List of Presidents of the United States
1933-1945: Franklin D. Roosevelt (D-NY) [1]
1945-1949: Elmer A. Benson (D-MN) [2]
1949-1953: Douglas MacArthur (R-NY) [3]
1953-1961: Elmer A. Benson (D-MN) [4]
1961-1967: Margaret Chase Smith (R-ME) [5]
1967-1973: John Sherman Cooper (R-KY) [6]
1973-1985: Robert F. Kennedy (D-MA) [7]
1985-1993: Barry Goldwater Jr. (R-CA) [8]
1993-1997: Martha Layne Collins (D-KY) [9]
1997-2001: William Howard Taft IV (R-NY) [10]
2001-2005: Diane Feinstein (D-CA) [11]
2005-2017: J.C. Watts (R-OK) [12]
2017-incumbent: Lucy Flores (D-NV) [13]
List of Vice Presidents of the United States
1933-1941: John Nance Garner (D-TX)
1941-1945: Henry A. Wallace (D-IO)
1945-1946: Elmer A. Benson (D-MN)
1946-1949: Vacant
1949-1953: Charles A. Halleck (R-IN)
1953-1961: Eleanor Roosevelt (D-NY)
1961-1967: John Sherman Cooper (R-KY)
1967-1969: Vacant
1969-1973: Richard Nixon (R-CA)
1969-1985: Ronald Reagan (D-CA)
1985-1993: Nancy Landon Kassebaum (R-KS)
1993-1997: Ben Nighthorse Campbell (D-CO)
1997-2001: Mitt Romney (R-MI)
2001-2005: Byron Dorgan (D-ND)
2005-2013: Frank Murkowski (R-AK)
2013-2017: Mitt Romney (R-MI)
2017-incumbent: Sherrod Brown (D-OH)
Tickets
1944: President Franklin D. Roosevelt (D-NY)/Senator Elmer A. Benson (D-MN) 413EV vs. Governor Thomas E. Dewey (R-NY)/John W. Bricker (R-OH) 118EV
1948: General Douglas MacArthur (R-NY)/Representative Charles A. Halleck (R-IN) 288EV vs. President Elmer A. Benson (D-MN)/Senator Harry S. Truman (D-MO) 185EV vs. Governor Strom Thurmond (States’ Rights-SC)/Governor Fielding L. Wright (SR-MS) 58EV
1952: fmr. President Elmer A. Benson (D-MN)/fmr. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt (D-NY) 347EV vs. Governor Earl Warren (R-CA)/Senator Leverett Saltonstall (R-MA) 111EV vs. Senator Richard Russell, Jr. (SR-GA)/Governor Benjamin Travis Laney (SR-AR) 73EV
1956: President Elmer. A. Benson (D-MN)/Vice President Eleanor Roosevelt (D-NY) 392EV vs. Senator Everett Dirksen (R-IL)/Senator Margaret Chase Smith (R-ME) 139EV
1960: Senator Margaret Chase Smith (R-ME)/Senator John Sherman Cooper (R-KY) 298EV vs. Senate Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson (D-TX)/Governor Albert Rosellini (D-WA) 239EV
1964: President Margaret Chase Smith (R-ME)/Vice President John Sherman Cooper (R-KY) 342EV vs. Senator George Smathers (D-FL)/Governor Gaylord Nelson (D-WI) 196EV
1968: President John Sherman Cooper (R-KY)/Senator Richard Nixon (R-CA) 287EV vs. Senate Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson (D-TX)/Governor Mills E. Goodwin Jr. (D-VA) 251EV
1972: Governor Robert F. Kennedy (D-MA)/Senator Ronald Reagan (D-CA) 361EV vs. Vice President Richard Nixon (R-CA)/Senator Jim Rhodes (R-OH) 177EV
1976: President Robert F. Kennedy (D-MA)/Vice President Ronald Reagan (D-CA) 450EV vs. Senator James L. Buckley (R-NY)/Governor John Tower (R-TX) 88EV
1980: President Robert F. Kennedy (D-MA)/Vice President Ronald Reagan (D-CA) 356EV vs. Governor John Heinz III (R-PA)/Representative David A. Norcross (R-NJ) 148EV vs. Senator Jesse Helms (SR-NC)/Representative Newt Gingrich (SR-GA) 34EV
1984: Governor Barry Goldwater Jr. (R-CA)/Senator Nancy Landon Kassebaum (R-KS) 339EV vs. Senator Frank Moss (D-UT)/Representative John Breaux (D-LO) 199EV
1988: President Barry Goldwater Jr. (R-CA)/Vice President Nancy Landon Kassebaum (R-KS) 361EV vs. Senator Ted Kulongoski (D-OR)/Senator Adlai Stevenson III (D-IL) 177EV
1992: Senator Martha Layne Collins (D-KY)/Governor Ben Nighthorse Campbell (D-CO) 294EV vs. Senator Larry Pressler (R-SD)/Representative Pete Dawkins (R-NY) 244EV
