List of presidents of the United States by other offices held

This is a list of presidents of the United States by other offices (either elected or appointed) held. Every president of the United States except Donald Trump has served as at least one of the following:

• Vice President of the United States
• a member of Congress (either U.S. senator or representative)
• a governor of a state
• a Cabinet secretary
• a general of the United States Army

Federal government

Executive branch

Vice presidents

Vice President	President served under	Year(s) served	Notes
John Adams	George Washington	1789–1797
Thomas Jefferson	John Adams	1797–1801
Martin Van Buren	Andrew Jackson	1833–1837
John Tyler	William Henry Harrison	1841	Became President after Harrison's death
Millard Fillmore	Zachary Taylor	1849–1850	Became President after Taylor's death
Andrew Johnson	Abraham Lincoln	1865	Became President after Lincoln's assassination
Chester A. Arthur	James A. Garfield	1881	Became President after Garfield's assassination
Theodore Roosevelt	William McKinley	1901	Became President after McKinley's assassination
Calvin Coolidge	Warren G. Harding	1921–1923	Became President after Harding's death
Harry S. Truman	Franklin D. Roosevelt	1945	Became President after Roosevelt's death
Richard Nixon	Dwight D. Eisenhower	1953–1961	Only former Vice President to become President after an intervening administration.
Lyndon B. Johnson	John F. Kennedy	1961–1963	Became President after Kennedy's assassination
Gerald Ford	Richard Nixon	1973–1974	Became President after Nixon's resignation
George H. W. Bush	Ronald Reagan	1981–1989

In addition, George H. W. Bush served as Acting President for a brief period under Ronald Reagan, as did Dick Cheney (the latter on two occasions) under George W. Bush.

13 former vice presidents (R. Johnson, Breckinridge, Morton, Stevenson, Fairbanks, Garner, Wallace, Barkley, Nixon, Humphrey, Mondale, Quayle, and Gore) all made failed runs for the presidency. Nixon, Humphrey, Mondale, and Gore received their party's nomination. Nixon would later be elected in a second run for the presidency. In addition, Joe Biden is a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020.

Cabinet secretaries

Secretary	Office	President served under	Year(s) served
Thomas Jefferson	Secretary of State	George Washington	1790–1793
James Madison	Secretary of State	Thomas Jefferson	1801–1809
James Monroe	Secretary of State	James Madison	1811–1814
	Secretary of War		1814–1815
	Secretary of State		1815–1817
John Quincy Adams	Secretary of State	James Monroe	1817–1825
Martin Van Buren	Secretary of State	Andrew Jackson	1829–1831
James Buchanan	Secretary of State	James K. Polk	1845–1849
William Howard Taft	Secretary of War	Theodore Roosevelt	1904–1908
Herbert Hoover	Secretary of Commerce	Warren G. Harding	1921–1928
		Calvin Coolidge

John Adams (as the vice president) and Thomas Jefferson both served in the Cabinet of George Washington. Calvin Coolidge (as the vice president) and Herbert Hoover both served in the Cabinet of Warren G. Harding.

Both Theodore (from 1897–1898) and Franklin D. Roosevelt (from 1913–1920) served as Assistant Secretary of the Navy under presidents McKinley and Wilson, respectively. William Howard Taft served as Solicitor General from 1890 to 1892 under President Harrison.

Ambassadors

President	Position	President served under	Year(s) served	Notes
John Adams	Minister to Britain	Continental Congress	1785–1788
Thomas Jefferson	Minister Plenipotentiary to France	Continental Congress	1785–1789
James Monroe	Minister Plenipotentiary to France	George Washington	1794–1796
	Minister to Britain	Thomas Jefferson	1803–1807	Served under Secretary of State James Madison
John Quincy Adams	Minister to the Netherlands	George Washington John Adams	1794–1797
	Minister to Germany	John Adams	1797–1801
	Minister to Russia	James Madison	1809–1814	Served under Secretary of State James Monroe
	Minister to Britain	James Madison	1815–1817
Martin Van Buren	Minister to Britain	Andrew Jackson	1831–1832
William Henry Harrison	Minister to Gran Colombia	John Quincy Adams	1828–1829
James Buchanan	Minister to Britain	Franklin Pierce	1853–1856
George H. W. Bush	Ambassador to the United Nations	Richard Nixon	1971–1973
	Chief of the U.S. Liaison Office in Beijing	Gerald R. Ford	1974–1975	Head of U.S. mission in China

Other federal appointees

President	Office	President appointed by	Year(s) served
Chester A. Arthur	Collector of the Port of New York	Ulysses S. Grant	1871–1878
George H. W. Bush	Director of Central Intelligence	Gerald Ford	1976–1977

Judicial branch

Chief Justice of the United States

President	President nominated by	Year(s) served	Notes
William Howard Taft	Warren G. Harding	1921–1930	Only President to serve on the Supreme Court.

