On November 3, 1975, less than a year after Nelson Rockefeller was sworn in as vice president, he announced in a letter to President Gerald Ford that he would not seek reelection to the vice presidency in 1976. On November 6, at a news conference in the Old Executive Office Building, his first public appearance since delivering the letter, Rockefeller cites "party squabbles" as his reason for withdrawing from the race.