1996: fmr. Attorney General William Howard Taft (R-NY)/Governor Mitt Romney (R-MI) 283EV vs. President Martha Layne Collins (D-KY)/Vice President Ben Nighthorse Campbell 255EV vs. fmr. Senator Eugene McCarthy (I-MN)/Consumer Advocate Ralph Nader (I-CT) 0EV
2000: Governor Diane Feinstein (D-CA)/fmr. Governor Byron Dorgan (D-ND) 275EV vs. President William Howard Taft IV (R-NY)/Vice President Mitt Romney (R-MI) 263EV
2004: Senator J.C. Watts (R-OK)/Senator Frank Murkowski (R-AK) 296EV vs. President Diane Feinstein (D-CA)/Vice President Byron Dorgan (D-ND) 242EV
2008: President J.C. Watts (R-OK)/Vice President Frank Murkowski (R-AK) 343EV vs. Governor Ted Mondale (D-MN)/Senator Harold Ford (D-TN) 195EV
2012: President J.C. Watts (R-OK)/fmr. Vice President Mitt Romney (R-MI) 274EV vs. Senator Harold Ford (D-TN)/Governor Mark Taylor (D-GA) 264EV
2016: Governor Lucy Flores (D-NV)/Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) 434EV vs. Vice President Mitt Romney (R-MI)/Governor Lamar Smith (R-TX) 104EV
[1] During Roosevelt's reelection run in 1944 party bosses strongly pushed him to drop Vice President Henry Wallace from the ticket. Although he acquiesced to their demands, the then-likeliest replacement for Truman was taken out of the running after suffering a serious yet non-fatal heart attack during early July. Several other potential candidates were brought up, including Kentucky Senator Alben Barkley and James Byrnes but the group pushing for Wallace's departure were never really able to settle on a name before the national convention. Roosevelt initially favoured Byrnes for the slot, but his weak support among labor unions made that notion difficult. At one point it looked like Wallace would prevail in spite of the opposition after all, however finally a replacement was found. Senator Elmer Benson had been instrumental in implementing the merger of the Minnesota Farmer-Labor and Democratic parties in 1942 and was popular among liberals like Wallace, but had also endeared himself to isolationist Democrats in the Senate. In spite of only having been a Democrat for 2 years, Benson won the Vice Presidential nomination at the 1944 DNC, to great surprise from the press and the public.
[2] Shortly after his term as Vice President began, Elmer Benson was thrust into the highest office of the land when Franklin Roosevelt died on April 26, 1945, while on his way back to Washington D.C. after participating in the founding conference of the United Nations. Benson presided over the final wind down of the Second World War, however as focus returned to domestic issues and the transition towards a peacetime economy, his initially high popularity began to drop. His friendly attitudes toward labor did not win him many favors with the more conservative members of congress nor help him with the public which were growing tired of an increasing amount of labor disputes, while his decision to desegregate the armed forces also made him a powerful enemy in the southern Democrats. In spite of some speculation that some powerful party bosses would deny him the chance of renomination, he won the Democratic nomination for the presidency in 1948, although he was challenged by southern Democrats who broke off to form their own ticket in protest. As many in the press predicted, Benson lost the election although what was surprising was that he won the popular vote by over 2 percent. Thus, a great deal of blame was placed on the segregationists for picking up what otherwise were safe Democratic electoral votes and splitting the vote in key states in the upper south.
