Well, that’s a first.
That phrase could have been said many times during these highly unusual presidential campaigns. And the White House firsts will continue through Election Day, whether it’s Kamala Harris or Donald Trump who is elected.
Each party can make history by winning the election, whether for reasons of precedent or infamy.
Possibly outcomes will mark something that has not been done since as far back as the mid-1800s when James Buchanan was in office. And speaking of firsts, Buchanan was the first and only president who never married. His niece, Harriet Lane, acted as first lady while he was in office.
Use that, and the potential firsts from this year’s election listed below, as a conversation starter with fellow voters while waiting on line at the polls.
Has there ever been a woman president?
Harris is the first women in the United States to be vice president and would be the first to be president.
Harris, whose mother emigrated from India and whose father emigrated from Jamaica, would become the first president of Asian-American or South Asian descent.
Has there ever been a First Gentleman?
If Harris is elected president, it would make her husband Doug Emhoff the country’s first “first gentleman.”
Has a president ever served non-consecutive terms?
Trump, who held office from 2016 to 2020 before losing the ensuing election to Joe Biden, would be the first U.S. president to serve non-consecutive terms since Grover Cleveland in the late 1800s.
Cleveland was president from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897.
Has a president ever been convicted of a felony?
Trump would become the first U.S. president to have been convicted of a felony. He was found guilty of 34 felony counts in his criminal trial over concealing hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels during his 2016 presidential campaign.
Trump would also become the first president to take office after having previously been impeached.
Who is the youngest vice president?
JD Vance, at 40 years old, is the first millennial on a major party presidential ticket. But he would not become the youngest vice president.
That distinction is held by John C. Breckinridge, who became vice president at the age of 36 in 1857. Breckinridge, who was the running mate of James Buchanan, held office until 1861 when he ran for president and lost to Abraham Lincoln.
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Has a California native ever been president?
Harris, who was born in Oakland, would become the second president that is a California native. The first was Richard Nixon, who was from Yorba Linda.
Even though many people think of Ronald Reagan as a Californian because was governor there before becoming president, he was actually born in Illinois and later migrated to the Golden State.
Trump was the fifth president to have been born in New York. He joined Millard Fillmore, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt and Martin Van Buren.
Which state has produced the most presidents?
There are 21 states with the distinction of being the birthplace of a U.S. president. Virginia has produced the most with eight — George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, William Henry Harrison, Zachary Taylor, John Tyler, and Woodrow Wilson.
Next is Ohio, which has produced seven: James A. Garfield, Ulysses S. Grant, Warren G. Harding, Benjamin Harrison, Rutherford B. Hayes, William McKinley and William Howard Taft.
Ohio, however, has never produced a vice president, which could change if Vance takes office.
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