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Trivia answer

How many times has an incumbent president run for re-election with a different running mate than when they were first elected?
a. Two
b. Five
c. Eight
d. 12

Since the process for electing a president and vice president on a ticket was laid out in the Twelfth Amendment, there have been 12 presidential elections where an incumbent president sought re-election with a different running mate than when they were first elected. This figure includes four elections where the president's original running mate died in office.

The only president to switch running mates twice was Franklin Delano Roosevelt (D). In the 1932 and 1936 elections, Roosevelt's running mate was John Nance Garner (D). In 1940, Garner was among the members of the Democratic Party who opposed Roosevelt's bid for a third term, leading to his replacement on the ticket by Henry Wallace (D). In 1944, the Democratic vice-presidential nomination was contested between Wallace and Harry Truman (D), with Truman winning the nomination at that year's convention. The 1944 election is the most recent in which a president sought re-election with a new running mate.

Two of the 12 cases involved a new running mate who was a member of a different political party than the original running mate. In the 1832 election, Democratic incumbent Andrew Jackson selected fellow Democrat Martin Van Buren as his running mate over the incumbent vice president, Nullifier John C. Calhoun. In the 1864 election, Republican incumbent Abraham Lincoln ran alongside Democrat Andrew Johnson rather than seeking re-election alongside fellow Republican Hannibal Hamlin.

Presidents who ran for re-election with a new running mate
Year	President	Original running mate	New running mate
1804	Thomas Jefferson	Aaron Burr	George Clinton
1812	James Madison	George Clinton	Elbridge Gerry
1832	Andrew Jackson	John C. Calhoun	Martin Van Buren
1840	Martin Van Buren	Richard Johnson	No nominee
1864	Abraham Lincoln	Hannibal Hamlin	Andrew Johnson
1872	Ulysses Grant	Schuyler Colfax	Henry Wilson
1888	Grover Cleveland	Thomas Hendricks	Allen Thurman
1892	Benjamin Harrison	Levi Morton	Whitelaw Reid
1900	William McKinley	Garret Hobart	Theodore Roosevelt
1912	William Howard Taft	James Sherman	Nicholas Butler
1940	Franklin D. Roosevelt	John Nance Garner	Henry Wallace
1944	Franklin D. Roosevelt	John Nance Garner	Harry Truman