Vice President-elect of the United States

Elected candidate for vice president of the U.S. in the time before inauguration

Vice President-elect of
the United States

Incumbent
Not applicable

since January 20, 2025

Style| The Honorable
Term length| In the period between the general election on Election Day in November and Noon (Eastern Standard Time) on Inauguration Day (January 20)
Inaugural holder| John Adams
January 10, 1789
Formation| No official formation
Salary| None

The Vice President-elect of the United States is the candidate who has been elected to the office of vice president of the United States in a United States presidential election, but is awaiting inauguration to assume office.

There is no explicit indication in the U.S. Constitution as to when that person actually becomes vice president-elect, although the Twentieth Amendment uses the term "vice president-elect", thus giving the term constitutional justification.

The term corresponds to the term "president-elect of the United States", used for those elected president of the United States for the same period between their election and inauguration.

Incumbent vice presidents, who have won re-election for a second term, are generally not referred to as the vice president-elect, as they are already in office and are to become the vice president.

|  | This article or section is part of a series about
United States
presidential transitions

|

Transitions

* Lincoln (1860–1861)
* Wilson (1912–1913)
* Harding (1920–1921)
* Hoover (1928–1929)
* Roosevelt (1932–1933)
* Eisenhower (1952–1953)
* Kennedy (1960–1961)
* Nixon (1968–1969)
* Carter (1976–1977)
* Reagan (1980–1981)
* G. H. W. Bush (1988–1989)
* B. Clinton (1992–1993)
* G. W. Bush (2000–2001)
* Obama (2008–2009)
* Trump (2016–2017)
* Biden (2020–2021)
* Trump (2024–2025)

* * *

Planned transitions

* Dukakis (1988)
* Dole (1996)
* Gore (2000)
* Kerry (2004)
* McCain (2008)
* Romney (2012)
* H. Clinton (2016)
* Harris (2024)

Related

* President-elect of the United States
* Vice President-elect of the United States
* End of Term Web Archive
* Midnight regulations
* Plum Book

* v
* t
* e

## Elections of vice presidents-elect

[edit]

Vice President-elect Alben W. Barkley speaks at the White House on November 5, 1948. Barkley had been elected on a ticket alongside incumbent-president Harry S. Truman Vice President-elect Hubert Humphrey horse-riding at the LBJ ranch on November 4, 1964. Humphrey had been elected on a ticket alongside incumbent-president Lyndon B. Johnson

In many, but not all, instances in which a new vice president has been elected, there is also a change of presidents, with a new president having been elected. This has not always been the case, however. There have been instances in which an incumbent president is reelected with a new vice president-elect as their running mate. This has often been due to an incumbent vice president having not received renomination. The most recent time this happened was in 1944, when Harry S. Truman was elected to replace Henry A. Wallace alongside the ailing three-term president Franklin D. Roosevelt. However, in other instances, this has been due to the vice presidency having been vacant, as there was no way to fill a vice presidential vacancy mid-term until the ratification of the Twenty-Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The most recent time that a new vice president was elected alongside an incumbent president was in 1964, when Hubert Humphrey was elected alongside Lyndon B. Johnson, with the vice presidency being vacant due to Johnson's ascension after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Ever since, all elections of new vice presidents have come alongside an election of a new president. On November 5, 2024, Donald J. Trump became the first president to win re-election with a different vice president JD Vance.

It is possible for an incumbent vice president to win reelection as the running mate of a new president-elect, in which case there would be a United States presidential transition with the election of a new president-elect, but there would be no vice president-elect. This first happened in 1808 when Vice President George Clinton, who was originally elected with Thomas Jefferson, was reelected as vice president with James Madison becoming president-elect. This happened again in 1828, when Vice President John C. Calhoun, who was elected vice president in 1824 with John Quincy Adams, was re-elected as vice president with Andrew Jackson becoming president-elect.

