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Hubert H. Humphrey

Humphrey, the Democrat who narrowly lost to Republican Richard M. Nixon in 1968, sought the Democratic nomination in 1972 but was defeated by George McGovern. McGovern, who lost to Nixon in a landslide that year, did not try again in 1976, but he did stage an unsuccessful bid for the 1984 Democratic nomination. Nixon, who lost to Democrat John F. Kennedy in 1960, did not run in 1964, though he did come back to win the 1968 race. Democrat Adlai E. Stevenson pre-dated Humphrey, but is the last unsuccessful nominee to claim his party’s nod in the next election: He lost to Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower in both 1952 and 1956.

Besides McGovern, the other losing nominees since Humphrey who passed on comeback bids in the next presidential election were Republican President Gerald R. Ford (lost in 1976), Democratic President Jimmy Carter (1980), Democratic former Vice President Walter F. Mondale (1984), Democratic Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis (1988), Republican President George H.W. Bush (1992), Republican former Kansas Sen. Bob Dole (1996) and Democratic former Vice President Al Gore (2000).