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This button is pointing out the importance of the LGBT population's vote in electoral politics in the United States. Most polling experts place the self-identifying lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender population in the United States as between 5-10%. Though that is a small number compared to the general population of the United States, it can be enough to swing a close election. Studies have shown that the LGBT population is more civically and politically engaged than their non-LGBT counterparts, and courting the “gay vote” has become integral to many campaigns. In fact, several polls and political pundits have attributed the “gay vote” to be the determining factor in the 2012 Presidential election. 

Harless, W. (2012, July 16). How Important is the Gay and Lesbian Vote for the Upcoming Election?. Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/how-important-is-the-gay-and-lesbian-vote/

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This button is meant as a humorous social commentary against the United States Republican party. The Republican Party, or Grand Old Party (GOP), is one of the two major political parties within the United States of America. Beginning in the Northern states, the party preserved the Union and promoted the abolishment of slavery and provided equal rights to all men. Throughout the 20th and into the 21st centuries, however, the Republican Party has gradually become associated with a much more socially conservative agenda than it was originally founded upon.

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Jane Byrne served as 50^th Mayor of Chicago, the only woman to hold the position. First entering politics as a volunteer for John F. Kennedy’s 1960 Presidential campaign, Byrne became head of the consumer affairs department of Chicago in 1968. Byrne campaigned to be Mayor of Chicago in the 1979 election against Michael Bilandic. Against the odds, Byrne won the election because the city blamed Mayor Bilandic for not being an effective enough leader to mobilize the city through a blizzard. Byrne’s term as mayor was characterized by her recognition of the LGBT community, moving into a housing project to show how dangerous it was, and banning unregistered handguns in Chicago. Byrne ran for mayor again in 1983 by initiating a write-in campaign, but lost to Harold Washington. Byrne ran for mayor three more times, but lost every election. Byrne died in 2014, after which the Circle Interchange was renamed the Jane Byrne Interchange in her honor.

Jane Byrne. (n.d.). Retrieved November 1, 2015 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Byrne.

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The Republican Party, or Grand Old Party (GOP), is one of the two major political parties within the United States of America. In 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected to be the first President to represent the Republican party and allowed the Republicans to regain control of Congress. Beginning in the Northern states, the party preserved the Union and promoted the abolishment of slavery and provided equal rights to all men. The Republican Party was founded by anti-slavery advocates and other conservatives.  

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This button was for the 1984 U.S. presidential campaign of Walter Mondale and Geraldine Ferraro. Mondale had served as vice president under Jimmy Carter from 1977-1981. He chose Ferraro, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York's 9th district, as his running mate. This marked the first time a woman had been a nominee on a major party's presidential ticket. Mondale and Ferraro lost the 1984 election to President Ronald Reagan and Vice President George H.W. Bush, who won re-election by carrying 49 of the 50 U.S. states. Mondale and Ferraro carried only his home state of Minnesota and the District of Columbia. Their 13 electoral college votes was the lowest total of any major presidential ticket since Alf Landon and Frank Knox earned 8 electoral votes in 1936 against Franklin D. Roosevelt and John Nance Garner.

Mondale attended Macalester College and the University of Minnesota, and served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War. He was Minnesota Attorney General in the early 1980s and U.S. Ambassador to Japan from 1990-1993. Ferraro attended Marymount Manhattan College and earned her J.D. from Fordham University in New York. She served as U.S. Ambassador to the UN Commission on Human Rights from 1993-1996 during the Clinton administration.

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Eugene McCarthy was a politician from the state of Minnesota who ran as an Independent in the 1976 United States Presidential election.  He came in third, behind Jimmy Carter and incumbent President Ford.  McCarthy had previously been connected with the Democratic Party, having run for the Democratic nomination in both the 1968 and 1972 party primaries.  The 1976 marked McCarthy's departure from the Democratic Party until 1992, when he would, for the last time, run for the Democratic nomination.

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Michael Bilandic was Mayor of Chicago in the late 1970s. Originally a lawyer, Bilandic entered politics by becoming an alderman representing the Bridgeport neighborhood of Chicago. After Mayor Richard J. Daley’s death in 1976 in the middle of his term, Bilandic was chosen to take the place of mayor until an election could be held. Bilandic ran in the 1977 election to hold the position of mayor for the remaining two years of what had originally been Mayor Daley’s term, where this button likely came from. Bilandic won, holding the position from 1977 to 1979. The two years that Bilandic spent as mayor were turbulent, characterized by strikes, a bombing in City Hall, riots, and a blizzard. Bilandic ran to be Mayor of Chicago again in 1979, but was beaten by Jane Byrne, after which he returned to local politics and was elected to the Illinois Supreme Court in 1990, where he served for ten years before retiring.

Michael Anthony Bilandic. (n.d.) Retrieved October 31, 2015 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Anthony_Bilandic.

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Democrat Janice “Jan” Schakowsky is the U.S. Representative for Illinois’ 9th congressional district. The 9th congressional district includes many of Chicago’s wealthy northern suburbs, as well as much of Chicago’s north side. Schakowsky has served in the position since 1999, and this button is from her first campaign. She easily won the Democratic primary in 1998, and went on to win the general election with 75% of the vote. Prior to running for Congress, Schakowsky served for eight years in the Illinois General Assembly. She holds a BA in Elementary Education from the University of Illinois. 

Schakowsky is considered one of the most progressive members in the US House of Representatives. She serves in the House’s Democratic leadership as the Chief Deputy Whip and is a Ranking Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Schakowsky is also a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and is the co-chair of the Congressional Caucus for Women’s Issues.