Declared the winner of the 2024 presidential election, Donald J. Trump is on track for a host of firsts: He is forecast to be the first Republican to win the national popular vote in two decades, and is the first person with a criminal record to win the presidency. Earlier this year, he became the first former president to be convicted of a felony.
But he is not the first former president to come back from defeat and win, again.
More than a century ago, Grover Cleveland, a New York Democrat, succeeded in winning back the White House four years after he was ousted following his first term. Mr. Cleveland served as America’s 22nd and 24th president.
A frugal president whose policies were not popular with the working class, Mr. Cleveland served his first term from 1885 to 1889, when his bid for re-election was thwarted by Benjamin Harrison. Among Mr. Cleveland’s political liabilities was his veto of a bill that would have expanded pensions for Civil War veterans.
There was a moral issue, too: Over his first term, Mr. Cleveland weathered a scandal around his fathering of a child with a widow named Maria Halpin a decade prior. Although Mr. Cleveland claimed they had a consensual relationship, Ms. Halpin maintained that Mr. Cleveland had aggressively pursued her, forced his way into her room at a boarding house and was violent during their brief encounter.
Following his defeat, Mr. Cleveland and his campaign engaged in a belligerent effort to tar Ms. Halpin’s reputation, and the episode did little to hurt his third race for the White House.
Mr. Cleveland returned to challenge Mr. Harrison in 1892, campaigning on his opposition to the country’s tilt toward silver over the gold standard. He emerged with a decisive win, storming through the electoral college and receiving an overwhelming share of the popular vote.
Mr. Cleveland’s victory set the precedent for a two-term, nonconsecutive presidency, and until today, his was the only success story. Several other presidents tried and failed to win back the White House after being defeated, among them Theodore Roosevelt and Ulysses S. Grant.
Although Mr. Cleveland could have sought a third term, he opted to step aside in 1896. Mr. Trump will not have that option. The 22nd Amendment, passed in 1951, allows any one person to serve only two terms as president, regardless of whether they are consecutive.
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