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. Elections of vice presidents-elect
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 since Roosevelt 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
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.
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) and Mike Pence in the presidential transition of Donald Trump (2016–17).
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. 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.
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. During Nixon's own 1968–69 presidential transition, Vice President-elect Spiro Agnew was similarly largely uninvolved.
Procedure for replacement 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.
Vice President-designate of the United States 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. 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 Vice President-electParty Following Through 1 John Adams Nonpartisan Election of 1788–89 George Washington's first inauguration 2 Thomas Jefferson Democratic-Republican Election of 1796 John Adams's inauguration 3 Aaron Burr Election of 1800 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 7John C. Calhoun Election of 1824 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 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 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 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 inaugurationNotes:
See also -elect
References