WASHINGTON, DC — Just when Americans thought they had retreated, Joe Biden and Donald Trump pulled them back.
The sequel to the 2020 election is officially set to see the president and his immediate predecessor secure each party's nomination. Biden and Trump have designed a political movie that this country has never seen before, even if the last version was in black and white.
The last presidential rematch was in 1956, when Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower once again defeated his Democratic opponent, Adlai Stevenson, from four years earlier.
Meanwhile, Grover Cleveland was the 22nd and 24th president of the United States, winning elections in 1884 and 1892.
As sequels are produced, political and movie fans hope the rematch between Biden and Trump will end more like the acclaimed The Godfather II, rather than the oft-derided The Godfather III. Maybe. But the rematch between Biden and Trump is expected to take place in parallel with similar historic matches from the founding of the nation.
Here's how it stacks up in history.
When was the last presidential election rematch?
68 years ago. After Eisenhower defeated Stevenson in 1952 and won all but nine states, the sitting president ran against Stevenson again four years later and secured an even bigger landslide.
There are other examples of presidential election rematches, but they occurred much earlier in U.S. history.
Republican President William McKinley defeated Democrat William Jennings Bryan in the 1896 election and again in 1900. In 1836, Democrat Martin Van Buren defeated Whig William Henry Harrison, but in a rematch between the two, Harrison won and became the next president. Four years later he became president.
John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson faced off twice for the presidency. The first time was in 1824, when Adams won, and the second time was in 1828 when Jackson defeated the incumbent, Adams, to become president.
Then there was John Adams, the second president, a Federalist, and Thomas Jefferson, the third president, a Democratic-Republican. In 1796, in the first ever presidential election to determine George Washington's successor, Adams won and Jefferson was elected vice president. Four years later, Jefferson ran against incumbent Adams and won.
How many former presidents have returned to the White House?
So far, only one.
Grover Cleveland is the only president in U.S. history to serve two non-consecutive terms. He succeeded in doing what Trump is currently trying to do: take back the White House from the person who took it from him.
Cleveland, a Democratic anti-corruption activist and governor of New York, narrowly won the 1884 presidential election. Four years later, he again won the popular vote, but lost the electoral vote to Republican Benjamin Harrison. Cleveland faced Harrison again in 1892, this time easily winning a second term.
Other former presidents have also tried unsuccessfully to regain their former positions.
After serving two terms until 1877, Ulysses S. Grant sought the Republican nomination again in the 1880 election, but was defeated at the party's convention by James A. Garfield. The 22nd Amendment to the Constitution, which limits presidential terms to two terms, was not ratified until 1951, so a third term would have been allowed at that time.
What happens to bids by former presidents or third parties?
Three former presidents tried and failed to win back the White House with a different party than the one that won it, with Teddy Roosevelt coming close.
Roosevelt, a Republican, became president when William McKinley was assassinated in 1901, and was reelected in 1904, but did not seek another term in 1908 and replaced his chosen Republican successor, William. – Resigned for H. Taft.
Roosevelt then became disillusioned with Taft and challenged him for the Republican nomination in 1912. When that failed, Roosevelt ran for president on the ticket of his own Progressive Party, known as the Bull Moose Party after the former president joked, “I feel I'm just as strong.” Became. Elk. '' In the November election of the same year, Democrat Woodrow Wilson won, but Roosevelt came in second place, winning 88 electoral votes to the incumbent Taft's only eight.
After the last elected Whig president, Zachary Taylor, died in 1850, Millard Fillmore became president. Fillmore unsuccessfully sought the Whig presidential nomination in 1852. Four years later, he ran for president on a party he knew nothing about, but lost both times. States except Maryland.
Democrat Martin Van Buren served as president from 1837 to 1841, losing his bid for re-election to Whig candidate William Henry Harrison. Eight years later, Van Buren attempted to rejoin the Free Soil Party, but he was unable to win any electoral votes.
