Red and blue text on a white background

In 1964 Barry Goldwater campaigned against Lyndon B. Johnson in the presidential election. Goldwater, a Republican from Arizona, who was known for his aggressive campaigning technique, tried to attract voters by warning against the evils of communism and advocating a stepping up of the Vietnam War. However, Johnson won the election with 61% of the votes by launching a successful campaign labelling Goldwater as a political extremist. Goldwater returned to politics afterwards, and was elected to the Senate again.

The issue of the voting age was increasingly in the spotlight as the Vietnam War continued. Many opposed the policy of drafting men at 18 years of age who were not yet old enough to vote, since the voting age was 21. Protesters argued that men should not have to protect and die for their country if they had no say in the direction of the war. In 1971 the 26^th Amendment was ratified by President Nixon, lowering the voting age to 18.

United States Presidential Election, 1964. (n.d.). Retrieved November 10, 2015 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1964.

Voting Age. (n.d.). Retrieved November 10, 2015 from: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voting_age.

Red text and blue illustration of an animal, with two blue and one red star on a white background within a thin blue circle

Red text along the top edge and white text on blue background along the bottom edge withe a black and white photograph of a man's head and shoulders in the center

This button is for Lyndon Johnson's campaign for president in 1964. Johnson had succeeded to the presidency after John F. Kennedy's assassination in 1963. Johnson ran with Hubert H. Humphrey as his running mate against Republicans Barry Goldwater and William E. Miller. On September 7, 1964, Johnson's campaign broadcast the "Daisy ad," which portrayed a little girl picking petals from a daisy, counting to 10 until a nuclear bomb exploded, suggesting that Goldwater's election might lead to nuclear war. Johnson won the election with a 61% majority. Although he was able to run again in 1968, he did not pursue a reelection campaign, citing ailing health as his reason.  

Lyndon Baines Johnson served in the House of Representatives from 1937-1949 and as U.S. Senator from Texas from 1949-1961. During his presidency, he was known for his "War on Poverty" and support of healthcare and civil rights in his overall commitment to creating a "Great Society." Johnson supported passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964 and the Voting Rights Act in 1965. Yet he presided at a time of civil unrest and escalated American involvement in the Vietnam War. Due to this and concerns about his health, Johnson declined to run for a second term in 1968.

Black and white photograph of a man's head and shoulders wearing a suit

Anti-Nixon buttons began to surface when Richard Nixon ran for President of the United States in 1960 election against Democratic nominee, John F. Kennedy, which Nixon lost by a narrow 0.2% of the popular vote.  By the 1968 election, Nixon had decided to run again as the Republican candidate against Democratic nominee, Hubert Humphrey, President Johnson's Vice President.  Nixon went on to win the election, becoming the 37th President of the United States.  In 1972, he ran for a second term as President, winning the election by a 60% margin of the popular vote, defeating Democratic candidate, George McGovern.  Due to the Watergate scandal that ensued during the following years, Nixon became the first President to resign from office, doing so in 1974.  

White text on a black background

Nobody for President was a satirical campaign that emerged during the 1976 United States Presidential election season. The purpose of the campaign was to highlight voter apathy, and to encourage people to register to vote, even if they didn’t necessarily support either major party candidate. It is believed that Wavy Gravy, a peace activist best known as the emcee of Woodstock and as the Grateful Dead’s resident “clown”, initially nominated Nobody for President at a Youth International Party (Yippie) rally which occurred outside of the 1976 Republican National Convention in Kansas City. The Nobody for President movement offered suggestions to counter voter apathy, including providing a None of the Above option on ballots, declaring Election Day a national holiday, and tying election participation to jury duty.

Read more about the history of voting and political buttons on the Busy Beaver blog.

White background with a red outer edge and blue and white photographs of three men's heads over red and blue text

This button represents the 1965 United Steelworkers Union presidential and vice presidential elections.  In 1965 incumbent president, David McDonald was seeking his fourth term in office as president of the third largest union in America.  United Steelworkers Secretary, I.W. Abel was running against McDonald.  Howard Hague was seeking re election as Union vice president.

Blue text on white horizontal stripe between two blue half-circles

This button was for William Howard Taft's campaign for U.S. president in 1908 or 1912. Taft served as President Theodore Roosevelt's secretary of war from 1904-1908. Having pledged not to run for a third term, Roosevelt groomed Taft as his successor. Taft and his running mate, James S. Sherman, won with 321 electoral votes to 162 for William Jennings Bryan and John Kern. Taft ran for re-election in 1912, but lost to Woodrow Wilson.

Taft was born in Ohio in 1857 and attended Yale University and Cincinnati Law School. He was Solicitor General of the United States under President Benjamin Harrison, Governor-General of the Philippines under President William McKinley and Provisional Governor of Cuba under President Theodore Roosevelt. In 1921, President Warren G. Harding appointed Taft to the Supreme Court as Chief Justice of the United States, a position he held until 1930. Taft remains the only person to have held the office of both U.S. president and chief justice of the Supreme Court. On April 14, 1910, Taft became the first president to throw out the ceremonial first pitch at a major league baseball game, a tradition that continues to this day.

Blue text and thin red stripes on white horizontal stripe between blue half-circles

Illustration of a rainbow over white text on a black background

In 1972 George McGovern launched his presidential campaign. The Democratic Senator from South Dakota promised voters that he would end the Vietnam War and decrease the military budget in order to fix the economy. McGovern, whose campaign assistants included future president Bill Clinton, was also in favor of equal rights for women and the LGBT community, inspiring this button. Against McGovern was Richard Nixon, whose aides were later discovered to have stolen information from McGovern's campaign during the Watergate Scandal. Nixon ended up winning the election with 60% of the votes, and Mcgovern returned to politics to advocate for those in need.

George McGovern Presidential Campaign 1972. (n.d.). Retrieved November 10, 2015 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_McGovern_presidential_campaign,_1972.

Illustration of a brown peanut with arms and legs and hair, holding an American flag in the center of the button with red text on the top edge and blue on the bottom

This button comes from Jimmy Carter’s 1976 campaign for the presidency. Carter was originally a peanut farmer from Georgia, and served as the state’s senator and later as governor during the 1960s and 1970s. When he campaigned for the presidency against standing president Gerald Ford, Carter was unknown to voters, which turned out to be an asset since he was distanced from the Watergate scandal that ended Nixon’s term. Carter appealed to average voters by advertising his former job as a peanut farmer and being interviewed by popular magazines like Playboy. Carter won the election with 50.1% of the votes, and as president escalated the Cold War, pardoned Vietnam War draft evaders, and signed the Camp David Accords. After his presidency, he set up the Carter Center in 1982, a human rights advocacy organization, for which he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.

Jimmy Carter. (n.d.). Retrieved November 8, 2015 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Carter.