UPDATE: On Sunday, July 21, current President Joe Biden announced that he would no longer pursue reelection.
History repeats itself. Except when it doesn’t. With a Biden-Trump rematch on the horizon, analysts are studying past U.S. presidential elections. They hope to predict the outcome of this November’s contest. Will the incumbent or the repeat challenger triumph?
The 2024 ballot marks the seventh time (out of 60 presidential elections!) two men have faced one another in a second battle for America’s highest office—and only the second time both men have held the position before.
In four of six previous rematches, the candidate who didn’t win the first time returned for a victory. Of course, in politics as in life, God alone knows the future and is able to defeat or lift up. (Psalm 75:7)
Here’s a rundown of U.S. history’s rare presidential rematches.
John Adams and Thomas Jefferson vied for the presidency in 1796 during the first election after George Washington stepped down. Adams won the contest to take the position of president. Jefferson became vice president. Four years later, Jefferson ran against and defeated the incumbent Adams.
John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson also faced off twice for the presidency. The first time was in 1824 when Adams prevailed. But in 1828, Jackson snagged the office by beating Adams. (Sound familiar?)
In 1836, Martin Van Buren defeated William Henry Harrison. Four years later, Harrison won the rematch. Eight years after that, Van Buren attempted a comeback—this time with a third party. But he failed to garner a single electoral vote. Ouch.
William McKinley and William Jennings Bryan battled for the top office in both 1896 and 1900. McKinley won both times.
The most recent presidential rematch came in 1956. Dwight D. Eisenhower beat Adlai Stevenson in 1952. The incumbent president faced Stevenson again four years later and achieved a landslide victory.
Grover Cleveland is the lone U.S. president to date to serve two non-consecutive terms. He successfully pulled off what former President Trump is attempting: winning back the White House from the opponent who took it from him.
Cleveland narrowly won the presidential election of 1884 against James G. Blaine. Four years later, he won the popular vote but lost the electoral college to Benjamin Harrison. In 1892, Cleveland ran against Harrison again. This time he easily won another term.
“You don’t typically see rematches happen,” presidential biographer and researcher Barbara Ann Perry tells History.com, “because it’s unusual for a political party to nominate a loser again.”
Whatever the outcome this fall, election history seems to reinforce the familiar saying: “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.”
Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might. — Ecclesiastes 9:10
Why? Trying again after a loss requires perseverance, determination, and persistence. And in a presidential race, voters get to decide whether that persistence is a shared goal.
