Richard Nixon was in an election.
List of Presidents of the United States . The president is indirectly elected to a four-year term by the people through an Electoral College ( or by the House of Representatives , should the Electoral College fail to award an absolute majority of votes to any person ) . Richard Milhous Nixon ( January 9 , 1913 -- April 22 , 1994 ) was an American politician who served as the 37th President of the United States from 1969 until 1974 , when he became the only U.S. president to resign from office . He was reelected in one of the largest electoral landslides in U.S. history in 1972 , when he defeated George McGovern .