Grover Cleveland was the first to serve two non-consecutive terms as president

NEW YORK (AP) — The list of U.S. presidents has seen several nominated by voters for more than one term, with Donald Trump joining the group as the 45th president and now the 47th. But only one other American president has done it like Trump – with a four-year gap between terms.

That was Grover Cleveland, who served as the 22nd president after the 1884 election and the 24th president after the 1892 campaign.

Cleveland was governor of New York when he was nominated by the Democratic Party for president in 1884. He was considered “the epitome of responsibility and stability,” said Daniel Klinghard, a political science professor at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts.

A narrow victory in the popular vote gave him enough electoral college votes to be named president. Four years later, he lost the Electoral College vote count to Republican Benjamin Harrison, although he again had a slight lead in the popular vote.

However, Cleveland remained highly regarded by the public. He won both the popular and electoral votes in 1892.

During his first term in office, among other things, he dealt with the demand for a reduction in tariffs imposed during the Civil War. He lobbied hard for it, associated the position with the Democratic Party and received public support, Klinghard said.

“This model of a president who is a loud, clear spokesman for policies that enliven the party” was emulated by future presidents like Woodrow Wilson, he said. And it helped keep Cleveland in the public spotlight in the years following his first term.

“This is a point where the modern idea of ​​the national party really came together. “In Cleveland there was a group of experienced political activists, very wealthy people, who saw that they benefited from free trade,” Klinghard said. “And they have spent a lot of time promoting Cleveland’s name to voters, much as Trump’s allies have done, and dismissing everyone else as a challenge — as a rival.”