Other federal judges

President	Court	President nominated by	Year(s) served
William Howard Taft	United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit	Benjamin Harrison	1892–1900

Legislative branch

Senators

State	President	Year(s) served	Notes
California	Richard Nixon	1950–1953
Indiana	Benjamin Harrison	1881–1887
Illinois	Barack Obama	2005–2008	Third sitting Senator elected to the presidency
Massachusetts	John Quincy Adams	1803–1808
	John F. Kennedy	1953–1960	Second sitting Senator elected to the presidency
Missouri	Harry S. Truman	1935–1945
New Hampshire	Franklin Pierce	1837–1842
New York	Martin Van Buren	1821–1828
Ohio	William Henry Harrison	1825–1828
	Warren G. Harding	1915–1921	First sitting Senator elected to the presidency
Pennsylvania	James Buchanan	1834–1845
Tennessee	Andrew Jackson	1797–1798
		1823–1825
	Andrew Johnson	1857–1862
		1875	Only former President in the Senate
Texas	Lyndon B. Johnson	1949–1961	Senate Minority Leader 1953-1955 Senate Majority Leader 1955-1961
Virginia	James Monroe	1790–1794	First former Senator to become President
	John Tyler	1827–1836	Only former President pro tempore to become President

A number of future presidents served together while in the Senate:

• Monroe served under Vice President Adams (1790–1794)
• Jackson served under Vice President Jefferson (1797–1798). Jackson later served with Van Buren (1823–1825). Van Buren also served with W.H. Harrison (1825–1828) and Tyler (1827–1828). Buchanan also served with Tyler (1834–1836) and later served with Pierce (1837–1842). Both Buchanan and Tyler served under Vice President Van Buren (1833–1837), while Pierce later served under Vice President Tyler (1841).
• B. Harrison briefly served under Vice President Arthur (1881).
• L. Johnson served with both Nixon (1950–1953) and Kennedy (1953–1960). L. Johnson and Kennedy both served under Vice President Nixon (1953–1961).

James A. Garfield was elected senator for Ohio in 1880, but he did not take up the office due to being elected President later that year.

Seven former senators (Monroe, Adams, Jackson, W.H. Harrison, Pierce, Buchanan, and B. Harrison) were elected to the presidency without ever serving as the vice president between their departure from the Senate and the beginning of their presidencies.

Members of the House of Representatives

State	President	Year(s) served	Notes
California	Richard Nixon	1947–1950	Later elected to the Senate
Illinois	Abraham Lincoln	1847–1849
Massachusetts	John Quincy Adams	1831–1848	Only former president in the House of Representatives
	John F. Kennedy	1947–1953	Later elected to the Senate
Michigan	Gerald Ford	1949–1973	House Minority Leader 1965-1973
New Hampshire	Franklin Pierce	1833–1837	Later elected to the Senate
New York	Millard Fillmore	1833–1835
		1837–1843
Northwest Territory	William Henry Harrison	1799–1800	Served as a non-voting delegate
Ohio	William Henry Harrison	1816–1819	Later elected to the Senate
	Rutherford B. Hayes	1865–1867	Later elected Governor of Ohio
	James A. Garfield	1863–1881	Republican Floor Leader Only sitting Representative elected to the presidency
	William McKinley	1877–1883	Later elected Governor of Ohio
		1885–1891
Pennsylvania	James Buchanan	1821–1831	Later elected to the Senate
Tennessee	Andrew Jackson	1796–1797	Later elected to the Senate
	James K. Polk	1825–1839	Only former speaker to become President later elected Governor of Tennessee
	Andrew Johnson	1843–1853	Later elected to the Senate
Texas	Lyndon B. Johnson	1937–1949	Later elected to the Senate
	George H. W. Bush	1967–1971	Later elected Vice President of the United States
Virginia	James Madison	1789–1797	First former representative to become President
	John Tyler	1816–1821	Later elected to the Senate

