How many US presidents have lost reelection? A look at past defeated incumbents
With former Vice President Joe Biden declared the winner by The Associated Press, President Donald Trump joins a short list of incumbents who lost reelection to the nation’s top office.
Only 10 U.S. presidents have been previously defeated in their quest for another term. Trump is the first in decades if the election result called by The Associated Press remains.
Here’s a brief look at past presidents who didn’t win reelection:
• George H.W. Bush: Bush lost reelection to Bill Clinton in 1992. A video of Bush conceding defeat, saying “The people have spoken,” has resurfaced on social media over the past week. The two former opponents famously became friends before Bush’s death in 2018.
• Jimmy Carter: In 1980, Ronald Reagan defeated incumbent Democrat Carter for the presidency during the Iranian hostage crisis.
• Gerald Ford: Carter beat Ford four years earlier in 1976. Ford had replaced Nixon, who resigned from office, and was never elected.
• Herbert Hoover: Franklin D. Roosevelt easily defeated Hoover by more than 7 million votes in 1932 as The Great Depression gripped the country.
• William Howard Taft: He lost reelection when Theodore Roosevelt ran for president again as a third-party candidate in 1912. Taft and Roosevelt split the vote and Woodrow Wilson won. Taft went on to become a U.S. Supreme Court justice.
• Grover Cleveland and Benjamin Harrison: This pair ruined each other’s reelection chances. In 1888, Cleveland lost reelection to Harrison. Four years later, Cleveland returned to the presidency after defeating Harrison.
• Martin Van Buren: In 1840, Van Buren lost in an Electoral College landslide to William Henry Harrison. Harrison had 240 electoral votes to Van Buren’s 60.
• John Quincy Adams: The House of Representative elected Adams after Andrew Jackson won the popular vote but didn’t get enough electoral votes for victory in 1824. Jackson easily defeated Adams four years later.
• John Adams: In 1800, John Adams lost reelection to Thomas Jefferson. He left Washington, D.C., “under cover of darkness,” marking the first peaceful transfer of power and setting precedent for presidents to come, according to History.com.
This story was originally published November 7, 2020 at 8:51 AM with the headline "How many US presidents have lost reelection? A look at past defeated incumbents."