50 Fun Facts About Vice President

Who was the first vice president of the United States?

He complained to his wife Abigail that the job was 'the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived'.

Which vice president holds the record for the most tie-breaking votes in the Senate, with 33?

She presided over a 50-50 Senate, which is how she passed the 31-vote mark that had stood since the 1830s.

How many vice presidents have never cast a single tie-breaking vote?

Ties are rare, and many veeps served in Senates with lopsided majorities where their vote was never needed.

Before the Twelfth Amendment, how did someone become vice president?

That is how the 1796 election produced a president and vice president from opposing parties, and the runner-up spent four years frustrating the winner's policies.

The Twelfth Amendment, separating president and vice president ballots, was first used in which election?

It was rushed through after the 1800 fiasco, when Jefferson tied with his own running mate and the House needed 36 ballots to sort it out.

Which sitting vice president killed Alexander Hamilton in an 1804 duel?

He was later tried for treason over a scheme to carve an independent country out of the West, and acquitted.

The word 'gerrymander' is named after which vice president, who signed a contorted map as Massachusetts governor?

He served under James Madison and died in office in 1814, one of seven vice presidents to die in the job.

Which vice president served under the sixth and seventh presidents, then became the first to resign the office?

He quit in 1832 to take a Senate seat and fight for South Carolina's right to nullify federal tariffs.

Which vice president was chosen by the Senate in 1837 after no candidate won an electoral majority?

Van Buren's running mate beat Francis Granger 33-17 in the only such contingent election in history.

Which vice president set the precedent that a veep becomes full president when the president dies?

He refused to open mail addressed to the 'Acting President', and Congress eventually agreed with him.

How many vice presidents have succeeded to the presidency mid-term after a president died or resigned?

Four of them, Theodore Roosevelt, Coolidge, Truman and Lyndon Johnson, then won full terms of their own.

Which vice president was sworn in in Cuba and died 45 days later, never serving?

Franklin Pierce's running mate had gone to Cuba hoping the climate would ease his tuberculosis.

Which Maine politician was Abraham Lincoln's first-term vice president?

He was dropped from the 1864 ticket in favour of a Southern Unionist, a swap that put Andrew Johnson in the White House.

Which of Ulysses Grant's vice presidents was implicated in the Crédit Mobilier railroad bribery scandal?

He was accused of taking discounted Union Pacific shares from Congressman Oakes Ames while Speaker of the House.

Which vice president complained a fire marshal failed to recognise him during an evacuation?

Major League Baseball also sent him free passes with his name misspelled, shortly before Harding's death made him president.

Which vice president shared the 1925 Nobel Peace Prize and composed the melody of 'It's All in the Game'?

His Melody in A Major from 1912 got lyrics from Carl Sigman in 1951 and topped the charts for Tommy Edwards.

Herbert Hoover's vice president was the first Native American to hold the office. Who was he?

An enrolled citizen of the Kaw Nation, he had already been the first Native American in Congress and Senate Majority Leader.

Which of FDR's vice presidents dismissed the job as not worth 'a pitcher of warm' spit (politely put)?

He had been Speaker of the House and broke with FDR over court-packing, becoming his leading critic.

Which FDR vice president was denied renomination in 1944, opening the door for Truman?

Roosevelt had handpicked him in 1940, the first time a president chose his own running mate rather than leaving it to the convention.

How many days was Harry Truman vice president before Franklin Roosevelt's death made him president?

He was never told about the Manhattan Project, and later said he felt like 'the moon, the stars and all the planets fell on me'.

Which vice president, the oldest ever elected at 71, got the nickname 'Veep' from his grandson?

Truman's running mate married a widow half his age while in office, and the courtship made national news.

Which vice president took temporary charge after Eisenhower's 1955 heart attack?

He did it again after Eisenhower's ileitis in 1956 and stroke in 1957, which helped inspire the constitutional fix for presidential disability a decade later.

Who was the first vice president given an office in the White House complex?

Before 1961 the veep worked entirely from Capitol Hill; that room is now the 'Ceremonial Office of the Vice President'.

Which vice president, at a funeral in Norway in January 1969, missed having to announce his own 1968 defeat?

He was attending the funeral of Trygve Lie, the first elected UN Secretary-General, so president pro tempore Richard Russell presided instead.

Which vice president resigned in October 1973 after pleading no contest to a tax evasion charge?