[3] While Douglas MacArthur was initially popular as President, that soon began to drop off as the United States got involved in the Korean War. MacArthur was adamant in that he would accept nothing less than the total and utter surrender of North Korea, however as the war dragged on through 1950 and 51 the American people grew increasingly tired of the number of boys being sent overseas to fight. Even though China got involved, MacArthur was not deterred. He signed off on attacks against Chinese positions inside Chinese territory, which only served to escelate the conflict further and as was reported in the press in early '52 MacArthur came terribly close to ordering nuclear strikes against enemy positions. It was only the threat from several cabinet members that they would resign in such an eventuality that forced him to back down. With MacArthurs immense impopularity, especially among liberal Republicans, he faced several primary challenges for the nomination, including former presidential candidate Tom Dewey. Eventually it was however California Governor Earl Warren who won the race for the nomination, earning him the rare merit of defeating a sitting president in a primary. However with the Republicans seriously damaged by MacArthur's four years in office, they had little chance of winning the election, and it was former President Benson who returned to the oval office in spite of another independent run from the southern Democrats. There was suggestions that MacArthur should also make an independent run, but he ultimately declined. At least he could leave office with there finally being peace in Korea, as an armistice was signed which left the majority of the peninsula in the hands of the ROK, while a rump DPRK remained with a border around the 39th parallel and its former capital city of Pyonyang in ROK hands.
[4] Although there was some specualtion that bosses would stop Benson from making a run again in order to keep the southern Democrats in the party, Benson still managed to once again win the Democratic nomination with some relative ease. In spite of making overtures to Dixiecrats, including offering the VP slot to one of them, they would accept nothing short of the DNC fully adopting their platform on segregation without any modification, which Benson flat out refused to do. Feeling burned by the Dixiecrats, he instead picked a running mate which better reflected his own political positions and still had large name recognition; Eleanor Roosevelt. Benson's second and third terms are fondly remembered to this day as it was during this time when the growth of American prosperity seemed to have no ends. Much of the modern American infrastructure was built, the universal single-payer healthcare system Medicare was created, and America's transition towards a social market economy began with the creation of the tripartie National Industrial Relations Council consisting of representatives from the government, business and unions. Benson left office in 1961 and retired to back to his Minnesotan home for his remaining life and today he is considered one of the most domestically influential Presidents in American history.
[5] Brought on as a regional balance by Everett Dirksen for 1956, and to provide a counterpoint to the Democratic ticket which also had a woman on it, Margaret Chase Smith was still considered an unlikely candidate to ever become President. During the primaries she initially threw her full support behind the clear frontrunner Nelson Rockefeller but after his candidacy imploded due to an extramarital affair, liberal Republicans were desperately looking for another standar bearer. With the deeply conservative Barry Goldwater steadily climbing in the polls, Margaret Chase Smith had the right amount of name recognition and was thus convinced to throw her name into the race. After winning the nomination, she went on to win the general election against Lyndon B. Johnson who was criticised for his rough and what was seen as condescending demeanor towards Smith in the single televised debate. Her presidency is best remembered for the landmark civil rights legislation passed during the 1960s, where she was allied with her former rival LBJ who supported her efforts in the Senate. Her time in office was however sadly cut short as she died from a stroke in January of 1967, leaving her Vice President to carry on her legacy.
[6] John Sherman Cooper had been influential over President Smith's decision to keep American ground troops out of the Vietnam conflict, however the fall of South Vietnam a mere few months after his inauguration lead to a quick plummeting of his approval numbers and greatly angered war hawks in both the Republican and Democratic parties. In order to secure his position for the election he brought on one of his strongest critics in the Senate, Richard Nixon, as the nominee for the Vice Presidency. In spite of the furious attacks he faced from the Democratic nominee Lyndon B. Johnson over his Vietnam policy and the administration percieved weakness on foreign policy and defense, Cooper narrowly managed to get elected in his own right, thanks in part to a strong economy. With Vietnam over, his second term was far more focused on domestic issues where he exanded on President Smith's civil rights legislation and expanded funding for federal infrastructure projects, especially those oriented on maintenance. Otherwise, his only full term was farily uneventful and he chose not to run in the 1972 election.