## Roles in presidential transitions

[edit]

Vice President-elect Lyndon B. Johnson with President-elect John F. Kennedy during the 1960–61 presidential transition of John F. Kennedy

As previously mentioned many vice presidents-elect, and all from 1968 onwards, have been elected alongside a new president-elect, meaning that the period before many vice-presidents elects have entered office as vice president have entailed presidential transitions.

Similar to the president-elect, the General Services Administration is authorized by the Presidential Transition Act of 1963 to provide the vice president-elect with funding, office space, and various government services (such as transportation and communications) to accommodate their role in the transition between presidential administrations.[1]

The role that various vice presidents-elect have played in United States presidential transitions has differed.

Two vice presidents-elect have been in charge of presidential transitions as formal chairmen, Dick Cheney in the presidential transition of George W. Bush (2000–01)[2] and Mike Pence in the presidential transition of Donald Trump (2016–17).[3]

Bill Clinton heavily involved Vice President-elect Al Gore in his 1992–93 transition, including him in a group of confidants that joined Clinton in making many of the transition's top decisions.[4] Jimmy Carter allowed Vice President-elect Walter Mondale to play a role in his 1976–77 transition, including allowing him to provide input on some individuals being considered for roles in the administration.[5]

Some presidents-elect have excluded their vice presidents-elect from playing a significant role in their transition. For instance, in Dwight D. Eisenhower's 1952–53 transition, Vice President-elect Richard Nixon did not play an active role.[6] During Nixon's own 1968–69 presidential transition, Vice President-elect Spiro Agnew was similarly largely uninvolved.[7]

* Vice President-elect Dan Quayle (second from right) and his wife Marilyn with Vice President and President-elect George H. W. Bush and his wife Barbara, as well as outgoing president Ronald Reagan and his wife Nancy during a press conference held in the White House Rose Garden during the 1988–89 presidential transition of George H. W. Bush

* Vice President-elect Joe Biden (left) with President-elect Barack Obama during a press conference held amid the 2008–09 presidential transition of Barack Obama

* Vice President-elect Mike Pence (right) joins President-elect Donald Trump (left) at a meeting with Speaker of the House Paul Ryan during the 2016–17 presidential transition of Donald Trump

## Procedure for replacement

[edit]

If the vice president-elect dies or resigns before the meeting of the Electoral College in December, the national committee of the winning party would, in consultation with the president-elect, choose a replacement to receive the electoral votes of the vice presidential nominee in the same manner as would happen if the former vice presidential nominee had become president-elect due to the death of the apparent winner. Assuming the requisite number the electors agreed to vote for the replacement candidate, that person would then become the vice president-elect. If such a vacancy were to occur after the electoral votes had been cast in the states, most authorities maintain that no replacement would be chosen and the new president (after taking office) would nominate a vice president, per the provisions of the Twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution.[8]

## Vice President-designate of the United States

[edit]

Before ratification of the 25th Amendment in 1967, the Constitution contained no provision for filling an intra-term vacancy in the vice presidency. As a result, when one occurred (and did 16 times), the office was left vacant until filled through the next ensuing election and inauguration. Since 1967, the vice presidency has been vacant twice, and a successor was nominated each time to fill the vacancy in accordance with the 25th Amendment. The first instance was in 1973 when Gerald Ford was nominated by President Richard Nixon to succeed Spiro Agnew, who had resigned. The second came in 1974, when Ford, who had succeeded to the presidency following Nixon's resignation, nominated Nelson Rockefeller to succeed him.[9][10] During both vacancies, the nominee was called vice president-designate, instead of vice president-elect, as neither had been elected to the office.

