statement, “his reasons were based entirely on health.” Johnson had a heart attack in 1955.
Another former aide, Leo Janos, said in a 1973 story in “The Atlantic” that Johnson had told him in 1971, “My daddy was only 62 when he died, and I figured that with my history of heart trouble I’d never live through another four years.”
▪ For Harry Truman, the decision not to seek reelection seems to be politically motivated.
According to an article written by Alonzo L. Hamby, a professor emeritus of history at Ohio University who has authored multiple books about the former president, “Truman’s popularity sank during his second term, due largely to accusations of corruption, charges that the administration was ‘soft on communism,’ and the stalemated Korean War.”
Truman’s announcement came during the March 29, 1952, speech delivered at the Jefferson-Jackson Day Dinner in Washington.
“I shall not be a candidate for reelection,” Truman said. “I have served my country long, and I think efficiently and honestly. I shall not accept a renomination. I do not feel that it is my duty to spend another four years in the White House.”
In each case, the opposing party reclaimed White House
Both the 1952 and 1968 elections resulted in victories for Republicans.
At the DNC in 1952, the party nominated Adlai E. Stevenson, the governor of Illinois, on the third ballot. His running mate was Sen. John Sparkman of Alabama.
But the Democrats lost control of the White House when the country elected the Republican nominee, Dwight D. Eisenhower.
After Johnson, then 59 years old, announced he would not seek reelection, Democrats nominated his vice president, Hubert Humphrey, at the convention.
Humphrey faced Republican nominee Richard Nixon and Independent candidate George Wallace. Nixon won the election.
This story was originally published July 21, 2024 at 12:02 PM with the headline "Biden’s exit makes history, but 2 other sitting presidents cut it close to Election Day."
