Vice-presidential drama during America's last presidential rematch — 1956

With the 2024 nomination process nearly complete, commentators are reminding us that the Joe Biden-Donald Trump race will be the first presidential rematch since 1956 between Dwight Eisenhower and Adlai Stevenson. .

While that race was never close (Eisenhower won in a landslide, as in 1952), there is an aspect of that campaign season that may be repeated this year: the drama of choosing a running mate. is.

Given the ongoing debate over Biden's age and fitness and her lackluster first-term performance, Democratic Party insiders are considering renominating No. 2 candidate Kamala Harris. There are serious doubts about this. Biden's poll numbers are sluggish, but Harris' approval ratings are among the lowest ever for a vice president.

Mr. Biden has supported Ms. Harris, but he hardly exudes confidence. But by 1956, Eisenhower's relationship with Vice President Richard Nixon had become even more strained.

In the 1952 election campaign, Nixon's candidacy got off to a rocky start. In September, the New York Post claimed that he controlled an $18,000 slush fund donated by a California “millionaire” who supported his lifestyle in exchange for political favors. Pressured by Ike and the Republican leadership to resign, Nixon instead redeemed himself with his famous “Checkers Speech,” heard and viewed by 60 million Americans.

While this incident showed Nixon to be a fighter who could connect with voters in new mediums, it left Eisenhower with a permanent dissatisfaction with his running mate. Eisenhower's biographer William Hitchcock concluded that “Ike would continue to treat Eisenhower with suspicion and a certain contempt.”

At the end of 1955, Eisenhower proposed to Nixon that he resign and instead accept a cabinet position in the next administration. That's exactly what Franklin Roosevelt and the Democratic leadership forced incumbent Vice President Henry Wallace to do in 1944. Ike continued at this rate until 1956. And he avoided publicly supporting Nixon's re-election bid.

Although Eisenhower had no clear successor in mind, especially after the president's heart attack in 1955, Nixon successfully acquitted himself in his first term. However, Eisenhower did not believe that the vice president was qualified to succeed him as a candidate and party leader in 1960. Like FDR, he was willing to make his colleagues squirm in the wind.

Nixon resisted the president's urging, believing that demotion would destroy his chances of coming out on top in the 1960 elections. He also enjoyed solid support among the party's rank and file. Despite a last-minute “dump Nixon” campaign from the hated Republican Harold Stassen, Eisenhower was tired of his own intrigues. He finally offered Nixon a lukewarm endorsement three weeks before the men were nominated at the party's August 19 convention.

On the Democratic side, Adlai Stevenson II was not familiar with the history of selecting vice presidents in rematch years.

Notably, his grandfather, Adlai Stevenson, was once an assistant postmaster general and twice a Democratic vice presidential candidate. He succeeded in a rematch between Grover Cleveland and Benjamin Harrison in 1892, and William Jennings Bryan failed in his second attempt against William McKinley in 1900.

Stevenson refused to ask his 1952 vice presidential candidate, Senator John J. Sparkman of Alabama, to rejoin him. Sparkman was one of many Southern congressmen and senators who signed the Southern Declaration, a minority resolution opposing federal school desegregation efforts following the Supreme Court's 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision. was..

But after being reassigned in Chicago, Stephenson made an unconventional move. He left the selection of the vice presidential candidate to the party convention. Then Sen. Lyndon Johnson called this “the stupidest, stupidest thing a politician can do.” Delegates then voted a third time to select former presidential candidate Sen. Estes Kefauver of Tennessee.

But the person most remembered from the race was the candidate who came in second place, 39-year-old John F. Kennedy.

In early 1956, there was speculation among experts that JFK's youth, good looks, and mainstream liberalism would make him an ideal running mate for Adlai. There were concerns whether his Catholicism would be an obstacle, as it had been for Al Smith in the 1928 presidential election, or whether it would give him an electoral advantage 30 years later. Also lurking in the background was Mr. Kennedy's poor health and history of frequent hospitalizations.

One of the opponents of his candidacy was Joseph Kennedy. The Kennedy family's fearsome father viewed Eisenhower as invincible and feared that some of the Democratic Party's defeat would be due to Jack's religion. Although JFK himself remained undecided until the convention began, the New York Times described John F. Kennedy as the “Democratic vice presidential candidate” who “entered tonight's convention as a movie star.” The chance to win on the national stage became inevitable.

By the second round of vice presidential voting, Kennedy was leading with 47 percent of delegates. However, on the third vote, fellow Tennessee senator Albert Gore, the future vice president's father, supported Kefauver with delegates, and Kefauver ultimately won.

Kennedy was lucky to fall just short in 1956. He was introduced to America in the national spotlight, and in 1960 was able to participate in the presidential election as a newcomer, untainted by his previous defeat. In his case, Nixon's dogged perseverance in the face of a disloyal leader would lead him to join JFK in one of the most memorable presidential campaigns of this century.

Mr. Biden may have doubts about Kamala Harris, but it will be difficult for him to force the vice president to resign like Mr. Eisenhower did in 1956. But Donald Trump's choice of running mate remains a wild card. Like Stevenson, he previously ruled out two-time vice presidential candidate Mike Pence.

President Trump is unlikely to postpone a decision until the convention, but candidates have been proposed, including Sen. Tim Scott (RS.C.), former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii), and South Dakota Governor. He did not change his attitude when faced with it. .Kristi Noem. He will no doubt put effort into his selection process to get his attention. The script is reminiscent of the vice presidential drama in the final rematch 70 years ago.

Paul C. Atkinson, a former Wall Street Journal executive, is a contributing editor at the New York Sun.