The American Vice President

Whether aiming to strike a balance or make a splash, choosing the right running mate can make or break a presidential campaign.

America’s first vice president, John Adams, called his job “the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived.” But that would change dramatically over the next two and a half centuries.

When President Gerald Ford was inaugurated in 1974, the Nixons hadn’t had time to move out of the White House yet. So for ten days, the “White House” was an unassuming colonial home in suburban Alexandria, Virginia.

The American Vice President tells the little-known story of the second-highest office in the land, tracing its evolution from a constitutional afterthought to a position of political consequence. Focusing on the fraught period between 1963 and 1974, the film examines the passage and first uses of the 25th Amendment and offers a fresh perspective on succession in the executive branch.