Did George Washington have any opponents the two times he ran for President?

Question

i am confused with the information i have, apprently he was unanimously voted in by the electoral vote, but john adams came in second and in those times, whoever came in first became the President and whoever came second became vice president. so, did anyone besides john adams run against him?

thanks for your time! =)

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Answer 1

Technically, he was opposed: in '89 by Adams, John Jay, and about 9 other candidates (counting only those who received electoral votes) and in '92 by Adams, George Clinton, Thomas Jefferson, and Aaron Burr. However, it was generally understood that these candidates were running for a spot as VP, rather than as competitors to Washington.

Every elector in both elections voted for Washington. Because each elector had 2 votes and couldn't vote for the same person twice, 50% of the total votes was the most any candidate could get and that is what Washington received both times.

Make sense?

Answer 2

Yes, many.

In his first election, he was opposed by John Adams, John Jay, Robert H. Harrison, John Rutledge, John Hancock , George Clinton, Samuel Huntington, John Milton, James Armstrong, Benjamin Lincoln and Edward Telfair. In his secnd term, he was opposed by John Adams, George Clinton, Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr.

Answer 3

I know for sure that during his 1st term, the electorate pretty much just assumed that he would be the President because he was already seen as the leader of this new country. They probably assumed the same thing for his next term. Washington was the one who made the unwritten rule of only 2 terms in office, so once his two terms were up, "real" elections began to take place.

Answer 4

Yes he had opponents , but they got so few votes that they were insugificant. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._presidential_election,_1789