I did my 5th Grade Presidential report on George HW Bush, who had just been elected and it was likely at that time that I took the impression that the VP being elected to continue after the President finishes was normal. It is actually fairly unusual. 1/3 of our Presidents were Vice President first, but most of those don't fit my criteria. Eight (John Tyler, Millard Fillmore, Andrew Johnson, Chester Arthur, Teddy Roosevelt, Calvin Coolidge, Harry Truman, and Lyndon Johnson) became President because the President died. Thomas Jefferson was that odd early example where the Vice President ran against the President and won because they had never been running mates. And Gerald Ford became President when Nixon resigned. Nixon, himself, and Biden don't quite fit my criteria. Nixon was Eisenhower's VP and ran to succeed him, but he lost. Biden didn't run when Obama finished. Both cam back after a gap. So how often has the Vice President run and succeeded their President? 3 times. John Adams (1796), Martin van Burn (1837), George HW Bush (1988). It has never happened twice in the same century.