Did Jeb Bush Wait Too Long to Run for President?

A Smart Politics analysis finds that the 14 years between Jeb Bush's last electoral victory in 2002 and the presidential election of 2016 is the longest such gap recorded by any victorious presidential candidate in more than 150 years. 

Note: The following analysis excludes the five men who never held elected office prior to becoming president (in post-Constitutional United States): George Washington, Zachary Taylor, Ulysses Grant, Herbert Hoover, and Dwight Eisenhower.

The last president who saw 14 years pass between his last electoral victory and winning the White House was none other than Abraham Lincoln.

Lincoln was elected to the U.S. House from Illinois in 1846 but served only one term and did not win another race until the White House in 1860.

Since then, only two winning presidential candidates had seen more than eight years pass since their last electoral victory:

● Richard Nixon in 1968 - 12 years after winning the vice-presidency on Eisenhower's ticket in 1956. 
● Ronald Reagan in 1980 - 10 years after being reelected to a second term as Governor of California.