The vice president-elect of the United States is the candidate who has won election to the office of vice president of the United States in a United States presidential election, but is awaiting inauguration to assume the office.

There is no explicit indication in the U.S. Constitution as to when that person actually becomes vice president-elect, although the Twentieth Amendment uses the term "Vice President-elect", thus giving the term constitutional justification.

The term corresponds to the term "president-elect of the United States", used for those elected president of the United States for the same period between their election and inauguration.

Incumbent vice presidents who have won re-election for a second term are generally not referred to as vice presidents-elect, as they are already in office and are not waiting to become vice president.

Elections of vice presidents-elect

In many, but not all, instances in which a new vice president has been elected, there is also a change of presidents, with a new president having been elected. This has not always been the case, however. There have been instances in which an incumbent president is reelected with a new vice president-elect as their running mate. This has often been due to an incumbent vice president having not received renomination. The most recent time this happened was in 1944, when Harry S. Truman was elected to replace Henry A. Wallace alongside the ailing three-term president Franklin D. Roosevelt. However, in other instances, this has been due to the vice presidency having been vacant, as there was no way to fill a vice presidential vacancy mid-term until the ratification of the Twenty-Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The most recent time that a new vice president was elected alongside an incumbent president was in 1964, when Hubert Humphrey was elected alongside Lyndon B. Johnson, with the vice presidency being vacant due to Johnson's ascension after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Ever since, all elections of new vice presidents have come alongside an election of a new president. No president has sought re-election or election to a full-term with a running mate different than their incumbent vice president since Gerald Ford did so unsuccessfully in 1976.

It is possible for an incumbent vice president to win reelection as the running mate of a new president-elect, in which case there would be a United States presidential transition with the election of a new president-elect, but there would be no vice president-elect. This first happened in 1808 when Vice President George Clinton, who was originally elected with Thomas Jefferson, was reelected as vice president with James Madison becoming president-elect. This happened again in 1828, when Vice President John C. Calhoun, who was elected vice president in 1824 with John Quincy Adams, was re-elected as vice president with Andrew Jackson becoming president-elect.

Roles in presidential transitions

Vice President-elect Lyndon B. Johnson with President-elect John F. Kennedy during the 1960–61 presidential transition of John F. Kennedy

As previously mentioned many vice presidents-elect, and all from 1968 onwards, have been elected alongside a new president-elect, meaning that the period before many vice-presidents elects have entered office as vice president have entailed presidential transitions.

Similar to the president-elect, the General Services Administration is authorized by the Presidential Transition Act of 1963 to provide the vice president-elect with funding, office space, and various government services (such as transportation and communications) to accommodate their role in the transition between presidential administrations.[1]

The role that various vice presidents-elect have played in United States presidential transitions has differed.

Two vice presidents-elect have been in charge of presidential transitions as formal chairmen, Dick Cheney in the presidential transition of George W. Bush (2000–01)[2] and Mike Pence in the presidential transition of Donald Trump (2016–17).[3]

Bill Clinton heavily involved Vice President-elect Al Gore in his 1992–93 transition, including him in a group of confidants that joined Clinton in making many of the transition's top decisions.[4] Jimmy Carter allowed Vice President-elect Walter Mondale to play a role in his 1976–77 transition, including allowing him to provide input on some individuals being considered for roles in the administration.[5]

Some presidents-elect have excluded their vice presidents-elect from playing a significant role in their transition. For instance, in Dwight D. Eisenhower's 1952–53 transition, Vice President-elect Richard Nixon did not play an active role.[6] During Nixon's own the 1968–69 transition, Vice President-elect Spiro Agnew was similarly largely uninvolved.[7]

Procedure for replacement

If the vice president-elect dies or resigns before the meeting of the Electoral College in December, the national committee of the winning party would, in consultation with the president-elect, choose a replacement to receive the electoral votes of the vice presidential nominee in the same manner as would happen if the former vice presidential nominee had become president-elect due to the death of the apparent winner. Assuming the requisite number the electors agreed to vote for the replacement candidate, that person would then become the vice president-elect. If such a vacancy were to occur after the electoral votes had been cast in the states, most authorities maintain that no replacement would be chosen and the new president (after taking office) would nominate a vice president, per the provisions of the Twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution.[8]

