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With the selection, and now election, of the Biden/Harris ticket, EVERY Democratic nominee for President/Vice President since 1984 has been a lawyer (attended law school), according to our review of public bios (See chart below.). During that same time period, most Republican nominees have NOT been lawyers (some exceptions: Pence this year; Romney, if you count his joint MBA/Juris degrees received before he went into finance; Quayle and Dole). By the numbers, 100% of Democratic Party people and also 100% of Democratic election slots (one President and one Vice President slot each election) went to candidates who attended law school (of 20 nominee slots, eg President/Vice President in an election cycle & 14 people, because some "filled a slot" more than once -- Al Gore filled slots three times, for example, during two VP runs and one Presidential run.). For the Republicans, most of the people and slots involved non-lawyers. About 70% (% rounded) of the Republican people running for President/Vice President were not lawyers, or put another way, 100% of the Democratic people running for these positions were lawyers, compared to about 30% of Republican people. Of the 20 slots for candidates since 1984, about 30% on the Republican slide were filled by lawyers and 100% of the Democrats. We thought to check this after considering the different "word clouds" from the 2016 #RNCinCleveland (heavy on "ISIS," "military," etc) and #DNC2016, where "public service/servant" has been used extensively, often referring to lawyers. Obviously, given the different views of the two political groups on government regulation, it's not surprising that being a lawyer now appears a requirement for making the Dem national ticket (btw, the last Dem non-lawyer we could find was Jimmy Carter, a Navy officer and farmer before entering politics and being elected president in 1976 and then running unsuccessfully for reelection in 1980.) FYI, there are roughly 3X as many "top executives" as lawyers in the American workplace, according to government labor statistics, and lawyers are outnumbered by other professions such as farmers/ranchers and high school teachers. What are the implications, if any, of lawyers -- especially those with limited experience in business or even private practice -- running the executive branch of a country that depends on a vibrant business environment. What do you think? Please let us know in the comments. Attended Law School Non-Law School Grad/Profession Before Politics 1984 Walter Mondale (Minn.) – Geraldine Ferraro (N.Y.) Ronald Reagan (Calif.) actor/union official/corporate spokesman –George H. W. Bush (Tex.) businessman, gov official 1988 Michael Dukakis (Mass.) – Lloyd Bentsen (Tex.) George H. W. Bush (Tex.) businessman – Dan Quayle (Ind.) 1992 Bill Clinton (Ark.) – Al Gore (Tenn.) George H. W. Bush (Tex.) – Dan Quayle (Ind.) 1996 Bill Clinton (Ark.) – Al Gore (Tenn.) Bob Dole (Kans.) – Jack Kemp pro athlete (N.Y.) 2000 Al Gore (Tenn.) – Joe Lieberman (Conn.) George W. Bush (Tex.) – Dick Cheney (Wyo.) gov official 2004 John Kerry (Mass.) – John Edwards (N.C.) George W. Bush (Tex.) – Dick Cheney (Wyo.) 2008 Barack Obama (Ill.) – Joseph Biden (Del.) John McCain Navy officer (Ariz.) – Sarah Palin (Alaska)broadcaster 2012 Barack Obama (Ill.) – Joseph Biden (Del.) Mitt Romney (Mass.) JD/MBA, became investors/business/politician– Paul Ryan (Wis.) Cong. staffer 2016 Hillary Clinton (N.Y.) - Tim Kaine (V.A.) Donald Trump businessman (N.Y.) – Mike Pence (Ind.) 2020 Joe Biden (Del.) - Kamala Harris (CA) Donald Trump businessman (N.Y.) – Mike Pence (Ind.) "There is no shortage of lawyers in Washington, DC. In fact, there may be more lawyers than people:" attributed to Sandra Day O'Connor Comments are closed.
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