## List of vice presidents-elect

[edit]

Vice President-elect[a] | Party  | Following  | Through

|
|
|

1  | John Adams |  | Nonpartisan | Election of 1788–89[b] | George Washington's first inauguration
2  | Thomas Jefferson |  | Democratic-Republican | Election of 1796 | John Adams's inauguration
3  | Aaron Burr | Election of 1800[c] | Thomas Jefferson's first inauguration
4  | George Clinton | Election of 1804 | Thomas Jefferson's second inauguration
5  | Elbridge Gerry | Election of 1812 | James Madison's second inauguration
6  | Daniel D. Tompkins | Election of 1816 | James Monroe's first inauguration
7  | John C. Calhoun | Election of 1824[c] | John Quincy Adams's inauguration
8  | Martin Van Buren |  | Democratic | Election of 1832 | Andrew Jackson's second inauguration
9  | Richard Mentor Johnson | Election of 1836 | Martin Van Buren's inauguration
10  | John Tyler |  | Whig | Election of 1840 | William Henry Harrison's inauguration
11  | George M. Dallas |  | Democratic | Election of 1844 | James K. Polk's inauguration
12  | Millard Fillmore |  | Whig | Election of 1848 | Zachary Taylor's inauguration
13  | William R. King |  | Democratic | Election of 1852 | Oath of office administered March 24, 1853[d]
14  | John C. Breckinridge | Election of 1856 | James Buchanan's inauguration
15  | Hannibal Hamlin |  | Republican | Election of 1860 | Abraham Lincoln's first inauguration
16  | Andrew Johnson |  | National Union | Election of 1864 | Abraham Lincoln's second inauguration
17  | Schuyler Colfax |  | Republican | Election of 1868 | Ulysses S. Grant's first inauguration
18  | Henry Wilson | Election of 1872 | Ulysses S. Grant's second inauguration
19  | William A. Wheeler | Election of 1876[e] | Rutherford B. Hayes's inauguration
20  | Chester A. Arthur | Election of 1880 | James A. Garfield's inauguration
21  | Thomas A. Hendricks |  | Democratic | Election of 1884 | Grover Cleveland's first inauguration
22  | Levi P. Morton |  | Republican | Election of 1888 | Benjamin Harrison's inauguration
23  | Adlai Stevenson I |  | Democratic | Election of 1892 | Grover Cleveland's second inauguration
24  | Garret Hobart |  | Republican | Election of 1896 | William McKinley's first inauguration
25  | Theodore Roosevelt | Election of 1900 | William McKinley's second inauguration
26  | Charles W. Fairbanks | Election of 1904 | Theodore Roosevelt's second inauguration
27  | James S. Sherman | Election of 1908 | William Howard Taft's inauguration
28 | Thomas R. Marshall |  | Democratic | Election of 1912 | Woodrow Wilson's first inauguration
29 | Calvin Coolidge |  | Republican | Election of 1920 | Warren G. Harding's inauguration
30  | Charles G. Dawes | Election of 1924 | Calvin Coolidge's inauguration
31 | Charles Curtis | Election of 1928 | Herbert Hoover's inauguration
32 | John Nance Garner |  | Democratic | Election of 1932 | Franklin D. Roosevelt's first inauguration
33  | Henry A. Wallace | Election of 1940 | Franklin D. Roosevelt's third inauguration
34  | Harry S. Truman | Election of 1944 | Franklin D. Roosevelt's fourth inauguration
35  | Alben W. Barkley | Election of 1948 | Harry S. Truman's second inauguration
36 | Richard Nixon |  | Republican | Election of 1952 | Dwight D. Eisenhower's first inauguration
37 | Lyndon B. Johnson |  | Democratic | Election of 1960 | John F. Kennedy's inauguration
38  | Hubert Humphrey | Election of 1964 | Lyndon B. Johnson's second inauguration
39 | Spiro Agnew |  | Republican | Election of 1968 | Richard Nixon's first inauguration
40 | Walter Mondale |  | Democratic | Election of 1976 | Jimmy Carter's inauguration
41 | George H. W. Bush |  | Republican | Election of 1980 | Ronald Reagan's first inauguration
42 | Dan Quayle | Election of 1988 | George H. W. Bush's inauguration
43 | Al Gore |  | Democratic | Election of 1992 | Bill Clinton's first inauguration
44 | Dick Cheney |  | Republican | Election of 2000[f] | George W. Bush's first inauguration
45 | Joe Biden |  | Democratic | Election of 2008 | Barack Obama's first inauguration
46 | Mike Pence |  | Republican | Election of 2016 | Donald Trump's first inauguration
47 | Kamala Harris |  | Democratic | Election of 2020 | Joe Biden's inauguration
48 | JD Vance |  | Republican | Election of 2024 | Donald Trump's second inauguration
Notes:

