Button, Gerald Ford, 1976

Gerald Ford is the only individual to have served as both vice president and president without having been elected to either position. After almost 25 years representing Michigan in the US House, Ford was selected as Richard Nixon’s vice president upon the resignation of Spiro Agnew in December 1973. Eight months later Ford became president following President Nixon’s own resignation. In 1976, President Ford ran for election to a full term in his own right choosing as his running mate Bob Dole, senator from Kansas. They were defeated by Democrats Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale. Interestingly, all four of these men were at various times the losing candidate for president—Ford in 1976, Carter in 1980, Mondale in 1984, and Dole in 1996.