Democratic Primaries

John Adams finished second only to George Washington in electoral votes. Adams became VP.
Similar situation with Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr.

Based on the info already in this thread, I went back a big further than 70 years.


2008 (D): Obama / Biden
2004 (D): John Kerry and John Edwards
1996 (R): Bob Dole and Jack Kemp
1980 (R): Ronald Reagan and Bush I
1968 (R): Nixon / Agnew
1960 (D): John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson
1956 (D): Adlai Stevenson and Estes Kefauver
1948 (R): Thomas Dewey and Earl Warren (Warren was a favorite-son candidate)
1944 (R): Thomas Dewey and John Bricker
1936 (R): Alf Landon and Frank Knox
1932 (D): Franklin Roosevelt and John Nance Garner
1928 (R): Herbert Hoover and Charles Curtis
1916 (R): Charles Evans Hughes and Charles Fairbanks
1912 (D): Woodrow Wilson and Thomas Marshall (Marshall was a favorite-son candidate)

1800s? Just didn't feel like doing the research.

You later said "there haven't been nominating contests since the late 1700s. There weren't even political parties back then." That's false.

Political parties formed in 1796. Every president was, at one point, nominated for that office. They weren't appointed. Basic American Civics.

Learn history.