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This button was for the campaign of Wendell Willkie, a Republican who opposed incumbent president Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1940. With the two-term limit tradition rather than law, Roosevelt ran for an unprecedented third term with Henry Wallace as his running mate. Willkie, a businessman from New York, campaigned against Roosevelt's New Deal programs as wasteful and ineffective in ending the Great Depression. He also portrayed FDR as too eager to have America join World War II, and instead advocated military aid, but not necessarily troops, to the Allies. Yet Willkie was hurt by being a symbol of big business, which many felt helped cause the economic crisis in the first place. Roosevelt won with 54.7% of the vote to Willkie's 44.8%, 449 electoral votes to 82.

Willkie had changed his party registration to Republican in 1939. He did not run in the 1940 primaries, but was seen as an alternative to isolationist Thomas Dewey. After the 1940 election, Willkie served as President Roosevelt's informal envoy to Great Britain and supported the Lend-Lease program, which supplied fool, oil, and war materiel such as planes, ships, and weapons to Allied nations during World War II. Willkie died in 1944.

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Wendell Willkie was the Republican Presidential candidate in 1940 running against Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who had already served two Presidential terms. Willkie was a lawyer, industrialist, and a registered democrat until 1939. He did not run in the Presidential primary, but had young supporters campaign for him and appealed to a deadlocked convention. He beat Dewey for the Republican nomination because the increased German aggression in early 1940 made Dewey's isolationism less appealing to many Americans. He supported aid to Britain and increased military preparations, but not entry into WWII. He also opposed New Deal programs during the election. Willkie got 44.8% of the popular vote, more than any defeated candidate had before him, but lost the electoral vote by a landslide. After losing the election Willkie gave his support to Roosevelt, and the New Deal and even served as an unofficial emissary in Britain, the Soviet Union, and the Middle East, but he never held a political office. 

Willkie's running mate, Charles McNary, had much more political experience. McNary was a lawyer and a long serving Republican Senator from Oregon who, as the Senate minority leader, had supported early New Deal Programs.

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This button comes from one of Horace Hildreth’s Senatorial campaigns in the 1940s. Originally a lawyer from Maine, in 1940 Hildreth was elected to the House of Representatives and was elected to the Maine State Senate in 1942. Afterwards Hildreth served two terms as Governor of Maine from 1944 to 1949, though his political career ended when he lost the Senatorial election to Margaret Chase Smith in 1948. Hildreth then founded Community Broadcasting Service in Maine, which continues to provide television and radio today, and from 1953 to 1957 served as the ambassador to Pakistan under Dwight D. Eisenhower. After his tenure as ambassador, Hildreth focused his attentions on his broadcasting service until his death in 1988.

Horace Hildreth. (n.d.). Retrieved December 7, 2015 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horace_Hildreth.

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Robert W. Edgar was a Democrat from Pennsylvania who served in the House of Representatives from 1975-1986. During his time in Congress, Edgar sought to improve public transportation, authored the community Right to Know provisions of Super Fund legislation, and co-authored the G.I. Bill for all volunteer service. He also served as a member of the House Select Committee on Assassinations that investigated political assassinations like those of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. Edgar ran for the Senate in 1986, but lost the general election to Arlen Specter.

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Robert W. Edgar was a Democrat from Pennsylvania who served in the House of Representatives from 1975-1986. During his time in Congress, Edgar sought to improve public transportation, authored the community Right to Know provisions of Super Fund legislation, and co-authored the G.I. Bill for all volunteer service. He also served as a member of the House Select Committee on Assassinations that investigated political assassinations like those of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. Edgar ran for the Senate in 1986, but lost the general election to Arlen Specter.

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In 1991 Danny Davis ran against Richard M. Daley to be Mayor of Chicago. Davis had previously represented the 29^th Ward of Chicago before running against Daley, who had been mayor since 1989. Davis lost the election, while Daley continued to be mayor until 2005, making him the longest-serving mayor in Chicago’s history. Afterwards in 1997, Davis was elected to sit in the House of Representatives for Illinois’s 7^th district, a position that he continues to hold today.

Danny K. Davis. (n.d.). Retrieved December 18, 2015 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danny_K._Davis.

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In 1971 Richard M. Daley ran to be re-elected as Mayor of Chicago for the fifth time. Daley was elected to the position for the first time in 1955, and during his time in office oversaw the building of O’Hare Airport and Sears Tower, as well as agreeing to desegregate Chicago neighborhoods and is best remembered for preventing Chicago from declining as other Rust Belt cities had. Daley easily won the 1971 election partly because of his popularity and partly because of the lack of a strong opponent. Afterwards, Daley later won the 1975 election, though he died halfway into his term in 1976, holding onto the position of Mayor for a total of 21 years.

Richard J. Daley. (n.d.). Retrieved December 5, 2015 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_J._Daley.

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This button comes from Calvin Coolidge and his running mate Charles Dawes’ presidential campaign in 1924. Coolidge had risen to fame as Governor of Massachusetts, and was elected as Vice-President under Warren G. Harding in 1920. President Harding died during his term, making Coolidge the president in 1923, and in 1924 he ran for the presidency with Dawes, winning 54% of the votes. During Coolidge’s second term he granted citizenship to Native Americans, loosened government controls on the economy, and reduced the role of government programs. Coolidge decided not to run again in 1928, and retired to his home in Massachusetts after his term ended, making radio addresses and writing a news column until his death in 1933.

Calvin Coolidge. (n.d.). Retrieved December 8, 2015 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvin_Coolidge.

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Colin Luther Powell was often mentional as a potential presidential candidate, and many hoped he would run for president as a possible opponent of Bill Clinton in the 1996 U.S. presidential election, but Powell had declined due to a lack of passion for politics in 1995. He was an American statesmen and retired as a four-star general in the U.S. Army. He was also the 65^th Unites States Secretary of State under U.S. President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2005. He was the first African American to serve in that position.