What happens to the President-Elect’s previous political position?

13 comments

1. For a state governer, yes, generaly the Lt. Governor will serve as the “interim’ governor. If it’s another position, like state senator, there will often be a special election for a new one.

   Like most things in the US, It also goes by the laws/rules of the individual states. Some states may have the state’s congress appoint an interim Senator to serve until the next election.

2. Depends on the state and the position.

3. I believe it depends on the state. I’ll use the example of California and Kamala Harris, who was the vice president-elect with Joe Biden in 2020.

   In California, the governor chooses the replacement. Kamala Harris was the Senator from California before becoming Vice President. After Biden-Harris won in 2020, California Governor Gavin Newsom then chose Alex Padilla to assume the rest of Harris’ term.

   I know other states have similar methods but they might have various restrictions. For example, I think in Arizona, the governor must choose someone from the same party to replace any vacant position.

4. Varies by state

5. Open Senate positions are either filled via appointment by governor (with various limitations and restrictions by state) or a special election depending on the state. A majority of states fill the Senate seat by appointment.

   Open House of Representative positions are filled by special elections as required by the Constitution.

   Open governor positions are filled by the Lt. Gov in 45 states. The other 5 states without a Lt. Gov. position have designated another position to fill the Governor’s seat.

6. If it’s a Senator that becomes President, the governor can appoint a Senator until the next election. Most infamously, Gov. Rod Blagojevich of Illinois tried to “Sell” the seat of Sen. Barack Obama when he was elected President. He was caught (for that and other pay for play schemes), impeached tried and convicted, and served time for this.

7. Depends on the office tbh.

   When Obama got elected president, his Senate seat became vacant, which in Illinois is filled by the governor appointing someone to take over the position for the remainder of the term. This actually led to a major scandal when then Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich got caught trying to *sell* the appointment for money, which is illegal as fuck, and served many years in prison for it.

   In gubernatorial cases a lot of time the Lt. Governor takes over, but again stuff like this can vary from state to state.

8. Many years ago in Minnesota there was a vacancy in the US Senate from that state. I believe it was when Walter Mondale became vice president under Jimmy Carter. It’s not an exact comparison, but in many ways being a U.S. senator is more prestigious than being a governor because a senator is part of the national government. (A governor has more individual power, though, at his/her level. There is one governor, but 100 senators.)

   So the state governor really wanted to be a senator. And it was his job to appoint a new senator. But the law said he couldn’t appoint himself. So he worked out a deal where he resigned as governor, the Lt. Governor then became governor and then appointed him to the Senate seat.

   People really didn’t like that – at all. At the next election, he was defeated, the person who appointed him was defeated and most of the other state-level candidates in the same party were defeated, as well as the other U.S. Senate candidate from that party, who had nothing to do with it. In political circles it is known as the Minnesota Massacre. They totally controlled the state up to that point and lost it all by trying to manipulate the democratic process to their own advantage. Voters weren’t happy having a self-serving senator chosen for them.

9. they usually appoint a temporary position and then hold a special election

10. Generally speaking they don’t need to resign, they just aren’t that whatever anymore.

11. Depends on the rules of the state.

    In our case, the Governor puts the vacated Senate seat up on the auction block for personal gain, gets indicted, makes a brief appearance on Donald’s Celebrity Apprentice, gets convicted and sentenced to 14 years in the Federal pen, gets the sentence commuted after almost a decade by the same Donald, and reappears in the public eye with his signature coif as white as a coat of freshly-fallen snow.

    They have the option of just appointing the successor, but what’s the fun in that?

12. The person does resign, and is replaced according to the rules for when someone resigns that position. In some cases, their old position might be up for election, too, and they simply don’t run and are replaced by whoever wins that election.

    States are free to make up their own rules for replacing governors and senators. In most cases, the lieutenant governor becomes governor, and senators are appointed by the governor. All representatives are up for election at the same time as Presidents, so that’s not usually an issue.

    Five states (New Jersey, Massachusetts, Ohio, West Virginia, and Hawaii) do allow you to run for the House and President at the same time (also, maybe California, but their law is unclear), so if you won both, you’d have to resign one and probably be replaced in a special election. (You’re not allowed to serve in both the Executive and Legislative branches at the same time.) I don’t know if that’s ever actually happened. Also, I suppose he could resign as President and be replaced by his VP, in order to serve in the House. That would be a bold move.

13. A lot depends on the state.

    I think for governor, some states have the Lt governor serve as interim while they hold an election, and I think some the Lt governor just becomes governor.

    If a senator runs for another office and wins, then generally the governor gets to appoint a new senator to either finish out the term or serve until the next election, at which point a special election is held. Iirc, this second option is what happened in Georgia in 2020.

    I think some states also just leave the seat vacant while they hold a special election.

    For the house, I’m pretty sure vacancies are all filled by holding a special election. For example, in 2020 Elijah Cumming’s seat was filled by special election, allowing his successor to fill the seat before being up for reelection a few months later in November.