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Donald Trump Isn’t the Only Former U.S. President Who Just Couldn’t Give Up
Though he is part of a very small club
If you’ve been paying attention at all (and even if you’ve been trying not to), you know that at this point, a year and a half before the election, former President Donald Trump is leading the Republican race to face off against President Joe Biden in the 2024 presidential election. Ignoring for a moment that any number of things could keep him from winning the nomination (including multiple criminal indictments), from a simple historical perspective a former president running for the office again after losing his bid for reelection is a rare occurrence in American politics.
In fact, only six former presidents have made such a usually Quixotic run in our history, with the most recent being Herbert Hoover in 1940. Let’s look at those previous instances, including the one and only time a former president running again actually recaptured the White House.
1. The nation was less than 70 years old when Martin Van Buren attempted to avenge his loss to William Henry Harrison in the election of 1840. He would not have faced Harrison, who died just 31 days after taking office in 1841 (making his the shortest presidency in US history) and was succeeded by John Tyler, and in the end didn’t get to face Tyler…
