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The U.S. Has Never Had 4 Consecutive Two-Term Presidents — But That Could Change
If there’s one thing that supporters of Republican incumbent Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden can agree on, it’s that the United States is a divided country.
Yet in spite of this obvious truth, the last three American presidents before Trump — Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama — were re-elected in spite of our nation’s highly partisan environment. The country may well be divided in terms of political leanings, but the incumbent president is 3-for-3 over the last 24 years when running for a second term.
For that trend to continue, however, a presidential first would have to occur in 2020: If Trump wins, it would be the first time the American electorate has re-elected four consecutive presidents.
Prior to the Clinton-Bush-Obama trio, American voters had only re-elected three consecutive presidents once before: Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and James Monroe. The last of the so-called Founding Fathers to be elected president, Monroe’s second term ended in 1825 after a period of relative unity and shared national purpose referred to by historians as the Era of Good…
