By: HISTORY.com Editors

1974

Gerald Ford selects Nelson Rockefeller as vice president

HISTORY.com Editors

August 20th, 1974: President Gerald Ford announces at the White House that New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller (left) will become the new vice president.

UPI / Bettmann Archive / Getty Images

Published: August 18, 2025Last Updated: August 18, 2025

On August 20, 1974, President Gerald Ford—11 days after becoming President of the United States in the wake of Richard Nixon’s resignation—announces New York Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller as his pick for vice president.

In a news conference, Ford said he looked at many candidates, “but the one who in good judgment under all of the circumstances was Nelson Rockefeller,” the president announced. Rockefeller led a wing of the Republican party that was economically conservative but moderate or liberal on social issues, making him a potentially unifying pick at an especially fragile political moment. “I think he will make a great teammate. I think he will be good for the country, I think he will be good for the world, and I am looking forward to working with him.”

Gerald Ford

Excerts from Gerold R. Ford's inaugural address on Friday, August 9, 1974.

Reporters at the news conference grilled the governor with many questions, including whether Rockefeller, a member of the highly wealthy Rockefeller family, would release his tax returns and state his net worth. Rockefeller said he would do whatever Congress and the law required him to do. Rockefeller also deflected several questions by saying to wait until he was confirmed.

When asked why he had turned down previous offers to be vice president—but accepted this one—the governor said it was the country’s “tremendously difficult and serious problems, as the president pointed out in his address to the Congress, very difficult problems that have to be faced and faced realistically.”

Rockefeller had unsuccessfully sought the party’s nomination for president three times. He was the second vice president appointed under the 25th Amendment. The first was Ford himself, who stepped into the presidency after the Watergate scandal unraveled Nixon’s hold on power.

In the 1976 presidential campaign, when Ronald Reagan challenged Ford for the Republican nomination, Rockefeller said he did not want to be reconsidered for vice president. Ford lost the election to Jimmy Carter.

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Citation Information

Article title: Gerald Ford selects Nelson Rockefeller as vice president
Author: HISTORY.com Editors
Website Name: History
URL: https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/august-20/gerald-ford-chooses-nelson-rockefeller-vice-president

Date Accessed: August 21, 2025
Publisher: A&E Television Networks
Last Updated: August 18, 2025
Original Published Date: August 18, 2025

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