List of United States vice presidential firsts

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This list covers the historical firsts of vice presidents of the United States.

John Adams (1789–1797)

First vice president.^[1]
First vice president to serve two terms.
First vice president to be elected president.
First vice president born in Massachusetts.
First vice president to have been a Continental Congress Delegate, a state judge, and a U.S. diplomat to France, the Netherlands, and Great Britain.
First vice president to have been a lawyer.
First vice president from the North and New England.
First Unitarian vice president.
First vice president to join a political party, the Federalist Party.
First vice president to cast a tie-breaking vote as president of the Senate.
First former vice president to reach the age of 90.
First former vice president to live at the White House.

Thomas Jefferson (1797-1801)

First vice president to have previously been a governor.^[a]
First vice president to serve only one term.
First vice president to have previously served as secretary of state.^[2]
First vice president to have sought the presidency against his president.
First vice president born in Virginia.
First vice president from the South.
First Deist vice president.
First vice president to own slaves.
First vice president to enter office as a member of a political party, the Democratic Republican Party.
First vice president to have served as a state legislator, a state governor, and U.S. secretary of state.
First vice president to be a widower.

Aaron Burr (1801-1805)

First vice president born in New Jersey.
First vice president from New York.
First vice president to have served as a state attorney general and U.S. senator.
First Presbyterian vice president.
First vice president to be inaugurated in Washington, D.C.
First vice president to be younger than 50.
First vice president to be criminally prosecuted.
First vice president to never become president.
First vice president to have a 30-year long post-vice presidency.

George Clinton (1805-1812)

First vice president born in New York
First vice president to be elected under the parameters of the Twelfth Amendment.
First vice president to have served as a university president.
First Dutch Reformed vice president.
First vice president to enter office over the age of 60 and to reach the age of 70 while in office.
First vice president to serve under two presidents (Thomas Jefferson and James Madison)
First vice president to die in office (or at all, all 3 former vice presidents were alive at the time of Clinton's death).

Elbridge Gerry (1813-1814)

First vice president to have served in the United States House of Representatives.
First Episcopalian vice president.
First vice president to die in their first term.
First president to be buried in Washington, D.C.

Daniel D. Tompkins (1817-1825)

First (and only) vice president to have served two terms in the 1800s.
First former vice president to die within a year of leaving office.

John C. Calhoun (1825–1832)

First vice president born in South Carolina.
First vice president born after the Declaration of Independence.
First vice president to resign.
First vice president to serve under two presidents after the latter defeated the former in the intervening election.
First vice president to switch parties while in office.
First vice president to be a member of a third party, the Nullifier Party.
First vice president to have served as secretary of war.
First vice president to cast over 30 tie-breaking votes in the U.S. Senate.
First vice president to be photographed.
First former vice president to serve in the U.S. senate after leaving office.
First former vice president to serve in the U.S. cabinet after leaving office (secretary of state).

Martin Van Buren (1833–1837)

First vice president to be a member of the Democratic Party.
First vice president to speak English as a second language.
First vice president to have entire non-British ancestry.^[3]

Richard M. Johnson (1837–1841)

First vice president elected through a contingent election in the Senate.
First vice president born in Kentucky.
First vice president to be elected to state legislature after leaving office.
First Baptist vice president

John Tyler (1841)

First vice president to ascend to the presidency on his president's (William Henry Harrison) death.
First vice president to be a member of the Whig Party.
First vice president to have been president pro tempore of the United States Senate.

George M. Dallas (1845–1849)

First vice president born in Pennsylvania.
First vice president to have served as minister to Russia, mayor, and U.S. attorney.

Millard Fillmore (1849–1850)

First vice president to have chaired a committee in the U.S. House.
First vice president to have served as state comptroller.

William R. King (1853)

First vice president born in North Carolina.
First vice president from Alabama.
First vice president to take the oath of office on foreign soil (Cuba).
First vice president to be a bachelor.

John C. Breckinridge (1857–1861)

First (and only) vice president to take office under the age of 40.
First former vice president to be expelled from the U.S. Senate as senator.
First former vice president to defect to the Confederacy and serve in its cabinet.

Hannibal Hamlin (1861–1865)

First vice president born in Maine.
First vice president to be a member of the Republican Party.
First vice president to have served as minister to Spain.

Andrew Johnson (1865)

First vice president from Tennessee.
First vice president to be elected on the National Union ticket.
First vice president to have served as military governor.
First vice president to ascend to the presidency on his president's assassination.

Schuyler Colfax (1869–1873)

First vice president born in New York City.
First vice president from Indiana.
First vice president to have served as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Henry Wilson (1873–1875)

First vice president born in New Hampshire.
First Congregationalist vice president.
First vice president to have served as state senate president and chairman of a U.S senate committee.

William A. Wheeler (1877–1881)

First Half-Breed vice president.

Chester A. Arthur (1881)

First vice president born in Vermont.

Thomas A. Hendricks (1885)

First vice president born in Ohio.
First vice president to be buried at Crown Hill Cemetery.

Levi P. Morton (1889–1893)

First (and only) vice president to serve as governor of a state after being vice president.
First vice president to die on his birthday.

Adlai Stevenson I (1893–1897)

First vice president from Illinois.

Garret Hobart (1897–1899)

First vice president from New Jersey.
First vice president to be filmed.
First vice president to have his voice recorded.

Theodore Roosevelt (1901)

First vice president to ascend to the presidency on his president's assassination and be elected to a term in his own right.
First vice president to be shot in an assassination attempt (after leaving office).

Charles W. Fairbanks (1905–1909)

First vice president to serve a complete term without casting any tie-breaking votes as president of the Senate.

James S. Sherman (1909–1912)

First Reformed vice president.

