The questions surrounding President Joe Biden’s age and mental fitness are growing every day.
With eight months to go before his likely rematch against Donald Trump, Democratic party officials have largely rallied behind the 81-year-old, despite most Americans fearing he is too old to run again.
The incumbent president also has 140 years of history on his side and will hope he does not suffer the same fate as a little-known president who did not get his party’s support for a second term.
Although Biden is confident he wants to run again and firmly believes he will win, his predecessor, who was ousted more than a century ago, did not fight for the job and likely knew he was facing the end of his would not see a second term. .
Political parties do not simply deny the nomination of incumbents, at least not if they were previously elected like Biden in 2020.
Only five sitting presidents have been denied their party’s nominations for a second term in American history, and the circumstances surrounding those nominations couldn’t be more different.
The most recent sitting president not to receive the party nod was President Chester Arthur, who served from 1881 to 1885 and ended up in the White House entirely by accident.
Chester Arthur was president from 1881 to 1885 after President Garfield was assassinated. At the time he was added as a Republican vice presidential candidate, he had never held elected office nor had he ever sought one.
Arthur wasn’t even elected president for his first term and became the most powerful man in the US, having never even held elected public office.
He rose to the presidency when President James Garfield was assassinated less than a year after his inauguration.
“It was even a surprise that Arthur was placed on the ticket in 1880 and the reason he ended up as the vice presidential candidate was because the Republican Party was trying to appease the head of the Republican machine in New York State,” said biographer Scott Greenberger.
“He was accidentally nominated and then accidentally became president when Garfield was shot,” Greenberger said. “No one had any reason to believe that Arthur would get anywhere near the White House in a time of peace and with a very young, powerful president.”
As vice president, Arthur had been loyal to his party boss, Roscoe Conkling, and had openly opposed Garfield, so at the time there were people and newspapers suggesting that the two had something to do with Garfield’s murder.
In another surprising twist, Arthur underwent a complete transformation when he became president.
He championed civil service reform while disavowing the political machine politicians who created it, Greenberger noted.
However, when it came time to nominate a candidate in 1884, Arthur did not receive the nomination.
While he kept his name in the running for the nomination, there were questions about whether he really wanted it.
He rose to the presidency when President James Garfield was assassinated less than a year after his inauguration
He had disrupted the political machine during his tenure, but reformers were still wary of him because of his background.
The nomination process was different from what it is today, with primaries instead deciding the nominee at the convention, which took place in Chicago in 1884.
“I think he was conflicted about it, he certainly wanted the approval of the party and of his country and probably would have accepted the nomination if it had been given to him, but he didn’t do what he could do to secure the nomination to get. Groenberger said.
“In fact, his top lieutenant, who would be the secretary of the Navy, was willing to go to Chicago where the convention was going to take place and without rallying the Arthurian forces and helping him get the nomination,” Greenberger said. “But Arthur said, ‘No, I don’t want you to do that.'”
What was not publicly known at the time was that Arthur had Bright’s disease.
Had he been nominated and won, he would not have survived a second term. He died in 1886 from complications of the disease.
Arthur did not withdraw his name from contention for the nomination for a second term, but according to biographer Scott Greenberger, he did not do everything he could to secure the nomination. It was also not publicly known that he had a fatal kidney disease. He died of complications in 1886 and would not have served a second term had he received the nomination and won.
Instead, on the fourth ballot of the convention, the nomination went to former Maine Senator James Blaine.
He ultimately lost the election to Democrat Grover Cleveland.
Since Arthur, no other incumbent president who has kept his name in contention has ever been denied a nomination for a second term, although there have been primary challenges.
But even before Arthur, only four other sitting presidents have ever been denied their party nomination, and three were not even elected in their own right.
John Tyler, Millard Fillmore, and Andrew Johnson were all vice presidents who took office after the president’s death. The fourth was President Franklin Pierce, who became conflicted in the lead-up to the Civil War over his support for the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which reopened the issue of slavery in the West.
Franklin Pierce served as the 14th President of the United States from 1853 to 1857. He was denied reappointment for a second term. Democrats nominated James Buchanan instead
“The comparison is really about eras, not individuals,” historian and professor David Greenberg told DailyMail.com by email. “Until the twentieth century, no president who ascended to the presidency from the vice presidency upon the death of his predecessor… received as much as his party’s nomination, let alone a full ‘second’ term.” .’
Greenberg pointed out that President Theodore Roosevelt was the first president to break that pattern. After becoming president following the assassination of President William McKinley, he campaigned for a second term in 1904 and won.
Biden formally clinched the Democratic nomination for president in June 2020 after receiving the 1,991 delegates needed to become the party’s nominee. Ultimately, he received more than 50 percent of the votes in a primary that at one point consisted of 25 candidates
Biden celebrates after being declared the winner of the 2020 presidential election over Trump on November 7, 2020. Biden received 306 Electoral College votes. He also won the popular vote, with more than 81 million Americans voting for him
At 81 years old, Biden is the oldest sitting president. Before his election, the oldest sitting president was Ronald Reagan, who left office at the age of 77
There is no historical comparison to exemplify in the argument for Democrats denying Biden the nomination for a second term.
He was a former vice president and longtime senator who won the 2020 Democratic primary against a crowded field.
There have been people who have pointed out that Biden, at 81 years old the oldest sitting president, ran as a “transitional candidate” four years ago, but ultimately he never specifically said that would mean only four years.