Columbians in US presidential elections

Quite a few Columbia alumni and attendees have made appearances in US presidential elections. Despite this, no graduate of a Columbia school has ever been elected to the White House.

1789

Under the awkward system then in place, electors from each state each had two votes. They each cast their first vote for George Washington, but their second votes were cast for a smattering of other candidates. John Adams, capturing most, went on to become VP. But John Jay KC 1764 received nine electoral votes of his own.

1796

John Jay ran again in this contest, garnering five electoral votes.

1800

John Jay was once again a candidate, receiving yet one electoral vote.

1812

DeWitt Clinton, then Mayor of New York, was nominee of both the Federalist Party and a dissident faction of Democrats known as the "Clinton Republicans". The election took place as the War of 1812 raged, and Clinton chose a strategy that could only have worked just prior to the invention of mass communications: he campaigned against the war in the Northeast, and for its "more vigorous prosecution" in the South and West. The gamble did not pay off, and his opponent James Madison stayed in office.

1816

Daniel D. Tompkins CC 1795 (who lent his name to Tompkins Square Park) was on the Democratic ticket as running mate to James Monroe. The duo won, and Tompkins became the US' sixth vice president.

2008

Barack Obama CC 1983 is the Democratic Party nominee and first ever African-American nominated by a major party. Wayne Allyn Root CC 1983 is the vice presidential nominee for the Libertarian Party. Republican nominee John McCain did not attend Columbia, but addressed the 2006 Class Day festivities. His daughter Meghan McCain is CC 2007.