There is no limit on how many terms a vice president can serve. The Constitution caps the presidency at two elected terms but places no equivalent restriction on the vice presidency, so an eligible person could, in theory, be elected vice president any number of times. In practice, no one has held the office for more than eight years.
Why the Vice Presidency Has No Cap
Article II sets a four-year term for both the president and the vice president but says nothing about re-election.1Cornell Law Institute. Article II When Congress wrote the Twenty-Second Amendment, ratified in 1951, it chose to limit only the presidency: no person can be elected president more than twice.2Library of Congress. Twenty-Second Amendment Nothing parallel was written for the vice president, and no federal statute has since imposed one. The vice presidency is one of the few high offices in the federal government with no cap on total or consecutive service.
How Long Vice Presidents Have Actually Served
Despite the open-ended rule, no vice president has served more than two full terms. John Adams, Thomas Marshall, John Nance Garner, Richard Nixon, George H.W. Bush, Al Gore, Dick Cheney, and Joe Biden each served eight years under a single president.
John C. Calhoun is the one figure who served under two different presidents, John Quincy Adams and then Andrew Jackson, though he resigned partway through his second term in 1832 to take a Senate seat.3U.S. Department of State. John Caldwell Calhoun So while the Constitution would allow more, the historical ceiling has held at two terms.
Who Can Keep Running
The absence of a term limit does not mean anyone can hold the office. A vice president must meet the same qualifications as a president, because the Twelfth Amendment declares that anyone constitutionally ineligible for the presidency is also ineligible for the vice presidency.4Cornell Law School. Twelfth Amendment That link exists because the vice president is first in line to take over the presidency.
Article II requires a vice president to be:
- A natural-born citizen of the United States
- At least 35 years old
- A U.S. resident for at least 14 years
Anyone who fails these tests is barred from the office.5Library of Congress. Article II Section 1 Clause 5 – Qualifications As long as a person continues to meet them, they remain free to run again.
Can a Two-Term Former President Serve as Vice President?
The one open question about vice presidential eligibility involves former two-term presidents. The Twenty-Second Amendment bars anyone from being elected president more than twice.2Library of Congress. Twenty-Second Amendment The Twelfth Amendment ties vice presidential eligibility to presidential eligibility.4Cornell Law School. Twelfth Amendment Whether those two provisions together disqualify a former two-term president from becoming vice president has never been decided by any court.
The dispute turns on a single word. Congress wrote the Twenty-Second Amendment to say no one can be elected president more than twice, and deliberately rejected broader language that would have said no such person “shall be chosen or serve as President.” Scholars who read the amendment narrowly argue that a former two-term president is only barred from being elected again, not from holding the office through succession, and could therefore serve as vice president. Others argue that the Twelfth Amendment’s requirement that a vice president be “eligible to the office of President” disqualifies anyone who can no longer be elected to it. The Supreme Court has never resolved the conflict.6Cornell Law School. Overview of Twenty-Second Amendment, Presidential Term Limits
What Happens If a Vice President Moves Up
The Twenty-Second Amendment does limit what happens after a vice president becomes president through succession. If a vice president takes over with two years or less remaining in the original term, that person can still be elected president twice, for up to about ten years total in the office. If they take over with more than two years left, they can be elected only once more.2Library of Congress. Twenty-Second Amendment
That ceiling applies only to time as president. Years spent as vice president do not count against it, and no similar cap runs the other direction. Someone could spend a decade as vice president and face no constitutional barrier to running for the office again.