He was the second veep to resign, and the man Nixon picked to replace him was in the Oval Office within a year.

Which amendment, ratified in 1967, lets a president fill a vice presidential vacancy by nomination?

Before it, the office simply sat empty until the next election, for a cumulative 37 years of American history.

Who is the only person to serve as president without ever being elected president or vice president?

He was appointed vice president under the Twenty-fifth Amendment, then inherited the presidency ten months later when Nixon resigned.

Which former four-term New York governor was appointed vice president in 1974?

He was the second and last vice president installed under the vacancy clause added to the Constitution in 1967.

Which 1893 Washington house has been the vice president's official residence since the 1970s?

Built for the Naval Observatory's superintendent, it was commandeered by the Chief of Naval Operations in 1923 before Congress handed it to the veep in 1974.

Which vice president first lived full-time in the official residence, moving in during January 1977?

His predecessor had his own well-guarded Washington home and only used the house for entertaining, though he donated millions in furnishings.

Which president was the first to give his vice president an office in the West Wing?

He thought the office had historically been 'a wasted asset' and wanted Walter Mondale inside the decision-making process.

Geraldine Ferraro's 1984 ticket, the first with a woman on it, carried only one state. Which?

Reagan and Bush won the other 49; the losing ticket also took the District of Columbia.

Which sitting vice president was the last elected directly to the presidency, in 1988?

Only three others managed it, all before 1840, the last being Martin Van Buren in 1836.

Which vice president corrected a schoolboy's 'potato' to 'potatoe' at a 1992 spelling bee?

The 12-year-old, William Figueroa, had it right; the moment in Trenton, New Jersey followed the vice president for the rest of his career.

Which former vice president shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for his climate change work?

He also collected a Primetime Emmy for Current TV the same year, and an Oscar went to his documentary An Inconvenient Truth.

Which vice president accidentally shot lawyer Harry Whittington during a 2006 quail hunt in Texas?

Whittington took birdshot to the cheek, neck and chest, and later publicly apologised to the vice president for the trouble.

To which state did the 2000 Republican VP nominee move his vote from Texas to satisfy the Twelfth Amendment?

The 'inhabitant clause' says electors must vote for at least one candidate who is not from their own state, and George W. Bush was a Texan.

Which vice president told Obama he wanted to always be 'the last person in the room'?

Obama also handed him the Iraq portfolio with the words 'Joe, you do Iraq', and he later ran his own vice president the same way.

Which state did Joe Biden represent in the Senate for 36 years before becoming vice president?

He was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, but the family moved to Claymont when he was ten.

Which state did Mike Pence govern before becoming Donald Trump's vice president?

He also spent twelve years representing the state in the US House before joining the 2016 ticket.

In March 2021, President Biden put his vice president in charge of which issue?

Delegating a hard portfolio to the veep is now routine; Trump had handed Mike Pence the pandemic response the year before.

JD Vance rose to national fame with which 2016 memoir before becoming the 50th vice president?

He is the first Marine Corps veteran to hold the office, having served as a military journalist from 2003 to 2007.

What call sign does a plane use while it is carrying the vice president (but not the president)?

The usual plane is a Boeing C-32, a modified 757, but even the president's VC-25 takes the name when the veep is aboard.

How many years must a vice president serve to qualify for a pension?

They get no pension for the office itself, only the congressional one they earn as president of the Senate.

Who twice declined the vice presidency, under Harrison and then Taylor, both of whom died in office?

He said he did not 'propose to be buried until I am really dead', and instead served as Secretary of State under three presidents.

Which McKinley vice president was so influential he was nicknamed 'Assistant President'?

Even so, vice presidents were not invited to Cabinet meetings until Woodrow Wilson asked Thomas Marshall to preside in 1919.

Since what year has the vice president legally been a member of the National Security Council?

Truman, who was never told about the Manhattan Project as vice president, knew his successors needed to be kept informed.

Between 1812 and 1965, on how many occasions was the vice presidency left vacant?

Seven deaths, one resignation and eight successions left the nation without a vice president for a cumulative 37 years.

Who is the only former vice president to have held the Senate's honorific title of Deputy President pro tempore?

The title has been available since 1977 to former presidents and vice presidents who return to the Senate.

Under an 1886 Senate resolution, every former vice president is entitled to what in the Capitol?

The collection in the Senate wing commemorates their service as presidents of the Senate; Dick Cheney is the most recent addition.