Trivia - Perennial Presidential Candidates

[Fred588]

If all parties are included, I believe the record for being on the presidential ticket (Pres or VP) is held by Harold Stassen. Stassen ran 9 times. If things are limited to those who ran at least once as a democrat or republican, and we complicate things by looking a surnames only even if held by more than one person, what surname holds the record?

[H-Less Perv Side]

I’m going to take a guess and say Johnson?

[MadMax359]

my gut reaction is Johnson

[Fred588]

my gut reaction is Johnson

Nope, unless you know something I am missing. Lyndon ran for VP once and Pres once, and Andrew for VP once, for a total of three. Not even close.

[Duncan Edwards]

I count "Bush" at least nine times.

[Fred588]

I count "Bush" at least nine times.

Show me what I am missing. I have 41 as running for VP twice, and President twice, then 43 running for president twice, once winning and once not. That comes to six.

Are you counting unsuccessful runs for the nomination?

[Fred588]

my gut reaction is Johnson

Nope, unless you know something I am missing. Lyndon ran for VP once and Pres once, and Andrew for VP once, for a total of three. Not even close.

Its closer than I thought. There were two other Johnsons who ran once each for VP, so the total for Johnson is five by my count, but that isn't the most.and lost.

[Mynock]

my gut reaction is Johnson

Nope, unless you know something I am missing. Lyndon ran for VP once and Pres once, and Andrew for VP once, for a total of three. Not even close.

Its closer than I thought. There were two other Johnsons who ran once each for VP, so the total for Johnson is five by my count, but that isn't the most.and lost.

You also have Gary Johnson who ran as a Libertarian in 2012 and 2016.

[Fred588]

my gut reaction is Johnson

Nope, unless you know something I am missing. Lyndon ran for VP once and Pres once, and Andrew for VP once, for a total of three. Not even close.

Its closer than I thought. There were two other Johnsons who ran once each for VP, so the total for Johnson is five by my count, but that isn't the most.and lost.

You also have Gary Johnson who ran as a Libertarian in 2012 and 2016.

True but the question was delimited to republicans and democrats, although my intention was to include the major parties, such as Whig and Federalist.

[Fred588]

As best as I can determine the best answer is Roosevelt. Teddy ran for VP once and President once as a Republican and for President once with a third party popularly known as the Bull Moose Party. (This qualifies because he had been a candidate at least once with one of the major parties. Franklin ran for Vice President once, unsuccessfully and for President four times, all successfully, as a Democrat. This adds up to eight times for the surname. According to my data there were six candidacies for Bush and six for Johnson.

It an unrelated question but I believe the record for the surname with the most different individuals is Johnson at five, followed by Clinton at four.