On the Trump's VP shortlist episode of the USSC Briefing Room, Research Associate Samuel Garrett shared this stat regarding the US vice presidency.
"There's been nine times where the vice president has succeeded to the presidency because the president either died in office or because they resigned. So, nine vice presidents out of 49 of them becoming president. It's not necessarily probable that they become president, but there's a pretty significant chance that even though the vice president is often seen as not particularly important, that they could, in fact, suddenly be thrust into office as president of the United States.
And I think particularly when you look at this election, when you've got the two oldest ever candidates going up against each other, there's a not insignificant chance that one or the other of them wouldn't complete their presidential term if they were elected. And so these vice presidential picks this time around will be particularly important. And we know that voters are also considering that in terms of how they view these presidential tickets, because there is a higher than usual chance that these vice presidents could succeed to the presidency."
Listen to the full episode here:
