U.S. politics--has there ever been a former Speaker as Pres?

Post Reply New Topic

Has there ever been a former Speaker of the House as President? Or candidate for President?

James Polk.

William Howard Taft is only other president to have headed to two branches of government. Taft was President and Chief Justice.

via google all the speakers that have ran for president: Henry Clay of Kentucky (in 1824, 1832, 1840, 1844, 1848), James Polk of Tennessee (1844), John Bell of Tennessee (1860), James Blaine of Maine (1876, 1880, and 1884), Samuel Randall of Pennsylvania (1884), Thomas Reed of Maine (1896), Joseph Cannon of Illinois (1908), Champ Clark of Missouri (1912), and John Garner of Texas (1932, 1940)

and now Newt Gingrich obviously

Polk ran against Clay, so it was inevitable. But yes, he is currently the only former Speaker of the House to become President.

If you're looking for parallels, Polk promised to cut tarriffs to revive a slumping economy, and favored a more imperialistic foreign policy. In office, he followed through and was successful on both counts. However, he also started an unpopular war on shaky grounds, and failed to repair the ideological divisions within our own society.

woops--didn't mean to imply that I didn't know Newt wasn't a former Speaker. You probably knew that and the that was the reason I brought this up.

Of course he was. Newt Gingrich was the 58th Speaker of the House of Representatives.