1. ^ Column counts number of vice president-elect. Gerald Ford and Nelson Rockefeller are not counted because they entered office intra-term and were never elected to the vice presidency.
2. ^ Also after a delay in the certification of the electoral votes by Congress.
3. ^ a b Also after a contingent election in the House of Representatives.
4. ^ Ill with tuberculosis, William King traveled to Cuba after the 1852 election in an effort to regain his health, and was not able to be in Washington, D.C. to take his oath of office on March 4, 1853. By an Act of Congress, he was allowed to take the oath outside the United States, and was sworn in on March 24, 1853 near Matanzas, Cuba. He is the only vice president to take his oath of office in a foreign country.
5. ^ Also after a dispute over 20 electoral votes from four states was resolved by a special Electoral Commission established by Congress.
6. ^ Also after a dispute over Florida's 25 electoral votes was resolved by the Supreme Court in Bush v. Gore, which halted the Florida vote recount that was under way.[11]

## See also

[edit]

* -elect

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "PUBLIC LAW 88-277-MAR. 7, 1964" (PDF). govinfo.gov. United States Congress. March 7, 1964. Retrieved May 21, 2021.
2. ^ "Chronology--Transition". p2000.us. Retrieved February 1, 2021.
3. ^ Bender, Michael C. (November 12, 2016). "Donald Trump Shuffles Transition Team, Making Mike Pence Chairman". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved May 20, 2021.
4. ^ Skinner, Richard (October 7, 2016). "Bill Clinton set a bad example with his transition". Vox. Retrieved February 1, 2021.
5. ^ Burke, John P. (2000). Presidential Transitions: From Politics To Practice. Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers. p. 29\. ISBN 1555879160.
6. ^ Henry, Laurin L. (January 1961). Presidential Transitions. Washington, D.C.: The Brookings Institution. p. 491.
7. ^ Coffey, Joseph P. (2015). Spiro Agnew and the Rise of the Republican Right. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. pp. 89–91\. ISBN 978-1440841415.
8. ^ Coleman, Kevin J.; Cantor, Joseph E.; Neale, Thomas H. (April 17, 2000). "Presidential Elections in the United States: A Primer" (PDF). CRS Report for Congress. Congressional Research Service - Library of Congress. p. 48\. Archived (PDF) from the original on March 31, 2010. Retrieved December 24, 2016.
9. ^ Nessen, Ron (Reporter); Jamieson, Bob (Reporter); Brokaw, Tom (Anchor) (October 13, 1973). "Profile of Vice President-Designate Gerald Ford". NBC Nightly News. NBC. Archived from the original on November 14, 2020. Retrieved December 22, 2016.
10. ^ "Nelson Rockefeller, Vice President-Designate". Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library & Museum. Archived from the original on November 14, 2020. Retrieved December 22, 2016.
11. ^ McCaleb, Ian Christopher (December 13, 2000). "Bush, now president-elect, signals will to bridge partisan gaps". CNN.com. Archived from the original on November 14, 2020. Retrieved February 10, 2009.

* v
* t
* e

United States presidential transitions

Transitions|

* Abraham Lincoln (1860–61)
* Woodrow Wilson (1912–13)
* Warren G. Harding (1920–21)
* Herbert Hoover (1928–29)
* Franklin D. Roosevelt (1932–33)
* Dwight D. Eisenhower (1952–53)
* John F. Kennedy (1960–61)
* Richard Nixon (1968–69)
* Jimmy Carter (1976–77)
* Ronald Reagan (1980–81)
* George H. W. Bush (1988–89)
* Bill Clinton (1992–93)
* George W. Bush (2000–01)
* Barack Obama (2008–09)
* Donald Trump (2016–17)
* Joe Biden (2020–21)
* Donald Trump (2024–25)

