In the nearly 20 years of existence, the Whig party had 2 candidates elected president, William Henry Harrison, elected in 1840, and Zachary Taylor, elected in 1848. Both died while in office. Harrison was succeeded by Vice President John Tyler after serving 32 days in office. Zachary Taylor died in 1850 after 16 months in office. Taylor was succeeded by Millard Fillmore. Neither Vice President was in turn elected to serve a full term after serving out their predecessor’s term.

The Whig party began in the 1830s as a party formed by Henry Clay to oppose Andrew Jackson's "reactionary" efforts of government overreach. Whigs drew upon the Jeffersonian views of balanced government and compromise to offset "King Andrew's" policies.

The Whigs didn’t last long as a political party, various issues of the time, including slavery, broke apart an originally fractured party, Whigs in the North joined the new Republican Party, and Whigs in the South gravitated to another party with an even shorter life, the American Party, also known as the Know Nothing movement.

The American Party nominated former President Millard Fillmore as their candidate for the 1856 election. Millard Fillmore only carried one state, losing to the Democratic candidate, James Buchanan.

The first Republican candidate to win a Presidential election was Abraham Lincoln in 1860. He started out his political career as a Whig politician, serving in the Illinois House of Representatives, then elected to Congress.

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