A number of future presidents served in the House together:

• Jackson served with Madison (1796–1797)
• W.H. Harrison served with Tyler (1816–1819)
• Buchanan served with Polk (1825–1831). Polk also served with Adams (1831–1839). Adams later served with Fillmore (1833–1835; 1837–1843), Pierce (1833–1837), A. Johnson (1843–1848), and Lincoln (1847–1848). A. Johnson and Lincoln would continue to serve together (1848–1849).
• Garfield served with both Hayes (1865–1867) and McKinley (1877–1881)
• Nixon served with L. Johnson (1947–1949), John F. Kennedy (1947–1950), and Ford (1949–1950). Ford would continue to serve with Kennedy (1950–1953) and later served with Bush (1967–1971).

Continental Congress

President	State	Year(s) served	Body served
George Washington	Virginia	1774–1775	First Continental Congress
John Adams	Massachusetts	1774–1778	First Continental Congress, Second Continental Congress
Thomas Jefferson	Virginia	1775–1776 1783–1784	Second Continental Congress Congress of the Confederation
James Madison	Virginia	1780–1783	Second Continental Congress, Congress of the Confederation
James Monroe	Virginia	1783–1786	Congress of the Confederation

State and territorial government

Governors

State / Territory	President	Year(s) served	Notes
Arkansas	Bill Clinton	1979–1981
		1983–1992
California	Ronald Reagan	1967–1975
Cuba	William Howard Taft	1906	Provisional Governor
Florida Territory	Andrew Jackson	1821	Military Governor
Georgia	Jimmy Carter	1971–1975
Indiana Territory	William Henry Harrison	1801–1813
Louisiana District	William Henry Harrison	1804–1805	Interim Authority
Massachusetts	Calvin Coolidge	1919–1921
New Jersey	Woodrow Wilson	1911–1913
New York	Martin Van Buren	1829
	Grover Cleveland	1883–1885
	Theodore Roosevelt	1899–1900
	Franklin D. Roosevelt	1929–1932
Northwest Territory	William Henry Harrison	1798–1799	Acting Governor
Ohio	Rutherford B. Hayes	1868–1872
		1876–1877
	William McKinley	1892–1896
Philippines	William Howard Taft	1901–1904	Governor-General
Tennessee	James K. Polk	1839–1841
	Andrew Johnson	1853–1857
		1862–1865	Military Governor
Texas	George W. Bush	1995–2000
Virginia	Thomas Jefferson	1779–1781
	James Monroe	1799–1802
		1811
	John Tyler	1825–1827

State legislators

See below for information about pre-1776 colonial offices held.

State Legislature	President	Year(s)served	Notes
Georgia State Senate	Jimmy Carter	1963–1967
Illinois House of Representatives	Abraham Lincoln	1834–1842
Illinois Senate	Barack Obama	1997–2004
Massachusetts House of Representatives	Calvin Coolidge	1907–1909
Massachusetts Senate	John Quincy Adams	1802
	Calvin Coolidge	1912–1915
New Hampshire House of Representatives	Franklin Pierce	1829–1833	Speaker of the House 1832-1833
New York Senate	Martin Van Buren	1812–1820
	Franklin D. Roosevelt	1911–1913
New York State Assembly	Millard Fillmore	1829–1831
	Theodore Roosevelt	1882–1884	Assembly Minority Leader 1883
Ohio Senate	William Henry Harrison	1819–1821
	James A. Garfield	1859–1861
	Warren G. Harding	1899–1903
Pennsylvania House of Representatives	James Buchanan	1814–1816
Tennessee House of Representatives	James K. Polk	1823–1825
	Andrew Johnson	1835–1837
Tennessee Senate	Andrew Johnson	1841–1843
Virginia House of Delegates	Thomas Jefferson	1776–1779
	James Madison	1776–1777
	James Monroe	1782–1783
	John Tyler	1811–1816
		1823–1825

Other statewide offices

President	Office and Jurisdiction	Year(s) served
Martin Van Buren	Attorney General of New York	1815–1819
Millard Fillmore	New York State Comptroller	1847–1849
Warren G. Harding	Lieutenant Governor of Ohio	1904–1906
Calvin Coolidge	Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts	1916–1919
Bill Clinton	Attorney General of Arkansas	1977–1979

