As Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are formally nominated for President this and next week, some history comes into play.
This is the 40th time we have had a Republican nominee, and 27 people have had that honor. The following candidates had the honor of being the nominee twice:
Abraham Lincoln 1860 and 1864
Ulysses S. Grant 1868 and 1872
Benjamin Harrison 1888 and 1892
William McKinley 1896 and 1900
William Howard Taft 1908 and 1912
Herbert Hoover 1928 and 11932
Thomas E. Dewey 1944 and 1948
Dwight D. Eisenhower 1952 and 1956
Ronald Reagan 1980 and 1984
George H. W. Bush 1988 and 1992
George W. Bush 2000 and 2008
Also, Richard Nixon was nominated three times—1960, 1968, 1972.
This is also the 48th time we have had a Democratic nominee, and 34 people have had that honor. The following candidates had the honor of being the nominee twice:
Andrew Jackson 1828 and 1832 (along with being a nominee of the Democratic Republican Party in 1824, losing to John Quincy Adams).
Martin Van Buren 1836 and 1840
Woodrow Wilson 1912 and 1916
Adlai Stevenson 1952 and 1956
Jimmy Carter 1976 and 1980
Bill Clinton 1992 and 1996
Barack Obama 2008 and 2012
Also, Grover Cleveland was nominated three times—1884, 1888, 1892 ; and William Jennings Bryan was nominated three times—1896, 1900, 1908.
And finally, Franklin D. Roosevelt was nominated four times—1932, 1936, 1940, 1944.
In sum, we have had 18 Republican Presidents (including Chester Alan Arthur who succeeded James A. Garfield, but was never elected President; and Gerald Ford, who replaced Richard Nixon, but was never elected President); and 16 Democratic Presidents (including John Tyler,who succeeded William Henry Harrison, but was never elected President; Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Abraham Lincoln,but was never elected President; and with Grover Cleveland being elected non consecutively but only counting him once).
We have also had 2 Federalist Presidents–George Washington and John Adams,although Washington never declared him a party member; 4 Democratic-Republican Presidents—Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, and John Quincy Adams; and 3 Whig Presidents—William Henry Harrison, Zachary Taylor and Millard Fillmore (who succeeded Zachary Taylor, but was never elected President.
Also, the National Republican Party, the forerunner of the Whigs, ran twice nationally for President, with John Quincy Adams in 1828 and Henry Clay in 1832, but both times, they lost to Andrew Jackson, although Adams had won the Presidency over Jackson in 1824 when both were Democratic Republicans.