John Tyler is credited with a couple of "firsts" among U.S. presidents: first to succeed to office following the death of an incumbent president, and first to have Congress override a presidential veto. Tyler served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1817-1821. In 1825 he was elected governor of Virginia. In 1827 he returned to Washington as a U.S. senator, supporting Andrew Jackson's views against internal improvements and the second Bank of the United States.

In a dispute with the Virginia legislature, which instructed him to vote to expunge the Senate censure resolution against Jackson and which Tyler refused to do, he resigned and severed relations with the Democratic Party. He was chosen the Whig vice presidential candidate in 1836 on one of its regional tickets. In 1839 he was selected the vice presidential candidate to William Henry Harrison.

Continuing his political independence, Tyler opposed the Whig congressional caucus and its leader, Henry Clay. The dispute became so strong that all but Daniel Webster resigned from his cabinet, and the Whigs expelled him from the party. Another major conflict was Texas. Tyler vigorously pursued the annexation, but both parties sidestepped the Texas question and its slavery overtones. He negotiated a treaty with Texas, which the Senate rejected. After James K. Polk won the presidential election in 1844 on an annexation platform, Tyler signed a joint Congressional resolution annexing Texas before leaving office.