Municipal government

President	Office and jurisdiction	Year(s) served
George Washington	County surveyor in Mount Vernon	1749-1751
Martin Van Buren	Surrogate of Columbia County, New York	1808–1812
Abraham Lincoln	Postmaster of New Salem, Illinois	1832–1833
	County Surveyor for Sangamon County, Illinois	1833–1834
Andrew Johnson	Alderman, Greeneville, Tennessee	1828–1830
	Mayor of Greeneville, Tennessee	1834–1835
Grover Cleveland	Sheriff of Erie County, New York	1871–1873
	Mayor of Buffalo, New York	1882–1883
William Howard Taft	Judge on the Superior Court of Cincinnati	1887-1890
Theodore Roosevelt	Superintendent of the New York Board of Police Commissioners	1895–1897
Calvin Coolidge	Mayor of Northampton, Massachusetts	1910–1911
Harry S. Truman	Judge of Jackson County, Missouri's Eastern District	1923-1925
	Presiding Judge of Jackson County, Missouri	1927-1935

Presidents who had not previously held elective office

With previous experience in government

President	Term of office	Position(s)
Zachary Taylor	1849–1850	Major general in the United States Army
Ulysses S. Grant	1869–1877	General of the Army of the United States (served as Secretary of War ad interim)
Herbert Hoover	1929–1933	Secretary of Commerce
Dwight D. Eisenhower	1953–1961	General of the Army of the United States

Without previous experience in government

President	Term of office	Notes
Donald Trump	2017–present	Chairman of The Trump Organization

Colonial governments

Colonial and confederate legislators

Legislature	President	Year(s) served	Notes
Confederate Congress	John Tyler	1861–1862	Delegate to the Provisional Confederate Congress and elected to the House of Representatives of the Confederate Congress of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War, but died before entering office
Massachusetts House of Representatives	John Adams	1768–1774	All served as regular members of their colonial legislature under the Kingdom of Great Britain before 1776.
Virginia House of Burgesses	George Washington	1758–1774
	Thomas Jefferson	1769–1774

Lost races

Not including presidential re-election attempts made while in office.

Presidential elections

President	Office and jurisdiction	Year	Notes
Thomas Jefferson	President of the United States	1796	Lost to John Adams. Won in 1800, 1804
Andrew Jackson	President of the United States	1824	Lost to John Quincy Adams. Won in 1828, 1832
William Henry Harrison	President of the United States	1836	Lost to Martin Van Buren. Defeated Van Buren in 1840.
Martin Van Buren	Democratic nomination for President of the United States	1844	Received the most votes on the first ballot of the 1844 Democratic National Convention, but failed to win the required 2/3 majority. Lost to James K. Polk.
	President of the United States	1848	Placed third behind Zachary Taylor and Lewis Cass. Candidate of the Free Soil Party
James Buchanan	Democratic nomination for President of the United States	1848	Received the third-most votes on the final ballot of the 1848 Democratic National Convention, finishing behind nominee Lewis Cass as well as Levi Woodbury.
	Democratic nomination for President of the United States	1852	Led on several ballots at the 1852 Democratic National Convention; the nomination instead went to Franklin Pierce.
Millard Fillmore	President of the United States	1856	Placed third behind James Buchanan and John C. Fremont. Candidate of the Know-Nothing Party.
Andrew Johnson	Democratic nomination for President of the United States	1860	Lost to Stephen A. Douglas
Ulysses S. Grant	Republican nomination for President of the United States	1880	Lost in bid for a third term to James Garfield at the 1880 Republican National Convention.
Theodore Roosevelt	Republican nomination for President of the United States	1912	Lost in bid for at third term to William Howard Taft at the 1912 Republican National Convention, but ran in the general election as a third-party candidate.
	President of the United States	1912	Placed distant second to Woodrow Wilson in both the popular and electoral vote. Candidate of the Progressive Party. Only third-party candidate to place second in an election.
Herbert Hoover	Republican nomination for President of the United States	1920	Lost to Warren G. Harding at the 1920 Republican National Convention. Won in 1928.
Lyndon B. Johnson	Democratic nomination for President of the United States	1960	Placed second to John F. Kennedy after failing to contest any state primaries. Later made Kennedy's running mate and was elected Vice President. He assumed the presidency upon Kennedy's assassination in 1963. He subsequently won the Democratic nomination (and the presidency) in 1964.
Richard Nixon	President of the United States	1960	Lost to John F. Kennedy. Won in 1968, 1972
Ronald Reagan	Republican nomination for President of the United States	1968, 1976	Lost to Richard Nixon in 1968 and Gerald Ford in 1976. Later won in 1980, 1984
George H. W. Bush	Republican nomination for President of the United States	1980	Lost to Ronald Reagan. Later made Reagan's running mate and elected Vice President. Won presidency in 1988 but lost re-election in 1992 to Bill Clinton
Donald Trump	Reform Party's nomination for President of the United States	2000	Withdrew. Nomination won by Pat Buchanan. Later won Republican nomination and presidency in 2016.

