Complete List of Vice Presidents of the United States (Presidents of the Senate)

(Reprinted from: Mark O. Hatfield, with the Senate Historical Office, Vice Presidents of the United States, 1789-1993, Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1997, pp. xiii-xxiii.)

Click on the name of any vice president for additional information.

The Vice Presidents:

John Adams (Presidency of George Washington)
Party: Federalist
Term: 1789-1797

Thomas Jefferson (Presidency of John Adams)
Party: Republican
Term: 1797-1801

Note: Jefferson ran against Adams for president. Since he received the second highest electoral vote, he automatically became vice president under the system that existed at the time. "Republican" refers to two different parties widely separated in time: Jeffersonian Republicans of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, and the present Republican party, which was founded in the 1850s. The service dates should make clear which of the two parties is intended.

Aaron Burr (Presidency of Thomas Jefferson)
Party: Republican
Term: 1801-1805

Note: In the nation's early years, electors did not differentiate between their votes for president and vice president, and the runner-up for president became vice president. In 1800 Jefferson and Burr each received 73 electoral votes, thus sending the election to the House of Representatives, which selected Jefferson as president. Burr automatically became vice president. This stalemate led to adoption of the Twelfth Amendment to the Constitution in 1804.

George Clinton (Presidency of Thomas Jefferson)
Party: Republican
Term: 1805-1809

George Clinton (Presidency of James Madison)
Party: Republican
Term: 1809-1812; died in office April 12, 1812

Elbridge Gerry (Presidency of James Madison)
Party: Republican
Term: 1813-1814; died in office November 23, 1814

Daniel D. Tompkins (Presidency of James Monroe)
Party: Republican
Term: 1817-1825

Note: By 1820 the Federalist party was defunct, and a period of party realignment began that continued until 1840 when the Whig and Democratic parties became established. In the interim, party affiliations underwent considerable flux. For much of that time, the split fell between the supporters and opponents of Andrew Jackson. The pro-Jackson forces evolved into the Democratic party, while those opposing Jackson eventually coalesced into the Whig party.

John C. Calhoun (Presidency of John Quincy Adams)
Party: National Republican
Term: 1825-1829

Note: All the presidential candidates in 1824 were Republicans - although of varying persuasions - and Calhoun had support for the vice-presidency from both the Adams and Jackson camps. As no presidential candidate received the necessary majority of electoral votes, the House of Representatives made the decision. Calhoun, however, received a clear majority (182 of 260) of the vice-presidential electoral votes.

John C. Calhoun (Presidency of Andrew Jackson)
Party: Democrat
Term: 1829-1832; resigned December 28, 1832

Martin Van Buren (Presidency of Andrew Jackson)
Party: Democrat
Term: 1833-1837

Note: The Democratic party was not yet formally created during Jackson's two terms as president but developed later from his supporters.

Richard Mentor Johnson (Presidency of Martin Van Buren)
Party: Democrat
Term: 1837-1841

Note: Since no vice presidential candidate received a majority of the electoral vote in the 1836 election, the U.S. Senate elected Richard M. Johnson as vice president on February 8, 1837. Johnson's election is the only time the Senate has exercised this constitutional authority, granted by the Twelfth Amendment, which provides, "if no person have a majority, then from the two highest numbers on the list, the Senate shall choose the Vice-President."

John Tyler (Presidency of William H. Harrison)
Party: Democrat
Term: 1841; succeeded to presidency on April 6, 1841

Note: Although Tyler ran on the Whig ticket, he remained a Democrat throughout his life.

George Mifflin Dallas (Presidency of James K. Polk)
Party: Democrat
Term: 1845-1849

Millard Fillmore (Presidency of Zachary Taylor)
Party: Whig
Term: 1849-1850; succeeded to presidency on July 10, 1850

Note: When Fillmore succeeded to the presidency in 1850, the vice presidency remained vacant until 1853.

William Rufus King (Presidency of Franklin Pierce)
Party: Democrat
Term: 1853; died in office April 18, 1853

John C. Breckinridge (Presidency of James Buchanan)
Party: Democrat
Term: 1857-1861

Hannibal Hamlin (Presidency of Abraham Lincoln)
Party: Republican
Term: 1861-1865

Andrew Johnson (Presidency of Abraham Lincoln)
Party: Democrat
Term: 1865; succeeded to presidency on April 15, 1865

Note: Johnson was a War Democrat, who ran on a fusion ticket with Republican President Abraham Lincoln. When Andrew Johnson succeeded to the presidency in 1865, the vice presidency remained vacant until 1869.

