Who Was Richard M. Nixon's Running Mate?

Richard M. Nixon ran for president three times and had two different running mates -- Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. for his unsuccessful 1960 campaign against John F. Kennedy and Spiro Agnew for his two successful runs in 1968 and 1972 against Hubert H. Humphrey and George McGovern, respectively. The Republican president also had two different vice-presidents served under him -- Agnew and Gerald Ford.

Nixon had attended Duke University's law school but had spent his political career in the legislature in his home state of California. Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., a senator from Massachusetts and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations as well as Germany and elsewhere, appealed to a region of voters generally inclined to vote for Democrats. Lodge also had a record of distinguished service in World War II, in which he was a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army.

Spiro T. Agnew was serving as governor of Maryland when chosen as Nixon's running mate in 1968. Nixon believed Agnew could appeal to Southern voters and neutralize the threat posed by George Wallace, as the former governor of Alabama ran for president as an independent candidate. In November of 1973, during Nixon's second term, Agnew resigned while facing charges of tax evasion and taking bribes while governor. Eventually, then-House of Representatives Minority Leader Gerald R. Ford, who had long represented Michigan in the U.S. Congress, became Nixon's second vice-president. He assumed the presidency in August 1974 upon Nixon's resignation.