president warren harding. by andrew glass 11/03/16 12:06 am edt when sen. warren harding (r-ohio) awoke on this day in 1920, he learned he had won the presidency by the largest popular-vote percentage margin in history. harding, nominated on the 10th ballot, joined calvin coolidge of massachusetts in defeating the democratic ticket of gov. james cox of ohio and franklin d. roosevelt of new york. history suggests a negative pattern when weighing the chances of moving into the white house directly from the senate. although 16 of the nation<u+2019>s 44 presidents were senators at some point, only three of them to date <u+2014> harding; john f. kennedy (d-mass.), in 1960; and barack obama (d-ill.), in 2008 won their presidential races as incumbent senators. the last one to fail to do so was sen. john mccain (r-ariz.), who challenged obama in 2008. story continued below when, in 1832, sen. henry clay of kentucky became the first senatorial incumbent to try, he lost to presidential incumbent andrew jackson. four years later, sen. daniel webster of massachusetts tried. he finished a weak fourth against martin van buren, the vice president. the campaigns of 1848, 1852 and 1860 included bids by incumbent senators. but one looks in vain on the list of presidents from that era for the names of lewis cass of michigan, john hale of new hampshire or stephen douglas of illinois. the vice presidency opened in the 1850s for incumbent senators as a possible steppingstone to the white house. sen. william king (d-ala.) became the first incumbent to gain the vice presidential nomination <u+2014> as franklin pierce's running mate. soon after the ticket won in 1852, however, king fell ill. he went to cuba to recover, took the oath of office and died there soon after. since then, 26 incumbent senators have gained major party vice presidential nominations, including sen. tim kaine (d-va.) in 2016. of these, 14 won the vice presidency. the last one to do so was sen. joe biden (d-del.) in 2008, who ran unsuccessfully for the top prize before being asked to join obama on the ticket. but so far, only three <u+2014> harry truman of missouri, richard nixon of california and lyndon johnson of texas <u+2014> went on to become presidents. if she wins on nov. 8, hillary clinton of new york, who served in the senate from 2001 to 2009, would be the fourth. source: www.politico.com by michael grunwald by bill scher by thomas wright by joshua zeitz
a senator becomes president, nov. 3, 1920 - politico
andrew glass michael grunwald