House Members Who Received Electoral College Votes
Historical Highlight
About this object The only individual to be elected President directly after serving in the House of Representatives, James Garfield of Ohio served nine terms in the House.
Early in the republic, House Members frequently campaigned for or were rewarded with places on presidential tickets. This lessened with the rise of the Senate in the 1840s and 1850s, then narrowed further with the crystallization of the two-party structure in the 1870s. Over time, voters placed an increasing importance on governance over legislating experience in the nation’s highest office, and as a result, many more candidates were likely to be former governors or military leaders rather than legislators. However, the House of Representatives remains a fertile ground for future presidential and vice-presidential candidates, as the accompanying charts demonstrate.
Each chart notes all candidates recorded as having received votes from the Electoral College for either President of Vice President who also served in the House of Representatives during their lifetime. Years left blank featured no qualifying candidates.