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“Take me to your leader” is a popular sci-fi phrase that was first used in a 1953 cartoon published by The New Yorker. Since then, it has been stated on both the big and small screens for comic effect. The saying is most commonly uttered by an extraterrestrial being to the first human it encounters after landing on Earth.

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This quote by President Barack Obama is from his keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. The Tenth Congressional District Democrats—the organization that created this button—has helped elect Democrats at all levels of government within Illinois’ 10th Congressional District since 2004.

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The "audacity of hope!" is a reference to Barack Obama’s keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, “Hope in the face of difficulty, hope in the face of uncertainty, the audacity of hope..." Given a few months after Obama won the Democratic Primary for United States Senate, the speech received rave reviews. It put in him on the map for the US Senatorial race, which he ended up winning in November 2004.  

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In 2004, John Kerry won the Democratic nomination for the United States presidential election. Kerry and his vice presidential pick John Edwards ran against incumbent President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. During their 2004 campaign, Kerry and Edwards endorsed Barack Obama in Illinois’ senatorial race. In the same year, Lee Goodman ran as a Democrat to unseat Mark Kirk, the Republican incumbent representative for Illinois' 10th congressional district. People traded these Illinois 10th congressional district Kerry-Edwards-Obama buttons all over the U.S. and even in Guam. While Kerry and Edwards lost the presidential election to Bush and Cheney, and Goodman lost to Kirk, Obama won the senatorial race in a landslide with 70% of the vote. Obama would also go on to be the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017.

Blue and red block letters on blue Illinois state with red background and white text on left. Upper right photograph of John Kerry and John Edwards with white text on blue background. Lower right blue text with photograph of Barack Obama on white background.

In 2004, John Kerry won the Democratic nomination for the United States presidential election. Kerry and his vice presidential pick John Edwards ran against incumbent President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. During their 2004 campaign, Kerry and Edwards endorsed Barack Obama in Illinois’ senatorial race. People traded these Illinois 10th congressional district Kerry-Edwards-Obama buttons all over the U.S. and even in Guam. While Kerry and Edwards lost the presidential election to Bush and Cheney, Obama won the senatorial race in a landslide with 70% of the vote. Obama would also go on to be the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017.

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In 2004 Barack Obama announced his bid for the Illinois Senate, following the announcement from incumbent Peter Fitzgerald that he would not run for a second term. Obama quickly rose to the top following endorsements from most major Illinois newspapers and several large unions. Initially the Republican frontrunner was Jack Ryan, but he dropped out following divorce court records were released in which his wife alleged he pressured her into public sex acts. His replacement, John Keyes suffered from a conservative voting record and his image as an outsider, having few ties to Illinois. Obama received 70% of the vote, with the race being one of the first to be called on Election Day. The race and subsequent victory brought Obama to the forefront of the Democratic Party and grew his popularity, which later led to his election as President in 2008.

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In 2004 Barack Obama announced his bid for the Illinois Senate, following the announcement from incumbent Peter Fitzgerald that he would not run for a second term. Obama quickly rose to the top following endorsements from most major Illinois newspapers and several large unions. Initially the Republican frontrunner was Jack Ryan, but he dropped out following divorce court records were released in which his wife alleged he pressured her into public sex acts. His replacement, John Keyes suffered from a conservative voting record and his image as an outsider, having few ties to Illinois. Obama received 70% of the vote, with the race being one of the first to be called on Election Day. The race and subsequent victory brought Obama to the forefront of the Democratic Party and grew his popularity, which later led to his election as President in 2008.

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In 2004 Barack Obama announced his bid for the Illinois Senate, following the announcement from incumbent Peter Fitzgerald that he would not run for a second term. Obama quickly rose to the top following endorsements from most major Illinois newspapers and several large unions. Initially the Republican frontrunner was Jack Ryan, but he dropped out following divorce court records were released in which his wife alleged he pressured her into public sex acts. His replacement, John Keyes suffered from a conservative voting record and his image as an outsider, having few ties to Illinois. Obama received 70% of the vote, with the race being one of the first to be called on Election Day. The race and subsequent victory brought Obama to the forefront of the Democratic Party and grew his popularity, which later led to his election as President in 2008.

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On January 21, 2003, Barack Obama announced his candidacy for the United States Senate seat for Illinois. He’d been campaigning for the position since July of 2002. Out of the 15 candidates, seven were millionaires, which led to the most expensive campaign for a United States Senate primary. It wasn’t until Obama extended his campaign to television ads that he took the lead. Barack Obama won the Democratic primary on March 16, 2004 with nearly 53% of the votes for the party.
In the general election, Obama ran against two different Republican candidates: Jack Ryan and Alan Keyes. While Ryan had originally won the Republican primary election after reportedly spending $3.35 million of his own money on his campaign, he was pushed to back down following the release of compromising records from his divorce and child custody battle against Star Trek actress, Jeri Ryan. Just over a month after the child custody files were released by the Los Angeles court, Ryan withdrew from the election on July 29, 2004.
Following Ryan's withdrawal, the Illinois Republican Party asked Alan Keyes (their third replacement choice) to run and he agreed. Keyes had run for Senate in New York previously and had lost. Although he had been contacted by the Illinois Republican Party to run, Keyes faced criticism for running in a state in which he had never lived and was accused of carpetbagging. In the end, Keyes’ few ties to the state and some of his more radical statements lost him the race with a massive 43% difference in votes. On November 2, 2004, Barack Obama became one of the United States Senators from Illinois. He was officially sworn into office on January 3, 2005.