With the selection of Paul Ryan as his running mate, Mitt Romney’s presidential ticket is now just the third in U.S. history in which the last name of a major party’s presidential and vice-presidential nominees begins with the same letter. The only other two instances are the Democratic Party tickets of 1856 with James Buchanan and John Breckenridge and 1952 with Adlai Stevenson and John Sparkman. Since the formation of the Democratic Party during the Election of 1828 there have been four sets of running mates earning Electoral College votes with the same first name (all four lost): Democrats George McClellan and George Pendleton (1864), Populists James Weaver and James Field (1892), Republicans Charles Hughes and Charles Fairbanks (1916), and Democrats John Kerry and John Edwards (2004).

1 Comment

  1. Ian Dixon on September 5, 2012 at 3:26 pm

    Shouldnt that be R & R & R? (Republican Romney Ryan)
    Maybe a a fund raiser where they do some Bill Haley covers 🙂
    Change from GOP to the RRR Party and use a guitar as their campaign symbol
    Might make the election more fun

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