Here's to the Losers Trivia Quiz

Answer: William Jennings Bryan and Henry Clay

Clay came in fourth in a multi-candidate election in 1824 as a Democratic-Republican, lost to Andrew Jackson in 1832 as a National Republican and lost to James Polk as a Whig in 1844. Democrat Bryan lost to William McKinley in 1896 and 1900 and to William Howard Taft in 1908.

Answer: Al Smith

New York Governor Al Smith lost to Herbert Hoover in 1928. The next Roman Catholic nominee was John F. Kennedy in 1960.

Answer: William Jennings Bryan

Bryan was only 36 when he was first nominated in 1896. After losing three times as presidential candidate, he served as Secretary of State for President Woodrow Wilson. His brother, Charles Bryan, was a losing Democratic nominee for vice-president in 1924.

Answer: He was on the defense team in Brown v. Board of Education

John W. Davis had been a West Virginia congressman and prominent New York lawyer when he was selected as a compromise candidate by the deadlocked 1924 Democratic convention. After a landslide defeat, Davis remained a successful lawyer. Nearly thirty years later, Davis was counsel to South Carolina and argued in favor of segregated schools in Brown v. Board of Education. (While Topeka, Kansas was the named defendant in the Brown case, it was actually a consolidation of cases from across the country).

Answer: John Adams

It didn't take long for Amercians to "throw the bums out." The nation's second president lost his bid for reelection to Vice-President Thomas Jefferson in 1800. It was the only time in history that a vice-president ran against the president he was serving under, a situation that is unlikely to reoccur because of changes in the electoral system and the evolution of the presidential/vice-presidential "ticket."

Answer: Franklin Roosevelt

FDR was a 38 year old assistant secretary of the Navy in 1920.

Answer: John Breckinridge

Breckinridge was vice-president under Democrat James Buchanan in 1860 when he was nominated for president by the Southern Democrats, the pro-slavery faction which broke off from the regular Democratic Party. Breckinridge came in third in the popular vote.

He later was appointed Secretary of War of the Confederacy. As of 2003, the only other incumbent veeps who have lost the presidency were Richard Nixon in 1960, Hubert Humphrey in 1968, and Al Gore in 2000.

Answer: Horace Greeley

The renowned editor of the "New York Tribune", Greeley, ran for president in 1872 as the nominee of the Liberal Republicans, an offshoot of the Republican Party which favored more lenient treatment of the defeated south. His candidacy was endorsed by the Democrats, but he was soundly defeated by Republican Ulysses Grant. Greeley died on November 29, and his electoral votes were subsequently split between his vice-presidential running mate, B. Gratz Brown, and Indiana Governor Thomas A.

Hendricks.

Answer: Thomas Jefferson

After George Washington was twice unopposed for election, the U.S. had its first contested election in 1796. Washington's vice-president, John Adams, defeated Thomas Jefferson, who had formerly served as Washington's Secretary of State. As the second place finisher under the laws of the day, Jefferson became vice-president.

Answer: False

Nixon actually made this comment after losing the 1962 California gubernatorial election. As with many of Nixon's public statements, this turned out to be untrue, as Nixon went on to win two elections to the presidency and hold numerous press conferences.

Answer: James Monroe

Monroe ran for reelection in 1820 without opposition. The period was dubbed the "era of good feeling."

Answer: William Howard Taft

In 1912, former President Theodore Roosevelt split from the Republican Party to form the Progressive (Bull Moose) Party. The split in Republican votes resulted in the election of Democrat Woodrow Wilson. Roosevelt came in second and Taft came in third with only 23% of the vote.

The lowest twentieth century vote in an election without a substantial third party challenge was in 1920 when Democrat James Cox received 34% of the vote against Republican Warren Harding.

Answer: False

Aside from the ten electoral votes he received from Minnesota, Mondale received three from the District of Columbia. The only major party candidate to receive fewer electoral votes than Mondale in a two-way election was Republican Alf Landon, who was defeated by FDR in 1936. Landon received eight electoral votes, winning only the states of Maine and Vermont.

In 1860, a four-way election, Democrat Stephen Douglas received 12 electoral votes.

Answer: 1888

In 1888, incumbent President Grover Cleveland won the popular vote by close to 100,000 votes, but lost the electoral vote by 16% to Republican Benjamin Harrison. In the following election, Cleveland came back to defeat Harrison in the popular and electoral vote.

In 1960, John F. Kennedy defeated Richard Nixon by a little over 100,000 votes. Some have argued that because of voter irregularities in Texas and Illinois, Kennedy did not actually win the popular vote, but while there may be some evidence of fraud in the election, there is no conclusive proof of the magnitude or impact of that fraud.

Answer: Democrats

The Democrats lost every election from Abraham Lincoln's Republican victory in 1860 until Grover Cleveland finally won the White House back in 1884. The next longest losing streak was the Republicans' losing streak from Hoover's loss to FDR in 1932 to Eisenhower's victory in 1952.