George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of ...

stood for public office five times, serving two terms in the Virginia House of Burgesses and two terms as President of the United States. He is the only

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independe ...

elected as U.S. president and the only person unanimously elected to that office.

1755 House of Burgesses election

Washington first stood for election to the Virginia

House of Burgesses The House of Burgesses was the elected representative element of the Virginia General Assembly, the legislative body of the Colony of Virginia. With the creation of the House of Burgesses in 1642, the General Assembly, which had been establishe ...

from

Frederick County, Virginia Frederick County is located in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 91,419. Its county seat is Winchester. The county was formed in 1743 by the splitting of Orange County. It is Virginia's northernmost county ...

in 1755 at the age of 23. Two burgesses were elected from each Virginia county by and among the male landowners. Members of the House of Burgesses did not serve fixed terms, unlike its successor the

Virginia House of Delegates The Virginia House of Delegates is one of the two parts of the Virginia General Assembly, the other being the Senate of Virginia. It has 100 members elected for terms of two years; unlike most states, these elections take place during odd-number ...

, and it remained sitting until dissolved by the governor or until seven years had passed, whichever occurred sooner. Elections during this time were not conducted by

secret ballot The secret ballot, also known as the Australian ballot, is a voting method in which a voter's identity in an election or a referendum is anonymous. This forestalls attempts to influence the voter by intimidation, blackmailing, and potential vo ...

but rather by ''viva voce''. The

sheriff A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland that is commonly transla ...

of the county, a clerk, and a representative of each candidate would be seated at a table, and each elector would approach the table and openly declare his vote. In elections to the House of Burgesses, each voter cast two votes and two candidates were elected who received the greatest number of votes.

1758 House of Burgesses election

In 1758, Washington again stood for election to the House of Burgesses. Washington's campaign was managed by Colonel James Wood, who procured 160 gallons of alcoholic drinks and distributed them ''gratis'' to 391 voters in the county. Washington won the election with more than 39-percent of the vote. Thomas Bryan Martin won Frederick County's other house seat; he was the nephew of the

Lord Fairfax of Cameron Thomas Fairfax, 3rd Lord Fairfax of Cameron Lord Fairfax of Cameron is a title in the Peerage of Scotland. Despite holding a Scottish peerage, the Lords Fairfax of Cameron are members of an ancient Yorkshire family, of which the Fairfax baron ...

, governor of Virginia.

1761 House of Burgesses election

Washington successfully stood for re-election to his seat in the House of Burgesses in 1761, campaigning with his neighbor

George Mercer George C. "Tiny" Mercer (August 31, 1944 – January 6, 1989) was an American man who was convicted for the rape and murder of 22-year-old Karen Keeton in Belton, Missouri, on August 31, 1978. At the time of the murder, Mercer had a charge pendi ...

. The three candidates were Washington, Mercer, and Adam Stephen, and all three had fought together during the disastrous

Battle of Fort Necessity The Battle of Fort Necessity, also known as the Battle of the Great Meadows, took place on July 3, 1754, in what is now Farmington in Fayette County, Pennsylvania. The engagement, along with the May 28 skirmish known as the Battle of Jumonvill ...

in the

Seven Years' War The Seven Years' War (1756–1763) was a global conflict that involved most of the European Great Powers, and was fought primarily in Europe, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific. Other concurrent conflicts include the French and Indian War (1754 ...

. Stephen emerged as a critic of Washington, unlike Mercer, and their rivalry continued through to the

American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revoluti ...

. Washington and Mercer received the support of "the leaders of all the patrician families" of the county, while Stephen attracted "the attention of the plebians".

1788–89 United States presidential election

The first

U.S. presidential election The election of the president and the vice president of the United States is an indirect election in which citizens of the United States who are registered to vote in one of the fifty U.S. states or in Washington, D.C., cast ballots not di ...

was held over a period of weeks from December 1788 to January 1789. Washington was elected with 69 of the 69 first-round votes cast in the

United States Electoral College The United States Electoral College is the group of presidential electors required by the Constitution to form every four years for the sole purpose of appointing the president and vice president. Each state and the District of Columbia a ...

. With this election, he became the only U.S. president to be unanimously chosen. No popular vote totals are listed in this table. In early elections, many electors were chosen by state legislatures instead of public balloting, and votes were cast for undifferentiated lists of candidates in those states which practiced public balloting, leaving no or only partial vote totals.

1792 United States presidential election

Washington was unanimously re-elected

President of the United States The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the Federal government of the United States#Executive branch, executive branch of the Federal gove ...

in the 1792 election, carrying all first-round electoral votes.

References