How rare is Biden’s decision not to run again? A look at other ‘1-termers’

Joe Biden’s decision to drop out of the 2024 presidential race places him on a small list of U.S. presidents who were able to run again but chose not to.

Biden announced his withdrawal on Sunday, after weeks of pressure to step aside, forcing the Democratic party to weigh a new nominee to take on Donald Trump just months before the election.

“It simply is unprecedented for a party’s candidacy to kind of blow up in this way,” University of Toronto political science professor Ryan Hurl said.

Biden, 81, made the decision after a weak presidential debate performance that renewed questions about his age and ability to lead. Republican nominee Donald Trump is now the oldest presidential nominee in history at 78.

Biden is endorsing U.S. Vice-President Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee. She has received enough support from delegates to appear set to become her party’s nominee.

One-term presidencies can sometimes be associated with “failure” but Université du Québec à Montréal history professor Greg Robinson says Biden’s legacy may have been saved by the early exit.

“I think it’s a statesman-like action to bow out now,” Robinson said. “He would have looked awful being defeated on the basis of his age if he had run.”

While one-term presidencies are not rare, it’s relatively unusual in U.S. politics for an American president not to seek re-election.

Here are others:

Truman became president in December 1945, after the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Truman led the U.S. through the end of the Second World War and approved the use of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan.

He was re-elected in 1948 but dropped out of the presidential race in 1952 because of his low popularity.

Johnson took over in 1963 after the assassination