Planned transitions|

* Michael Dukakis (1988)
* Bob Dole (1996)
* Al Gore (2000)
* John Kerry (2004)
* John McCain (2008)
* Mitt Romney (2012)
* Hillary Clinton (2016)
* Kamala Harris (2024)

Related|

* President-elect of the United States
* Vice President-elect of the United States
* End of Term Web Archive
* Midnight regulations
* Pre-Election Presidential Transition Act of 2010
* Plum Book

* v
* t
* e

United States presidential elections

Elections by year|

* 1788–89
* 1792
* 1796
* 1800
* 1804
* 1808
* 1812
* 1816
* 1820
* 1824
* 1828
* 1832
* 1836
* 1840
* 1844
* 1848
* 1852
* 1856
* 1860
* 1864
* 1868
* 1872
* 1876
* 1880
* 1884
* 1888
* 1892
* 1896
* 1900
* 1904
* 1908
* 1912
* 1916
* 1920
* 1924
* 1928
* 1932
* 1936
* 1940
* 1944
* 1948
* 1952
* 1956
* 1960
* 1964
* 1968
* 1972
* 1976
* 1980
* 1984
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* 1992
* 1996
* 2000
* 2004
* 2008
* 2012
* 2016
* 2020
* 2024
* 2028

Elections by state|

* Alabama
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Primaries and caucuses|

* Iowa caucuses
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Nominating conventions|

* List of nominating conventions
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Electoral College
and popular vote|

* Results
* summary
* elections in which the winner lost the popular vote
* Electoral College margins
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* popular votes received
* popular-vote margins
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* Contingent election
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Related|

* Campaign slogans
* Historical election polling
* Election Day
* Major party tickets
* Major party losers
* Presidential debates
* October surprise
* Red states and blue states
* Swing state
* Tipping-point state
* Election recount (2000)
* Guam straw poll
* Puerto Rico straw poll
* Vice presidential confirmations:
* 1973
* 1974

* House elections
* Senate elections
* Gubernatorial elections

* v
* t
* e

United States presidential inaugurations

18th century|

* Washington (1789)
* Washington (1793)
* J. Adams (1797)

19th century|

* Jefferson (1801)
* Jefferson (1805)
* Madison (1809)
* Madison (1813)
* Monroe (1817)
* Monroe (1821)
* J. Q. Adams (1825)
* Jackson (1829)
* Jackson (1833)
* Van Buren (1837)
* W. H. Harrison (1841)
* Tyler (1841)*
* Polk (1845)
* Taylor (1849)
* Fillmore (1850)*
* Pierce (1853)
* Buchanan (1857)
* Lincoln (1861)
* Lincoln (1865)
* A. Johnson (1865)*
* Grant (1869)
* Grant (1873)
* Hayes (1877)
* Garfield (1881)
* Arthur (1881)*
* Cleveland (1885)
* B. Harrison (1889)
* Cleveland (1893)
* McKinley (1897)

20th century|

* McKinley (1901)
* T. Roosevelt (1901)*
* T. Roosevelt (1905)
* Taft (1909)
* Wilson (1913)
* Wilson (1917)
* Harding (1921)
* Coolidge (1923)*
* Coolidge (1925)
* Hoover (1929)
* F. D. Roosevelt (1933)
* F. D. Roosevelt (1937)
* F. D. Roosevelt (1941)
* F. D. Roosevelt (1945)
* Truman (1945)*
* Truman (1949)
* Eisenhower (1953)
* Eisenhower (1957)
* Kennedy (1961)
* L. B. Johnson (1963)*
* L. B. Johnson (1965)
* Nixon (1969)
* Nixon (1973)
* Ford (1974)*
* Carter (1977)
* Reagan (1981)
* Reagan (1985)
* G. H. W. Bush (1989)
* Clinton (1993)
* Clinton (1997)

21st century|

* G. W. Bush (2001)
* G. W. Bush (2005)
* Obama (2009)
* Obama (2013)
* Trump (2017)
* Biden (2021)
* Trump (2025)

*Intra-term inaugurations
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