Politics Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for people interested in governments, policies, and political processes. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
Are unsuccessful presidential candidates expected to retire? I ask this because it seems that the candidates work their whole political lives to make a presidential nomination, and if they are then not elected they seem to vanish from all popular discourse.
I wonder why that is?
There are at least three examples from (relatively) recent history where the politician not only did not "vanish from all popular discourse" they actually managed to become President after failing in an earlier election cycle:
Richard Nixon lost the Presidential election to John F. Kennedy in 1960
Ronald Reagan lost the Republican nomination to Gerald Ford 1976
Joe Biden in 2008 lost the Democratic nomination to Barack Obama
Those are three politicians who went on to become President. There are multiple others who failed who remained visibly active in politics. Hillary Clinton, Mitt Romney, and Pete Buttigieg are just some recent examples.
Definitely not, as example Nixon lost in 1960 United States presidential election to Kennedy, but won in 1968 United States presidential election.
Bernie Sanders tried twice to get Democratic Party nomination for president of the United States.
There are considerations beyond winning the nomination or the election.
During the nomination process, standing for the nomination is a means of accomplishing a number of goals. The goals that are usually considered to be laudable include things that can be summed up as influence in the party, and increased visibility both within the party and in the wider community. The goals that are usually considered as suspect can be summed up as connecting to the party machine.
During the election process, even the loser can achieve a variety of goals. For example, they are frequently involved in debates and speeches that are picked up and carried by national and international news organizations. These are opportunities to inject ideas into the political consciousness. These ideas do not necessarily get implemented in the current election cycle. But they often remain as topics of discussion that get implemented at some later date.
The 2020 Democratic primary process was a reasonably good example of this. There were an unusually large number of candidates at the start of the process. We were treated to enough people on the stage during televised debates that the reporters resorted to asking for "a show of hands" on some questions. Some of those candidates have disappeared from public life. Others used it to achieve a certain amount of celebrity and so further their political life. Pete Buttigieg is an example, currently in the position of Secretary of Transportation.
I can't believe nobody has mentioned Donald Trump yet:
That's twice Donald Trump ran unsuccessfully, yet it does not look like he vanished from all popular discourse.
Some other examples from the 2020 election:
