In 1924, the vice presidency was vacant. Former VP Calvin Coolidge had ascended to the presidency, but not yet nominated his own subordinate. New York Times Magazine analyzed who both parties could select as their running mates that summer.

First, Richard Barry’s article noted the increasing potential importance of the role:

The average age at death of the first ten presidents — Washington to Tyler — was 78 years, while the average age of death of the last ten presidents — Grant to Harding, exclusive of Taft who is still living — was only 62 years.

…

This while the life-span [sic] of the average citizen, due to bettered personal hygiene, improved public sanitation, and the change in the cultural attitude toward old age, has increased.

What about today? In 2024, the average age at death of the 10 most recent presidents (Nixon to Biden) is much older than 62 or 78. Ford, Reagan, and H.W. Bush all lived to their 90s. Carter has now lived to 99 at minimum. Biden has similarly lived to 81 at minimum.

At the same time, none of the 10 most recent presidents died in office. The 1924-era presidential lifespan seemed so low in part because not one but two of the 10 most recent presidents at that point were assassinated: both Garfield and McKinley.

 

Barry then predicted that the Republicans would select their 1924 vice presidential nominees with far greater consideration than the party had previously, in 1920:

Harding was not chosen until late in the afternoon of Saturday at the end of a very hot week. The delegates were eager to get home. Most of them had tickets in their pockets to leave for home that night or the next day. No one wanted to wait over until Monday. So they gave half an hour to the selection, as it proved, not only of the next vice president, but of the next [president[.

…

This time it will be a thirty-day rather than a thirty-minute choice.

Perhaps it didn’t quite take 30 days, but it did take longer than expected.

The Republicans re-nominated Coolidge as their presidential nominee with essentially no opposition. On the first vice presidential ballot, former Illinois Gov. Frank Lowden led with 20% in a multi-candidate field. Lowden, who actually led for the 1920 Republican presidential nomination four years earlier but eventually lost to Harding, further solidified his lead on the second and third ballots. He claimed an outright majority on the third.

But he actually declined the honor, sticking to his pre-convention statement that he would decline the vice presidency if offered. (Which makes it odd that the Republicans would have nominated him anyway?)

Back then, “the party” selected the vice presidential candidate. It wasn’t the presidential candidate’s choice, as occurs today. After Lowden declined the VP slot, though, Coolidge tried to influence his party to select Idaho Sen. William E. Borah. The party wasn’t swayed, instead selecting Charles G. Dawes, director of the Bureau of the Budget. (Today known as the Office of Management and Budget, or OMB.)

 

As for the Democrats, Barry predicted, they would do the exact opposite and select their running mate quickly because of how long their presidential nomination was expected to take:

But the Democrats, by all present outward signs, will go the proverbial gamblers’ pace for the vice presidency this year. They will so exhaust themselves in the choice of a presidential candidate that when the second man comes to be chosen there will be nothing to do but draw straws or shuffle the cards.

Barry proved right.

Democrats took 103 ballots to nominate their presidential candidate, a record that stands to this day. For context, the last time a major-party convention even went to a second ballot was the Democrats in 1952. (More details in last week’s SundayMagazine.org post here.)

Not wanting to replicate that 103-ballot process, 1924’s Democrats would quickly nominate Nebraska Gov. Charles W. Bryan for vice president.

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The Cinderella of Politics

Published: Sunday, April 20, 1924