It was never James K. Polk’s intention to run for president. A former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Polk had served a single two-year term as governor of Tennessee — then a largely ceremonial and toothless role — but lost both his reelection race and a subsequent comeback bid. Effectively, his political aspirations had stalled out. He hoped that he might reboot his career by winning the second spot in 1844, under the presumptive Democratic nominee, former President Martin Van Buren.
Then things got strange.
Many Southern Democrats were ardent expansionists, with designs to build an empire for slavery that stretched from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Integral to that plan was statehood for Texas, which had broken away from Mexico and declared independence. Van Buren was tepid on the issue. His main opponent, Lewis Cass of Michigan, was not. When the convention repeatedly deadlocked, delegates turned instead to Polk, who emerged as the first dark horse candidate in American presidential history. He didn’t seek the nomination, but he gladly accepted it.
“Who’s Polk?” supporters of Whig nominee Henry Clay asked mockingly. Their candidate, one of the most prominent public men in American life, seemed like the formidable favorite against a relatively unknown political washup. But in a close election, Polk — a slaveholder and full-throated expansionist — won, aided by 15,000 voters in New York who cast their ballots for a third-party anti-slavery candidate. But for their defection, Clay would almost certainly have won the state, and with it, the presidency.
It was an inauspicious beginning. Yet Polk would quickly emerge as “probably the most successful president the United States had ever had” to that date, according to historian Daniel Walker Howe. In presidential rankings, historians consistently rate Polk in the top two quartiles, despite his deliberate decision to serve just one term.
As President Joe Biden deliberates on his own plans for 2024, it’s worth revisiting the story of James K. Polk, a man who was underestimated at every turn, achieved remarkable success during his time in office and became the first president to drop the mic after just four years.
There are compelling reasons for Biden to seek reelection. But should he choose not to, history suggests that he could elect to serve one term with his legacy strongly intact.