John Connally and fellow Texan president. In May 1973, Connally joined the Republican Party. When Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned five months later because of scandal, Connally was one of Nixon's potential choices to fill the vacancy. Nixon tapped Gerald Ford, the House Minority Leader from Grand Rapids, Michigan, because he believed that the moderate Ford could be easily confirmed by both houses of Congress, as required by the 25th Amendment to the United States Constitution. A Connally nomination presumably could have been blocked by liberal Democratic opposition. The weakened Nixon did not want a fight for the vice-presidential selection. Connally's party
Inauguration of Gerald Ford presidency was established in 1789, it was the first to take place because the incumbent had resigned from office. Ford had become Vice President on December 6, 1973, after the resignation of Spiro Agnew. He was the first person appointed to the vice presidency under the terms of the Twenty-fifth Amendment. Thus, when he succeeded Nixon, Ford became the first (and to date only) person to have held both the office of Vice President and President without having been elected to either. In a televised Oval Office speech on August 8, 1974, President Richard Nixon, who was facing impeachment proceedings