[7] While the 1972 election was initially very close, once the October surprise of Nixon staffers infiltrating the Kennedy campaign and leaking secret strategy documents hit, Bobby Kennedy opened up a wide lead and won the election by a landslide. Kennedy presided over a difficult time in American political history, as the involvement of American forces in the Iranian Civil War was highly controversial due to the large amount of casualties suffered. Even though the objective of securing the Iranian monarchy's rule was achieved, the cost was deemed far too high and the war was a stain on his Presidency all the way up until its end in 1982. In part due to the Iranian war, the oil price also rose significantly for the first time in decades during the late 70s which further served to hurt an already recession bound economy. The resulting economic troubles would not be fully resolved until towards the end of his last term. In spite of this, Kennedy managed to get elected to not just one, but two terms. This can be partially explained by how fractured the opposition was; after 12 years in power the Republicans were locked in a harsh battle between its conservative and liberal factions which resulted in the nomination of James Buckley in the 1976 election, a candidate which proved to be much too far to the right to win an election. Then, when power swung back to the moderate/liberal faction, John Heinz was nominated in 1980 but the third party conservative challenge from Jesse Helms fractured the vote and Kennedy was reelected once again against a split opposition. Aside from the War in Iran Kennedy also presided over the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment, as well as man's first landing on the moon in 1974.
[8] Barry Goldwater Jr. was able to win the 1984 Republican primaries as an anti-war candidate who also found great appeal among economic conservatives who wanted to cut back on public expenditure. And as the Democratic Party descended into the chaos of a brokered convention and the resulting pick of compromise candidate Frank Moss, Goldwater swept to power with a comfortable margin. With a Republican congress, he set about cutting back on public expenditure and cutting taxes, while at the same time deregulating baking and other financial sectors as well as pursuing of policy of détente with the Soviet Union. However the planned partial privatization of the Medicare universal healthcare system was shelved after the Democrats swept the midterms due to popular outrage at those proposals. With a Democratic congress for the remainder of his presidency, he instead mostly shifted his focus to foreign policy where he worked closely General-Secretary Romanov to achieve further reduction in nuclear armaments. He declined to run for a third term in 1992.
[9] Kentucky Senator Martha Layne Collins narrowly emerged the victor of the '92 election in spite of losing the popular vote, while the House flipped to Republican control. In spite great hope from the Democratic base that she would take the fight to the Republicans and fight for liberal causes like free public college tuition, Collins stayed in the centre ground and eagerly compromised with Republicans. With very few accomplishments which moved the country to the left in any significant manner, liberal voters were disappointed in the Collins administration, a disappointment which an independent left-wing ticket could easily appeal to. This was a great launching pad for the candidacy of former Senator Eugene McCarthy who polled as high as 8% during the summer. As a result Collins was on the defensive and forced to tack left in order to win back the left, but the 4% McCarthy got in the end was still enough to deny her a second term and propel a Republican into the White House.
[10] William Howard Taft IV must be the most unlikely presidential candidate seen in the past decades. Originally an attorney for Republicans on the Hill, he later became Deputy Attorney General during Goldwater's first term and then finally Attorney General during his second. Governor Keating picked Taft as his running mate since he was someone with experience, but when Keating was assasinated the whole campaign was thrown into disarray. Taft was eventually acclaimed as the party's nominee by the RNC, but even so very few people expected that he would ever make it to the top job due to circumstances. But he confounded the expectations and won a job he never really wanted in the first place. Even so, he ran for reelection but narrowly lost to Diane Feinstein.
[11] Championed legislation which lifted the ban on gay or transgender people serving in the military.
[12] Watts narrowly won the Republican primary against former VP Mitt Romney. Shortly after he became President China descended into a Civil War, which occupied most of his first and second terms, where he worked closely with Soviet President Nemtsov to stage an intervention to achieve peace. China eventually ended up divided into north and south, while Tibet achieved independence. The two Chinas were not at all friendly but at least they managed to co-exist without constantly being at each others throats. After the conflict, the former Chinese satellite state of North Korea collapsed, leading to the reunification of the Korean peninsula. As a wartime President Watts grew immensely popular as he was percieved as strong leader, but all good things had to come to an end as the economy bottomed out in 2014 and the world entered the worst recession seen in over 80 years. The administration had difficulty dealing with the sudden slowdown, and with a split congress during 2014 and the Senate going Democratic in the midterms, it became even more difficult. Watts spent his final years in power in crisis mode, but the few measures he could get through the Democratic Congress had little effect, and even though he was acquiesced to a stimulus package it was greatly watered down and had little effect according to leading economists.
[13] With general disappointment in the government, Lucy Flores was elected as the youngest President in American history at only 37 years old and quickly set about implementing stimulus measures and massive public works projects to kickstart the economy. Whether they will be successful still remains to be seen...