Schuyler Colfax (Presidency of Ulysses S. Grant)
Party: Republican
Term: 1869-1873

Henry Wilson (Presidency of Ulysses S. Grant)
Party: Republican
Term: 1873-1875; died in office on November 22, 1875

William A. Wheeler (Presidency of Rutherford B. Hayes)
Party: Republican
Term: 1877-1881

Chester A. Arthur (Presidency of James A. Garfield)
Party: Republican
Term: 1881; succeeded to presidency on September 20, 1881

Note: When Arthur succeeded to the presidency in 1881, the vice presidency remained vacant until 1885.

Thomas A. Hendricks (Presidency of Grover Cleveland – first)
Party: Democrat
Term: 1885; died in office on November 25, 1885

Levi P. Morton (Presidency of Benjamin Harrison)
Party: Republican
Term: 1889-1893

Adlai E. Stevenson (Presidency of Grover Cleveland – second)
Party: Democrat
Term: 1893-1897

Garret A. Hobart (Presidency of William McKinley)
Party: Republican
Term: 1897-1899; died in office on November 21, 1899

Theodore Roosevelt (Presidency of William McKinley)
Party: Republican
Term: 1901; succeeded to presidency on September 14, 1901

Charles W. Fairbanks (Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt)
Party: Republican
Term: 1905-1909

James S. Sherman (Presidency of William H. Taft)
Party: Republican
Term: 1909-1912; died in office on October 30, 1912

Thomas R. Marshall (Presidency of Woodrow Wilson)
Party: Democrat
Term: 1913-1921

Calvin Coolidge (Presidency of Warren G. Harding)
Party: Republican
Term: 1921-1923; succeeded to presidency on August 3, 1923

Charles G. Dawes (Presidency of Calvin Coolidge)
Party: Republican
Term: 1925-1929

Charles Curtis (Presidency of Herbert C. Hoover)
Party: Republican
Term: 1929-1933

John Nance Garner (Presidency of Franklin Roosevelt)
Party: Democrat
Term: 1933-1941

Henry A. Wallace (Presidency of Franklin Roosevelt)
Party: Democrat
Term: 1941-1945

Harry S. Truman (Presidency of Franklin Roosevelt)
Party: Democrat
Term: 1945; succeeded to presidency on April 12, 1945

Note: When Truman succeeded to the presidency in 1945, the vice presidency remained vacant until 1949.

Alben W. Barkley (Presidency of Harry Truman)
Party: Democrat
Term: 1949-1953

Richard M. Nixon (Presidency of Dwight Eisenhower)
Party: Republican
Term: 1953-1961

Lyndon B. Johnson (Presidency of John Kennedy)
Party: Democrat
Term: 1961-1963; succeeded to presidency on November 22, 1963

Note: When Johnson succeeded to the presidency in 1963, the vice presidency remained vacant until 1965.

Hubert H. Humphrey (Presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson)
Party: Democrat
Term: 1965-1969

Spiro T. Agnew (Presidency of Richard Nixon)
Party: Republican
Term: 1969-1973; resigned on October 10, 1973

Gerald R. Ford (Presidency of Richard Nixon)
Party: Republican
Term: 1973-1974; succeeded to presidency on August 9, 1974

Note: Lyndon Johnson's succession to the presidency in 1963 following the assassination of John F. Kennedy left the vice presidency vacant for the sixteenth time in U.S. history. To avoid such a vacancy in the future, Congress passed and the states ratified the Twenty-fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1967, allowing for the appointment and confirmation of a new vice president if such a vacancy occurs. Gerald Ford became the first Vice President to be nominated by the President and confirmed by the Congress pursuant to the Twenty-fifth Amendment. Ford took the oath of office on December 6, 1973.

Nelson A. Rockefeller (Presidency of Gerald Ford)
Party: Republican
Term: 1974-1977

Note: Following succession to the presidency after the resignation of Richard Nixon in 1974, Gerald Ford nominated Nelson Rockefeller as vice president, as prescribed by the Twenty-fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Rockefeller took the oath of office in the Senate chamber on December 19, 1974. Television cameras that had been recently installed in the Senate chamber in anticipation of a possible impeachment trial of Richard Nixon were instead used to televise the swearing in of Vice President Rockefeller. This marked the first time television cameras had been allowed in the Senate chamber.

Walter F. Mondale (Presidency of Jimmy Carter)
Party: Democrat
Term: 1977-1981

George H.W. Bush (Presidency of Ronald Reagan)
Party: Republican
Term: 1981-1989

J. Danforth Quayle (Presidency of George H.W. Bush)
Party: Republican
Term: 1989-1993

Albert A. Gore, Jr. (Presidency of William Clinton)
Party: Democrat
Term: 1993-2001

Richard B. Cheney (Presidency of George W. Bush)
Party: Republican
Term: 2001-2005