Vice President-designate of the United States

Before ratification of the 25th Amendment in 1967, the Constitution contained no provision for filling an intra-term vacancy in the vice presidency. As a result, when one occurred (and did 16 times), the office was left vacant until filled through the next ensuing election and inauguration. Since 1967, the vice presidency has been vacant twice, and a successor was nominated each time to fill the vacancy in accordance with the 25th Amendment. The first instance was in 1973 when Gerald Ford was nominated by President Richard Nixon to succeed Spiro Agnew, who had resigned. The second came in 1974, when Ford, who had succeeded to the presidency following Nixon's resignation, nominated Nelson Rockefeller to succeed him.[9][10] During both vacancies, the nominee was called vice president-designate, instead of vice president-elect, as neither had been elected to the office.

List of vice presidents-elect

Vice President-elect[lower-alpha 1] Party Following Through
1 John Adams NonpartisanElection of 1788–89[lower-alpha 2]George Washington's first inauguration
2 Thomas Jefferson Democratic-RepublicanElection of 1796John Adams's inauguration
3 Aaron Burr Democratic-RepublicanElection of 1800[lower-alpha 3]Thomas Jefferson's first inauguration
4 George ClintonDemocratic-RepublicanElection of 1804Thomas Jefferson's second inauguration
5 Elbridge GerryDemocratic-RepublicanElection of 1812James Madison's second inauguration
6 Daniel D. TompkinsDemocratic-RepublicanElection of 1816James Monroe's first inauguration
7 John C. CalhounDemocratic-RepublicanElection of 1824[lower-alpha 3]John Quincy Adams's inauguration
8 Martin Van Buren DemocraticElection of 1832Andrew Jackson's second inauguration
9 Richard Mentor JohnsonDemocraticElection of 1836Martin Van Buren's inauguration
10 John Tyler WhigElection of 1840William Henry Harrison's inauguration
11 George M. Dallas DemocraticElection of 1844James K. Polk's inauguration
12 Millard Filmore WhigElection of 1848Zachary Taylor's inauguration
13 William R. King DemocraticElection of 1852Oath of office administered March 24, 1853[lower-alpha 4]
14 John C. BreckinridgeDemocraticElection of 1856James Buchanan's inauguration
15 Hannibal Hamlin RepublicanElection of 1860Abraham Lincoln's first inauguration
16 Andrew Johnson National UnionElection of 1864Abraham Lincoln's second inauguration
17 Schuyler Colfax RepublicanElection of 1868Ulysses S. Grant's first inauguration
18 Henry WilsonRepublicanElection of 1872Ulysses S. Grant's second inauguration
19 William A. WheelerRepublicanElection of 1876[lower-alpha 5]Rutherford B. Hayes's inauguration
20 Chester A. ArthurRepublicanElection of 1880James A. Garfield's inauguration
21 Thomas A. Hendricks DemocraticElection of 1884Grover Cleveland's first inauguration
22 Levi P. Morton RepublicanElection of 1888Benjamin Harrison's inauguration
23 Adlai Stevenson I DemocraticElection of 1892Grover Cleveland's second inauguration
24 Garret Hobart RepublicanElection of 1896William McKinley's first inauguration
25 Theodore RooseveltRepublicanElection of 1900William McKinley's second inauguration
26 Charles W. FairbanksRepublicanElection of 1904Theodore Roosevelt's second inauguration
27 James S. ShermanRepublicanElection of 1908William Howard Taft's inauguration
28 Thomas R. Marshall DemocraticElection of 1912Woodrow Wilson's first inauguration
29 Calvin Coolidge RepublicanElection of 1920Warren G. Harding's inauguration
20 Charles G. DawesRepublicanElection of 1924Calvin Coolidge's inauguration
31 Charles CurtisRepublicanElection of 1928Herbert Hoover's inauguration
32 John Nance Garner DemocraticElection of 1932Franklin D. Roosevelt's first inauguration
33 Henry A. WallaceDemocraticElection of 1940Franklin D. Roosevelt's third inauguration
34 Harry S. TrumanDemocraticElection of 1944Franklin D. Roosevelt's fourth inauguration
35 Alben W. BarkleyDemocraticElection of 1948Harry S. Truman's second inauguration