Congressional and gubernatorial elections

President	Office and jurisdiction	Year	Notes
William Henry Harrison	Governor of Ohio	1820	Lost to Ethan Allen Brown
	United States Representative	1822	Lost to James W. Gazlay. Elected to the Senate in 1824.
John Quincy Adams	Governor of Massachusetts	1833	Lost to John Davis
James K. Polk	Governor of Tennessee	1841, 1843	Lost re-election to James C. Jones in 1841 and lost to Jones again in 1843.
Abraham Lincoln	United States Senator from Illinois	1854	Lost to Lyman Trumbull
	United States Senator from Illinois	1858	Lost to Stephen Douglas
Andrew Johnson	United States Senator from Tennessee	1869	Lost to Henry Cooper
	United States Representative	1872	Came in third behind Horace Maynard and Benjamin F. Cheatham
Rutherford B. Hayes	United States Representative	1872	Lost to Henry B. Banning. Later elected Governor of Ohio.
Benjamin Harrison	Governor of Indiana	1876	Lost to James D. Williams.
	United States Senator from Indiana	1887	Lost to David Turpie.
William McKinley	United States Representative	1890	Lost to John G. Warwick. Later elected Governor of Ohio.
Warren G. Harding	Governor of Ohio	1910	Lost to Judson Harmon.
Lyndon B. Johnson	United States Senator from Texas	1941	Lost to W. Lee O'Daniel. Later elected Senator in 1948.
Richard Nixon	Governor of California	1962	Lost to Pat Brown.
George H. W. Bush	United States Senator from Texas	1964, 1970	Lost to Ralph Yarborough in 1964 and Lloyd Bentsen in 1970
Jimmy Carter	Governor of Georgia	1966	Lost Democratic nomination to Lester Maddox. Later won the office in 1970, Won presidency in 1976, but lost re-election in 1980 to Ronald Reagan.
Bill Clinton	United States Representative	1974	Lost to John Paul Hammerschmidt in 1974. Elected as Attorney General of Arkansas in 1976.
	Governor of Arkansas	1980	Lost re-election to Frank White in 1980, but won in 1978, 1982, 1984, 1986, 1990
George W. Bush	United States Representative	1978	Lost to Kent Hance in 1978. Elected as Governor of Texas in 1994.
Barack Obama	United States Representative	2000	Lost Democratic nomination to Bobby Rush in 2000

Other elections

President	Office and jurisdiction	Year	Notes
John Tyler	Vice President of the United States	1836	One of two Whig vice presidential candidates. Came in third behind Richard Mentor Johnson and Francis Granger. Later elected in 1840.
Millard Fillmore	Whig nomination for Vice President of the United States	1844	Lost to Theodore Frelinghuysen. Later won in 1848.
Abraham Lincoln	Republican nomination for Vice President of the United States	1856	Lost to William L. Dayton
Grover Cleveland	District Attorney for Erie County, New York	1865	Lost to Lyman K. Bass
Theodore Roosevelt	Mayor of New York City	1886	Placed in distant third behind Abram S. Hewitt and Henry George.
Franklin D. Roosevelt	Vice President of the United States	1920	Lost to Calvin Coolidge. Later became Governor of New York (1929–1933)
Harry S. Truman	Judge of Jackson County, Missouri	1924	Lost to Henry Rummel
John F. Kennedy	Democratic nomination for Vice President of the United States	1956	Lost to Estes Kefauver. Won presidency in 1960