This list lists achievements and distinctions of various presidential candidates. It does not include the accomplishments of vice presidential candidates nor
distinctions achieved during presidencies, with the exception of those that directly relate to presidential elections. Records concerning party nominations go back to 1796, the first time that political parties nominated presidential tickets.[1] Records concerning the national popular vote only go back to the 1824 election, when the national popular vote began to be officially recorded.[2] Certain other records are noted as going back to the 1804 ratification of the
Twelfth Amendment, which made significant alterations to the process of presidential elections.
First individual to run on a major party ticket with three different running mates during their career:
Grover Cleveland[n]
First individual to win two presidential elections without winning a majority of the national popular vote:
Grover Cleveland[11]
1904
First individual to succeed to the presidency following the death or resignation of a predecessor, and then win election in his own right:
Theodore Roosevelt[40]
^
abThe modern
United States Army traces its origins to the
Continental Army, but did not become known as the United States Army until 1796. Washington had served in the Continental Army prior to the 1789 election, but did not serve in the United States Army until 1798.[3]
^
abIn the 1796 election, the Democratic-Republicans may or may not have officially nominated Jefferson for president through a
congressional nominating caucus, but Jefferson was widely regarded as the party's main presidential candidate. The Democratic-Republicans did not select an official vice presidential candidate, though
Aaron Burr finished with the second-most electoral votes among individuals affiliated with the party. The Federalists informally nominated Adams for president and
Thomas Pinckney for vice president.[5]
^In the 1800 election, the Democratic-Republican
congressional nominating caucus nominated
Thomas Jefferson for president and
Aaron Burr for vice president. The Federalist congressional nominating caucus nominated a ticket of Adams and
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney. Though the party did not officially nominate either candidate for president or vice president, most Federalists favored Adams for president and Pinckney for vice president.[5]
^President
George Washington was broadly sympathetic to the Federalist program, and Federalist
John Adams won election during Washington's presidency. However, Washington remained officially non-partisan during his entire presidency.[7][page needed]
^Clinton was a Northern Democratic-Republican who challenged the incumbent Democratic-Republican president, James Madison, in the general election.[8] Clinton was nominated for president by a legislative caucus of New York Democratic-Republicans, and much of his support came from Democratic-Republicans dissatisfied with Madison's leadership in the
War of 1812. The Federalist Party did not officially nominate Clinton, but most Federalist leaders tacitly supported Clinton's candidacy, making him the de facto Federalist candidate in the election.[9]
^The Federalists did not nominate a ticket in 1816, though some Federalists were elected to serve as presidential electors. A majority of the Federalist electors cast their presidential vote for King, making him the de facto Federalist candidate.[10]
^
abThe Democratic-Republican Party split into two factions during the 1820s, and these factions eventually coalesced into the Democratic Party and the National Republican Party. There is not a clear founding date for the Democratic Party or the National Republican Party, but Jackson is generally considered to be the founder of the Democratic Party[13] and supporters of Adams labeled themselves as the National Republicans during his presidency.[14]
^
abIn 1844, John Tyler's followers formed a short-lived third party that nominated him for president. Before the election took place, Tyler dropped out of the race and endorsed Democrat
James K. Polk.[19] In 1848,
Martin Van Buren became the first individual who had served as president to run for president on a third party ticket and not drop out before the election.
^In 1856, the American Party, along with a
rump convention of Whigs, nominated a presidential ticket led by former President Millard Fillmore.[22] By 1856, neither the Republican Party nor the American Party had truly supplanted the Whig Party as the second major political party in the United States.[23] Nonetheless, the American Party is frequently described as a third party.[24][25][26] After the 1856 election, the Republican Party firmly established itself as one of the two major parties alongside the Democratic Party, while the American Party collapsed.[27]
^The Democratic Party fractured along sectional lines in 1860 and held multiple
national conventions. The Northern Democrats nominated Douglas and the Southern Democrats nominated Vice President
John C. Breckinridge.[29][30] Many sources include Breckinridge as a third party candidate,[31][32] but other sources do not.[33][2]
^The electoral votes that Greeley would have won had he lived were distributed among several candidates, including
Thomas A. Hendricks and Greeley's running mate,
Benjamin Gratz Brown.
^Though other losing candidates have won a plurality of the national popular vote, Tilden is the only candidate in American history to lose a presidential election despite receiving a majority of the national popular vote.[36]
^Cleveland ran with
Thomas A. Hendricks in 1884,
Allen G. Thurman in 1888, and
Adlai Stevenson I in 1892.
Henry Clay had previously run for president three times, but he was not on a major party ticket in 1824 and may not have had an official running mate in that election (though
Nathan Sanford served as his de facto running mate).[39]
^North Dakota held the first ever contested presidential primary on March 19, 1912. La Follette defeated President
William Howard Taft and former President
Theodore Roosevelt in that primary contest.[42][43]
^William Howard Taft also served on the Supreme Court, but did so only after winning the Republican presidential nomination in the elections of 1908 and 1912. Other individuals who served on the Supreme Court, including
John Jay, have won electoral votes.
^
abObama was born in Hawaii and McCain was born in the
Panama Canal Zone.[61] Numerous earlier presidential candidates were born in parts of
British America that later became part of the United States.
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Deskins, Donald Richard; Walton, Hanes; Puckett, Sherman (2010). Presidential Elections, 1789–2008: County, State, and National Mapping of Election Data. University of Michigan Press.
ISBN978-0472116973.
Gienapp, William E. (1985). "Nativism and the Creation of a Republican Majority in the North before the Civil War". The Journal of American History. 72 (3): 529–555.
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doi:
10.2307/1902325.
JSTOR1902325.
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JSTOR985965.
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ISBN9780691190525.