Democrats...the Party of Lawyers? by Gideon C. Moore

Victor Davis Hanson's article over at RealClearPolitics (Want Real Change? Quit Nominating Lawyers) got my curiosity up ... so I went to Wikipedia to find out when the last time was that the Democratic Party nominated a ticket in which neither of the candidates was either a lawyer or had attended law school.

The answer???? Half the time? A third? Nope, NEVER.

Yep, that's right in 53 elections over the course of 212 years, and the Democratic Party has ALWAYS nominated at least one presidential or vice-presidential candidate (and in most cases two ... and in one case during those antebellum separatist years, four) who was either a lawyer or had a attended law school.

Only twice (1960 & 1964) out of those 53 elections were neither of the candidates lawyers, although LBJ sullied that ticket by attending Georgetown Law School for a brief period period.

This isn't to say anything about lawyers as presidents, and certainly, some of those lawyers were really good (I'd take James Madison over John Kerry any day), but you would think that over the course of 212 years they would want to diversify at least a little bit along the way.

So in this year of change ... what did the Democrats do to shake things up? They nominated two more lawyers. What else would you expect?

For more information, links and the full historical breakdown of these Democratic tickets, feel free to visit www.ResoundingTruth.com


Gideon C. Moore is a Matthews attorney.  You may contact him at gideon@alumni.duke.edu

Editor's Note: Like our Republican national ticket, NC Republican candidates for Governor & Lieutenant Governor are NOT lawyers.  The last NC Republican governor, James G. Martin, was a chemist, and a college professor.