36 Richard Nixon RepublicanElection of 1952Dwight D. Eisenhower's first inauguration
37 Lyndon B. Johnson DemocraticElection of 1960John F. Kennedy's inauguration
38 Hubert HumphreyDemocraticElection of 1964Lyndon B. Johnson's second inauguration
39 Spiro Agnew RepublicanElection of 1968Richard Nixon's first inauguration
40 Walter Mondale DemocraticElection of 1976Jimmy Carter's inauguration
41 George H. W. Bush RepublicanElection of 1980Ronald Reagan's first inauguration
42 Dan QuayleRepublicanElection of 1988George H. W. Bush's inauguration
43 Al Gore DemocraticElection of 1992Bill Clinton's first inauguration
44 Dick Cheney RepublicanElection of 2000[lower-alpha 6]George W. Bush's first inauguration
45 Joe Biden DemocraticElection of 2008Barack Obama's first inauguration
46 Mike Pence RepublicanElection of 2016Donald Trump's inauguration
47 Kamala Harris DemocraticElection of 2020Joe Biden's inauguration
Notes:
  1. ↑ Column counts number of vice president-elect. Gerald Ford and Nelson Rockefeller are not counted because they entered office intra-term and were never elected to the vice presidency.
  2. ↑ Also after a delay in the certification of the electoral votes by Congress.
  3. 1 2 Also after a contingent election in the House of Representatives.
  4. ↑ Ill with tuberculosis, William King traveled to Cuba after the 1852 election in an effort to regain his health, and was not able to be in Washington, D.C. to take his oath of office on March 4, 1853. By an Act of Congress, he was allowed to take the oath outside the United States, and was sworn in on March 24, 1853 near Matanzas, Cuba. He is the only vice president to take his oath of office in a foreign country.
  5. ↑ Also after a dispute over 20 electoral votes from four states was resolved by a special Electoral Commission established by Congress.
  6. ↑ Also after a dispute over Florida's 25 electoral votes was resolved by the Supreme Court in Bush v. Gore, which halted the Florida vote recount that was under way.[11]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "PUBLIC LAW 88-277-MAR. 7, 1964" (PDF). govinfo.gov. United States Congress. March 7, 1964. Retrieved May 21, 2021.
  2. ↑ "Chronology--Transition". p2000.us. Retrieved February 1, 2021.
  3. ↑ Bender, Michael C. (November 12, 2016). "Donald Trump Shuffles Transition Team, Making Mike Pence Chairman". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved May 20, 2021.
  4. ↑ Skinner, Richard (October 7, 2016). "Bill Clinton set a bad example with his transition". Vox. Retrieved February 1, 2021.
  5. ↑ Burke, John P. (2000). Presidential Transitions: From Politics To Practice. Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers. p. 29. ISBN 1555879160.
  6. ↑ Henry, Laurin L. (January 1961). Presidential Transitions. Washington, D.C.: The Brookings Institution. p. 491.
  7. ↑ Coffey, Joseph P. (2015). Spiro Agnew and the Rise of the Republican Right. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. pp. 89–91. ISBN 978-1440841415.
  8. ↑ Coleman, Kevin J.; Cantor, Joseph E.; Neale, Thomas H. (April 17, 2000). "Presidential Elections in the United States: A Primer" (PDF). CRS Report for Congress. Congressional Research Service - Library of Congress. p. 48. Archived (PDF) from the original on March 31, 2010. Retrieved December 24, 2016.
  9. ↑ Nessen, Ron (Reporter); Jamieson, Bob (Reporter); Brokaw, Tom (Anchor) (October 13, 1973). "Profile of Vice President-Designate Gerald Ford". NBC Nightly News. NBC. Archived from the original on November 14, 2020. Retrieved December 22, 2016.
  10. ↑ "Nelson Rockefeller, Vice President-Designate". Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library & Museum. Archived from the original on November 14, 2020. Retrieved December 22, 2016.
  11. ↑ McCaleb, Ian Christopher (December 13, 2000). "Bush, now president-elect, signals will to bridge partisan gaps". CNN.com. Archived from the original on November 14, 2020. Retrieved February 10, 2009.
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