Intellectual Property Law

Warren G. Harding, who in 1920 became the first sitting U.S. senator to take the White House.
Photo: Library of Congress

With all three major U.S. presidential candidates hailing from the Senate this year, Wired.com copy editor and history geek Randy Alfred is obsessing over how sitting and former senators have fared in previous presidential races. He came up with this list of fun facts.

• Last time a former U.S. senator was elected president: 1972 (Nixon)


• Last time a former U.S. senator ran against a sitting U.S. senator for the presidency: 1972 (Nixon vs. McGovern)


• Last time two former U.S. senators ran against each other for the presidency: 1968  (Nixon vs. Humphrey)


• Won-Lost record of former U.S. senators running as major-party nominees for president: 13-16¹


• Last time two sitting U.S. senators ran head-to-head for the presidency: Never ²


• Last time a sitting U.S. senator was elected president: 1960 (Kennedy)


• First time a sitting U.S. senator was elected president: 1920 (Harding)


• Won-Lost record of sitting U.S. senators running as major-party nominees for president: 2-12¹


• Record of sitting U.S. senators who became president for completing term as president: 0-2 (Both Harding and Kennedy died in office.)


• Last time neither major party had an incumbent president or vice president seeking its presidential nomination: 1952

Footnotes:

¹Lewis Cass was a sitting U.S. senator when the Democrats nominated him in 1848, but resigned to run for the presidency, lost,  and was promptly returned to the Senate. Counting Cass as a sitting senator, their record would be 2-13, and the record for former senators 13-15.

² What, never? Well, hardly ever. In 1836, the Whig Party tried a divide-and-conquer strategy, running regional candidates. Former U.S. Sen. William Henry Harrison  and sitting U.S. Sens. Daniel Webster, Hugh White, and Willie Mangum all garnered electoral votes, but Democrat Martin Van Buren beat them, 170-124 for all four combined. But that was three sitting senators in a five-way race. So, if, as expected, Sen. McCain runs against Sen. Clinton or Sen. Obama, it will be the first head-to-head contest between two sitting U.S. senators in 56 presidential elections going all the way back to 1789.