# Who made the greatest political comeback in history?

> Sacked, jailed, purged or beaten at the polls, and back in office regardless. The gap between the fall and the return runs from two years to twenty-seven.

*By YPB Team · Published August 18, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/who-made-the-greatest-political-comeback-in-history*

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## Current results (3 votes)

1. **Nelson Mandela** — 100% (3 votes · score 1000/1000)
   Went from prisoner number 46664 to head of state in four years.
2. **Winston Churchill** — 0% (0 votes · score 560/1000)
   Lost a landslide in July 1945 weeks after victory in Europe, then walked back into Downing Street in 1951 aged 76.
3. **Theodore Roosevelt** — 0% (0 votes · score 503/1000)
   Left the presidency, fell out with his successor and outpolled him running as a third-party candidate.
4. **Andrew Jackson** — 0% (0 votes · score 502/1000)
   Won the popular vote in 1824, lost the presidency in the House, and came back to take it in 1828.
5. **Indira Gandhi** — 0% (0 votes · score 435/1000)
   Voted out and briefly jailed in 1977, back as prime minister in 1980.
6. **Grover Cleveland** — 0% (0 votes · score 435/1000)
   The only US president to lose the White House and then win it back four years later.
7. **Charles de Gaulle** — 0% (0 votes · score 356/1000)
   Retired to write his memoirs in 1946 and was recalled to found a new republic in 1958.
8. **Abraham Lincoln** — 0% (0 votes · score 356/1000)
   Lost a Senate race in 1858 to the man he beat for the presidency two years later.
9. **Robert the Bruce** — 0% (0 votes · score 356/1000)
   Beaten, excommunicated and in hiding before Bannockburn settled the argument.
10. **Alcibiades** — 0% (0 votes · score 261/1000)
   Athenian general who defected to Sparta, then to Persia, then got his Athenian command back.
11. **Richard Nixon** — 0% (0 votes · score 261/1000)
   Told the press in 1962 they would not have him to kick around any more, and won the presidency six years later.
12. **Franklin D. Roosevelt** — 0% (0 votes · score 261/1000)
   Paralysed by polio in 1921 and elected governor, then president, in the decade that followed.
13. **Konrad Adenauer** — 0% (0 votes · score 145/1000)
   Sacked as mayor of Cologne, arrested twice, then chancellor at 73 and in office for fourteen years.
14. **Deng Xiaoping** — 0% (0 votes · score 145/1000)
   Purged twice, then returned to run the reforms that rebuilt China's economy.

Tags: politics, all-time, leaders