Thomas R. Marshall (1913–1921)

First vice president to conduct cabinet meetings.

Calvin Coolidge (1921–1923)

First vice president to attend cabinet meetings.

Charles G. Dawes (1925–1929)

First vice president to win the Nobel Peace Prize while in office.

Charles Curtis (1929–1933)

First vice president with Native American ancestry.
First vice president born in Kansas.
First vice president born west of the Mississippi River.

John Nance Garner (1933–1941)

First vice president born in Texas.
First vice president to be inaugurated on January 20 (pursuant to the Twentieth Amendment).^[b]^[4]

Henry A. Wallace (1941–1945)

First vice president born in Iowa.
First vice president to begin his vice presidency on January 20 (pursuant to the Twentieth Amendment).^[5]

Harry S. Truman (1945)

First vice president born in Missouri.
First (and only) vice president to be a president's third vice president.

Alben W. Barkley (1949–1953)

First Methodist vice president.
First (and only) vice president to take office after turning 70.

Richard Nixon (1953–1961)

First vice president born in California.
First Quaker vice president.
First vice president born in the 20th century.^[c]
First former vice president to be elected president.

Lyndon B. Johnson (1961–1963)

First Disciples of Christ vice president.

Hubert Humphrey (1965–1969)

First vice president born in South Dakota.
First vice president from Minnesota.
First Lutheran vice president.

Spiro Agnew (1969–1973)

First vice president born in Maryland.
First vice president to have Greek ancestry.
First vice president to resign due to scandal.

Gerald Ford (1973–1974)

First vice president born in Nebraska.
First vice president to be appointed to the role under the Twenty-fifth Amendment, via a process of presidential nomination and congressional confirmation.
First vice president to ascend to the presidency as a result of resignation.

Nelson Rockefeller (1974–1977)

First vice president to be appointed to the role under the Twenty-fifth Amendment and not be nominated by their party in the next election.
First (and only) vice president to have never been on a presidential ticket as either the presidential or vice presidential nominee.

Walter Mondale (1977–1981)

First vice president born in Minnesota.
First vice president to live at Number One Observatory Circle.^[6]^[7]
First vice president to have a 40-year long post-vice presidency.

George H.W. Bush (1981–1989)

First vice president to serve as acting president.
First vice president to serve as the Director of Central Intelligence.
First vice president to serve as the chair of the Republican National Committee.
First former vice president to live at both Number One Observatory Circle and the White House.^[6]^[8]

Dan Quayle (1989–1993)

First Baby boomer to be elected vice president or president.

Al Gore (1993–2001)

First (and only) vice president born in Washington, D.C.
First Southern Baptist vice president.

Dick Cheney (2001–2009)

First vice president to have an openly LGBT child (Mary Cheney, who is lesbian).
First vice president to serve as acting president twice.

Joe Biden (2009–2017)

First vice president from Delaware.
First vice president to have been a U.S. senator for 35 years.
First Catholic vice president.
First vice president to be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom with distinction.
First vice president to cast zero tie-breaking votes whilst serving two full terms.

Mike Pence (2017–2021)

First Evangelical vice president.
First vice president to testify before a federal grand jury indicting his president.

Kamala Harris (2021–present)

First female vice president.^[9]
First black vice president.^[9]
First Asian-American vice president.^[9]
First woman to assume the powers and duties of the U.S. presidency as acting president under Section 3 of the Twenty-fifth Amendment.^[10]^[11]
First vice president to have a second gentleman of the United States.^[12]
First vice president to have a Jewish spouse.^[13]

References

^ American Political Leaders 1789–2009. CQ Press. 2009. ISBN 978-1-4522-6726-5.
^ "Why Do Secretaries of State Make Such Terrible Presidential Candidates?". Smithsonian.
^ "Our Non-Anglo-Saxon Presidents". July 25, 2012.
^ "38TH INAUGURAL CEREMONIES". Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies. Retrieved August 30, 2023.
^ "THE 38th PRESIDENTIAL INAUGURATION". Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies. Retrieved August 30, 2023.
^ ^a ^b "The Vice President's Residence". WhiteHouse.gov. Archived from the original on October 21, 2009.
^ "Happy, Nelson Rockefeller open 2nd Washington Home". Sarasota Herald-Times. United Press International. September 7, 1975. p. 11A. Archived from the original on January 21, 2021. Retrieved December 31, 2015 – via Google News.
^ Groppe, Maureen. "Second Lady Karen Pence lights up garden to honor George H.W. Bush". USA Today. Archived from the original on November 28, 2023. Retrieved November 28, 2023.
^ ^a ^b ^c "Kamala Harris becomes first female, first black and first Asian-American VP". January 20, 2021 – via www.bbc.com.
^ Feinberg, Andrew (November 19, 2021). "'First woman president': Kamala Harris makes history when she briefly assumes powers of presidency during Biden procedure". The Independent. Washington, DC. Retrieved November 19, 2021.
^ Pengelly, Martin (November 19, 2021). "Kamala Harris takes on presidential role – briefly – as Biden has colonoscopy". The Guardian.
^ "Douglas Emhoff: Second Gentleman". The White House.
^ "30 facts about Joe Biden and Kamala Harris". krem.com. January 15, 2021.

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^ Jefferson was Governor of Virginia from 1779 to 1781.
^ Garner was inaugurated for his first term on March 4, 1933. He was sworn in for a second term as vice president on January 20, 1937, the first time a presidential or vice presidential inauguration took place on January 20th.
^ Nixon was born in 1913 and took office in 1953. But his three successors were older than him, the oldest of them being Nelson Rockefeller, who was born on July 8th 1908, and thus is the earliest-born president of the 20th century.