An impeached president can run for a second term. Impeachment by the House is only a formal charge, and every president who has been impeached remained legally eligible to seek the office again. The only way impeachment can permanently close the door on a future candidacy is if the Senate first convicts and then takes a separate vote to disqualify the person from holding federal office. That has never happened to a president.
Impeachment Is a Charge, Not a Verdict
The House of Representatives holds the sole power to impeach, which means voting to formally accuse a federal official of serious misconduct.1Legal Information Institute. The Power of Impeachment: Overview It functions like a grand jury indictment. The charge itself removes no one, strips no power, and imposes no penalty. An impeached president keeps signing bills and commanding the military unless the Senate convicts.
The word “impeached” often gets used as if it means “found guilty and thrown out.” It doesn’t. Impeachment triggers a Senate trial. If the Senate acquits, the process ends with no legal consequences and no mark on future eligibility.
What the Constitution Requires of a Presidential Candidate
The Constitution sets three requirements to be president: natural-born citizen, at least 35 years old, and a resident of the United States for at least 14 years.2Legal Information Institute. Qualifications for the Presidency That’s the complete list. There is no clean-record requirement, no reference to impeachment history, no criminal-record clause.
Those three requirements are exclusive. The Supreme Court has held that constitutional qualification clauses “cannot be augmented by Congress or states.”3Legal Information Institute. Ability of Congress to Change Qualifications for Members No state legislature can add “not previously impeached” to its ballot rules, and Congress cannot add it by statute. Only a constitutional amendment could.
The 22nd Amendment layers on one further limit: no person can be elected president more than twice.4Congress.gov. U.S. Constitution – Twenty-Second Amendment That cap counts elections, not terms served, and it operates independently of impeachment. A first-term president who is impeached but not convicted can run for a second term without touching the 22nd Amendment at all.
The Two Senate Votes That Can Actually Disqualify
Disqualification from future office is not automatic after impeachment, and it isn’t automatic after conviction either. It takes two separate votes.
First, the Senate must convict on the articles of impeachment, which requires a two-thirds majority. Conviction removes the president from office immediately. Second, after conviction, the Senate may hold a separate vote to permanently bar the removed official from holding any federal office in the future.5Cornell Law Institute. Judgment in Cases of Impeachment: Doctrine and Practice That disqualification vote requires only a simple majority of senators present.6Congress.gov. Overview of Impeachment Trials
Two features of this process cause the most confusion. Removal and disqualification are distinct votes: the Senate can convict without disqualifying, leaving the removed official free to run again. And the vote thresholds work in opposite directions. Getting 67 senators to agree on removal is historically near-impossible, but once that bar is cleared, only a bare majority is needed to impose a lifetime ban on federal office. The Senate has imposed disqualification only a handful of times in its history, and never on a president.7Justia. Judgment – Removal and Disqualification
The Historical Record: Every Impeached President Stayed Eligible
Only three presidents have been impeached: Andrew Johnson in 1868, Bill Clinton in 1998, and Donald Trump in both 2019 and 2021.8U.S. Senate. Impeachment Cases The Senate acquitted in every trial. No president has ever been convicted, which means no president has ever faced the disqualification vote that would actually cut off future eligibility.
Trump’s case answers the question most directly. He was impeached twice, acquitted both times, and won the presidency again in the next election he entered.
The Insurrection Clause Is a Separate, Narrow Bar
Section 3 of the 14th Amendment bars anyone from holding federal or state office if they previously swore an oath to support the Constitution and then “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” or gave “aid or comfort” to those who did.9Legal Information Institute. United States Constitution – Amendment XIV This provision is entirely separate from impeachment and does not require a conviction of any kind.
Its practical reach is now limited. In Trump v. Anderson (2024), the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that states cannot enforce Section 3 against federal officeholders or candidates; only Congress has that power.10Legal Information Institute. Trump v Anderson The decision reversed Colorado’s attempt to remove Trump from its primary ballot and shut down similar state-level efforts. For the clause to bar a candidate today, Congress would need to pass enforcement legislation under Section 5 of the 14th Amendment.11Legal Information Institute. Disqualification Clause Congress can also lift any Section 3 bar by a two-thirds vote in both chambers.
Criminal Convictions Don’t Block Eligibility Either
Because the constitutional list of qualifications is exhaustive, a criminal conviction is not a bar to running for or serving as president. In 1920, Eugene V. Debs ran as the Socialist Party candidate from a federal prison in Atlanta, where he was serving a 10-year sentence, and received nearly a million votes.
The impeachment process and the criminal justice system also run on independent tracks. The Constitution states that a person convicted through impeachment remains “liable and subject to Indictment, Trial, Judgment and Punishment, according to Law.”5Cornell Law Institute. Judgment in Cases of Impeachment: Doctrine and Practice The Supreme Court confirmed in Trump v. United States (2024) that impeachment is not a prerequisite to criminal prosecution of a former president.12Congress.gov. Criminal Prosecution, Presidential Immunity and Former Presidents Neither process depends on the other, and neither by itself ends eligibility.
The Short Answer, Restated
Impeachment by the House does nothing to a president’s future eligibility. Senate acquittal ends the matter entirely. Senate conviction removes the president from office but still doesn’t disqualify without a second, separate majority vote. Every impeached president in American history has remained eligible to run again, and the most recent one did.