List of Presidents of the United States by other offices held
This is a list of Presidents of the United States by other offices (either elected or appointive) held. Every President of the United States has served as either:
Federal Government
Executive Branch
Vice Presidents
A timeline graph of Presidents with a highlighting of those who had been Vice Presidents. A gray arrow points to those who became president without having been elected as president. The double arrow indicates Ford becoming president without having been elected as vice president also. (See source image for more info.)
In addition, both George H. W. Bush and Dick Cheney served as Acting Presidents for brief periods under Reagan and George W. Bush, respectively.
13 former Vice Presidents (R. Johnson, Breckinridge, Morton, Stevenson, Fairbanks, Garner, Wallace, Barkley, Nixon, Humphrey, Mondale, Quayle, and Gore) all made failed runs for the Presidency. Nixon, Humphrey, Mondale, and Gore received their party's nomination. Nixon would later be elected in a second run for the presidency.
Cabinet Secretaries
John Adams (as Vice President) and Thomas Jefferson both served in the Cabinet of George Washington.
Both Theodore (from 1897–1898) and Franklin D. Roosevelt (from 1913–1920) served as Assistant Secretary of the Navy under Presidents McKinley and Wilson, respectively. William Howard Taft served as Solicitor General from 1890 to 1892 under President Harrison.
Ambassadors
Other Federal Appointees
Judicial Branch
Chief Justice of the United States
Other Federal Judges
Legislative Branch
Senators
A number of future Presidents served together while in the Senate:
- Senator Monroe served under Vice President Adams (1790–1794)
- Senator Jackson served under Vice President Jefferson (1797–1798)
- Senator Van Buren served with Senators Jackson (1823–1825), Harrison (1825–1828), and Tyler (1827–1828)
- Senator Buchanan also served with Senator Tyler (1834–1836) and later served with Senator Pierce (1837–1842). Both Buchanan and Tyler served under Vice President Martin Van Buren (1833–1837), while Pierce later served under Vice President Tyler (1841).
- Senator Harrison briefly served under Vice President Arthur (1881).
- Senator Johnson served with both Senators Nixon (1950–1953) and Kennedy (1953–1960). Johnson and Kennedy both served under Vice President Nixon (1953–1961).
Members of the House of Representatives
A number of future Presidents served in the House together:
- Congressman Jackson served with Congressman Madison (1796–1797)
- Congressman Harrison served with Congressman Tyler (1816–1819)
- Congressman Buchanan served with Congressman Polk (1825–1831)
- Congressman Adams also served with Congressman Polk (1831–1839), and later served with Congressmen Fillmore (1833–1835; 1837–1843), Pierce (1833–1837), Johnson (1843–1848), and Lincoln (1847–1848)
- Congressman Garfield served with both Congressmen Hayes (1865–1867) and McKinley (1877–1881)
- Congressman Nixon served with Congressmen Johnson (1947–1949), John F. Kennedy (1947–1950), and Ford (1949–1950). Congressman Ford later served with Congressman Bush (1967–1971).
Continental Congress
State and territorial government
Governors
State Legislators
- See below for information about pre-1776 colonial offices held.
Other Statewide Offices
Municipal Government
Presidents without prior political occupation
Foreign Governments
Colonial and Confederate Legislators
Lost Races
Other than immediate re-election to the Presidency
President |
Office and jurisdiction |
Year |
Notes |
Thomas Jefferson |
President of the United States |
1796 |
Won in 1800, 1804 |
Andrew Jackson |
President of the United States |
1824 |
Won in 1828, 1832 |
Martin Van Buren |
Democratic nomination for President of the United States |
1844 |
Placed in distant third to James K. Polk |
President of the United States |
1848 |
Lost to Zachary Taylor. Candidate of the Free Soil Party. |
William Henry Harrison |
Governor of Ohio |
1820 |
Lost to Ethan Allen Brown |
United States Representative |
1822 |
Lost to James W. Gazlay |
President of the United States |
1836 |
Won in 1840 |
Millard Fillmore |
President of the United States |
1856 |
Placed in distant third to James Buchanan. Candidate of the Know-Nothing Party. |
Abraham Lincoln |
United States Senator from Illinois |
1858 |
Lost to Stephen Douglas |
Ulysses S. Grant |
Republican nomination for President of the United States |
1880 |
Lost to James Garfield |
Grover Cleveland |
District Attorney for Erie County, New York |
1865 |
Lost to Lyman K. Bass |
Theodore Roosevelt |
Mayor of New York City |
1886 |
Placed in distant third behind Abram S. Hewitt. |
Republican nomination for President of the United States |
1912 |
Lost to William Howard Taft |
President of the United States |
1912 |
Placed distant second to Woodrow Wilson. Candidate of the Progressive Party. Only third-party candidate to place second in an election. |
Franklin D. Roosevelt |
Vice President of the United States |
1920 |
Later became Governor of New York (1929–1933) |
John F. Kennedy |
Democratic nomination for Vice President of the United States |
1956 |
Won presidency in 1960 |
Lyndon B. Johnson |
United States Senator from Texas |
1941 |
Later elected Senator in 1948 |
Richard Nixon |
President of the United States |
1960 |
Won in 1968, 1972 |
Governor of California |
1962 |
Lost to Pat Brown by nearly 300,000 votes; in his concession speech, he lashed out at the media, saying "...you don't have Nixon to kick around any more, because, gentlemen, this is my last press conference." |
Jimmy Carter |
Governor of Georgia |
1966 |
Later won the office in 1970, Won presidency in 1976, but lost re-election in 1980. |
Ronald Reagan |
Republican nomination for President of the United States |
1968, 1976 |
Later won in 1980, 1984 |
George H.W. Bush |
United States Senator from Texas |
1964, 1970 |
Lost to Ralph Yarborough in 1964 and Lloyd Bentsen in 1970 |
Republican nomination for President of the United States |
1980 |
Won presidency in 1988 but lost re-election in 1992 |
Bill Clinton |
United States Representative |
1974 |
Lost to John Paul Hammerschmidt in 1974 |
Governor of Arkansas (re-election) |
1980 |
Lost to Frank White in 1980; won in 1978, 1982, 1984, 1986, 1990 |
George W. Bush |
United States Representative |
1978 |
Lost to Kent Hance in 1978 |
Barack Obama |
United States Representative |
2000 |
Lost Democratic nomination to Bobby Rush in 2000 |