Rhino wrote:
Obviously exact wording is needed to be sure but as stated I'm afraid technically I agree with them at first blush. LBJ was elected to his second term, just not his first (partial) term, serving in the 44th and 45th terms.
Now if they had said RE-elected you'd technically be right. But if "elected to second term" is verbatim I have to favor their case, FWIW (not much!).
I'm going to have to agree with both RHINO and BO on this. Whether a president is elected or succeeds another person into office, however much time he spends as president is a term in office--otherwise, any VP that succeeds a dead/resigned president would be considered to have no term in office at all, which is clearly counter-factual. If he gets elected in his own right later, then by definition he is starting a new, second term. Because of this, historians routinely refer to "Truman's second term" or "Johnson's second term."
But RHINO is also right that if they used the constructions "re-elected" or "second full term," then your team, and only your team, had the correct answer.