The Fix: Hillary Clinton is attempting something no Democrat has done since the Civil War

Category: Democrat

A quick reminder of the history that Hillary Clinton hopes to overturn: No Democrat who's served out his term has been replaced by a Democrat since before Abraham Lincoln. The last to do it, as we noted last year, was Martin Van Buren who replaced Andrew Jackson.

It's remarkable to contrast that history with the Republicans (of whom there have been more, boosting the odds that they'd have seen this happen). If you look at each presidency since 1861, it breaks down like this.

Only twice since Lincoln has a Democrat replaced a Democrat at all: Lyndon Johnson in 1963 and Harry Truman in 1945.

As always, we must remember that we're dealing with a very small sample size, as this XKCD strip makes clear. It's ten Democratic presidents in total (since this is a young country). And if Clinton manages to win, we doubt it's the first for which she's remembered.

Philip Bump writes about politics for The Fix. He is based in New York City.

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The Fix: Hillary Clinton is attempting something no Democrat has done since the Civil War

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March 24th, 2015
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