Vice President of the United States of America

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The Vice President of the United States of America is first in the order of succession to the presidency. While the only duty spelled out for the position in the Constitution is to preside over the Senate, other duties have been assumed over time.

Incumbent

The current vice-president is Joseph Biden, who took office on January 20, 2009, together with President Barack Obama. His predecessor was Richard Cheney, who served under President George Bush.

Election

Currently, the vice-president is elected together with the president, each elector voting for one man for president and another for vice-president. This system was mandated by the Twelfth Amendment, ratified in 1804.

Previously, each elector had voted for two different people for president, and the runner-up had become vice-president. However, this system broke down in the election of 1800, when Thomas Jefferson, the Democratic-Republican Presidential candidate, tied with Aaron Burr, his running mate.

List of Vice-Presidents

Vice-presidents have included some "remarkable individuals"[1]:

Vice President Years State Party President(s)
1. John Adams 1789-1797 Massachusetts Federalist[2] Washington
2. Thomas Jefferson 1797-1801 Virginia Democratic-Republican[3] Adams
3. Aaron Burr 1801-1805 New York Democratic-Republican Jefferson
4. George Clinton 1805-1812 New York Democratic-Republican Jefferson, Madison
5. Elbridge Gerry 1813-1814 Massachusetts Democratic-Republican Madison
6. Daniel D. Tompkins 1817-1825 New York Democratic-Republican Monroe
7. John C. Calhoun 1825-1832 South Carolina Democratic-Republican, Democratic Adams, Jackson
8. Martin van Buren 1833-1837 New York Democratic Jackson
9. Richard M. Johnson 1837-1841 Kentucky Democratic van Buren
10. John Tyler 1841 Virginia Whig Harrison
11. George Dallas 1845-1849 Pennsylvania Democratic Polk
12. Millard Fillmore 1849-1850 New York Whig Taylor
13. William King 1853 Alabama Democratic Pierce
14. John C. Breckinridge 1857-1861 Kentucky Democratic Buchanan
15. Hannibal Hamlin 1861-1865 Maine Republican Lincoln
16. Andrew Johnson 1865 Tennessee Democratic[4] Lincoln
17. Schuyler Colfax 1869-1873 Indiana Republican Grant
18. Henry Wilson 1873-1875 Massachusetts Republican Grant
19. William Wheeler 1877-1881 New York Republican Hayes
20. Chester Arthur 1881 New York Republican Garfield
21. Thomas Hendricks 1885 Indiana Democratic Cleveland
22. Levi P. Morton 1889-1893 New York Republican Harrison
23. Adlai Stevenson 1893-1897 Illinois Democratic Cleveland
24. Garret Hobart 1897-1899 New Jersey Republican McKinley
25. Theodore Roosevelt 1901 New York Republican McKinley
26. Charles Fairbanks 1905-1909 Indiana Republican Roosevelt
27. James S. Sherman 1909-1912 New York Republican Taft
28. Thomas R. Marshall 1913-1921 Indiana Democratic Wilson
29. Calvin Coolidge 1921-1923 Massachusetts Republican Harding
30. Charles Dawes 1925-1929 Illinois Republican Coolidge
31. Charles Curtis 1929-1933 Kansas Republican Hoover
32. John Nance Garner 1933-1941 Texas Democratic Roosevelt
33. Henry Wallace 1941-1945 Iowa Democratic Roosevelt
34. Harry Truman 1945 Missouri Democratic Roosevelt
35. Alben Barkley 1949-1953 Kentucky Democratic Truman
36. Richard Nixon 1953-1961 California Republican Eisenhower
37. Lyndon Johnson 1961-1963 Texas Democratic Kennedy
38. Hubert Humphrey 1965-1969 Minnesota Democratic Johnson
39. Spiro Agnew 1969-1973 Maryland Republican Nixon
40. Gerald Ford 1973-1974 Michigan Republican Nixon
41. Nelson Rockefeller 1974-1977 New York Republican Ford
42. Walter Mondale 1977-1981 Minnesota Democratic Carter
43. George H. W. Bush 1981-1989 Texas Republican Reagan
44. Dan Quayle 1989-1993 Indiana Republican Bush
45. Al Gore 1993-2001 Tennessee Democratic Clinton
46. Dick Cheney 2001-2009 Wyoming Republican Bush
47. Joseph Biden 2009- Delaware Democratic Obama

Notes

  1. [1]
  2. While Washington was elected unanimously, by 1792, the two parties were running separate candidates for vice-president.
  3. This was before the Twelfth Amendment; Jefferson was actually the losing candidate for president. President Adams was a Federalist.
  4. Lincoln and Johnson were officially running on a "National Union" ticket, formed of Republicans and War Democrats. Lincoln was a Republican; Johnson a Democrat.