I do not choose to run

Sanders endorsed Coolidge's declaration, and the announcement was scheduled for the 9 a.m. press conference on Tuesday August 2, 1927.

[2] However, to prevent an overreaction by the stock market on the East Coast, the announcement was moved to midday.

[4] Also, Secret Service Agent Edmund Starling, who served at the White House for thirty years, and protected five presidents, recounted[when?]

[4] While some close to Coolidge knew he would not run for another term, others were stunned by his announcement, including Sanders, his personal secretary.

[5] Later in the day on August 2, Grace Coolidge found out about her husband's announcement from visiting senator Arthur Capper.

Commerce secretary Herbert Hoover, himself considering a 1928 election bid, asked Coolidge if his decision was "absolutely conclusive", and the president made no direct reply.

"[6] Had Coolidge wished, he would have been easily nominated to run again at the 1928 Republican National Convention, as party leaders wanted.

When the Vermont delegation asked the president three times whether he would object to voting for him, Coolidge refused to answer.

The death of his son, Calvin Jr., in 1924, took a heavy toll on the president, which some say led to clinical depression.

He said, "I do not approve the circulation of a petition, such as has been reported in the morning press, requesting me to run for president in 1928.

Only in 1951 the Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution had been ratified, and thus limiting the number of times that a person can be elected president to two; a person who succeeds to the presidency and serves more than half of the unexpired term is further limited to one election in their own right.

As of 2024[update], the amendment has yet to apply to anyone succeeding to the presidency; a grandfather clause exempted Harry S. Truman when the amendment came into force, Lyndon B. Johnson served less than half of John F. Kennedy's term when he became president after Kennedy's assassination, and Gerald R. Ford (who did serve more than half of Richard Nixon's second term) was defeated in his bid to win election to a full term.

[citation needed] An episode of The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis is titled "I Do Not Choose to Run".

In an episode of Seinfeld titled "The Race", the character Jerry says, "I choose not to run" as a playful comment alluding to Coolidge's famous quote, though in the context of the episode it is in regard to an athletic race and not a political contest.