Alternating lenticular images of the first family leaving the White House with their two dogs and donkey and the Goldwaters arriving on an elephant with their luggage with white and black text on a bright blue background. 

Barry Goldwater was a U.S. Senator from Arizona and the Republican Party's nominee for president in the 1964 election. This button was made in anticipation of his winning the election but he lost in one of the biggest landslide victories in history by Lyndon B. Johnson.

Goldwater is the politician most often credited for sparking the resurgence of the American conservative political movement in the 1960s. He also had a substantial impact on the libertarian movement. In 1974, as an elder statesman of the party, Goldwater successfully urged President Richard Nixon to resign when evidence of a cover-up in the Watergate scandal became overwhelming and impeachment was imminent. The term "Goldwater moment" has subsequently been used to describe situations when influential members of Congress disagree so strongly with a president from their own party that they rise up and take a stand in opposition.

Stoplight encircled by black text over yellow background. 

This button was a campaign button for William G. Curtiss, a Democrat running for a seat in the US House of Representatives from the 13th C.D. of Illinois in 1922. Curtiss lost to John C. McKenzie, the incumbent Representative who was first elected in 1910 and was lost again to Republican Willaim Richard Johnson in 1924 and 1928.

William G Curtiss was a farmer educated in University of Illinois. In his lifetime, he was a school director and trustee and acted as the Secretary of the Country Farmers Institute. He also served as a Representative in the lower house of the Illinois General Assembly.

Black and white portrait of George Wharton Pepper between white text over blue background. 

George Wharton Pepper (1867-1961) was appointed as a Republican US Senator for Pennsylvania in 1922 after the death of the incumbent and ran for the same seat in the November election. His experience as a lawyer helped him mediate a major labor dispute and he argued a case in front of the US Supreme Court while in office. He also served on the Banking and Currency, Foreign Relations, Library of Congress, Military Affairs, and Naval Affairs committees. Pepper served Pennsylvania until March 1927, after losing in the 1926 Republican primary.  His papers are housed at the University of Pennsylvania's University Archive's and Records Center.  

Collaged boxer over black text over pink background. 

This button is a collage that comprises an image from an old book and black marker writing. This is a button designed at one of the Buttoneering events, in which the Busy Beaver Buttons Co. travels and makes buttons on the spot. This was a blank template button (____ for Obama) that Joel Carter, one of the collectors and button makers of the button museum, made for the 2008 presidential campaign. The Chicago Sun Times featured the button in the article “Unbuttoning a Tradition."

This button was manufactured by the Busy Beaver Button Co.

Jugate of black and white circular portraits of Charlene A. Mitchell and Michael Zagarell surrounded by white text over red background. 

End War & Racism Vote Communism was the 1968 campaign slogan for Charlene A. Mitchell and Michael Zagarell, the Communist Party USA's candidates for president and vice president. Zagarell, only 23 years old and below the constitutionally required age to run for office, was the Communist Party's National Youth Director. Mitchell, born in Cincinnati, OH and raised in Chicago, IL, was the first African-American woman to run for US President. 

It was the first time since 1940 that the Communist Party of USA had nominees for president and vice president. They earned 1,075 votes nationwide despite being on the ballot in only two states—one of which was Minnesota. There, the candidates, the Communist Parties of America and Minnesota, and the Minnesota voters sued for the candidates' names to be entered onto the ballot. The Minnesota Secretary of State denied the candidates from appearing on the ballot under the Federal Communist Control Act of 1954. The case was then brought to the US District Court in an attempt to not only gain entry on the ballot for the candidates, but also to invalidate the 1954 act. The court ruled that the two were to be placed on the ballot, but did not make a ruling about the 1954 Act. The case was eventually brought before the US Supreme Court, which ruled that the case had not followed the proper legal channels and since the election had passed they, too, saw no reason to invalidate the 1954 Act and dismissed the case.

Jugate featuring Bart Simpson and black white photo of politician below yellow text over black background. 

This button references politician Dan Quayle during his 1992 run alongside George H.W. Bush. Despite other Republicans pushing for George H.W. Bush to replace Dan Quayle with a different running mate, Quayle successfully secured re-nomination. After democrat Bill Clinton and his running mate Al Gore won the election, Quayle continued his poilitical career. He entered the 2000 election race but later withdrew to suport George Bush.

Dan Quayle is infamously remembered for the fact that he once corrected a girl’s spelling of “potato” to “potatoe” during a spelling bee. 

Red and blue text over white background. 

Richard Nixon and Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. ran as the Republican presidential ticket for the 1960 presidential election against John F. Kennedy. This was Nixon’s first run to become President after serving as Vice President under Dwight D. Eisenhower. The 1960 election was the first year the presidential debates were televised. For the first time, a candidate’s appearance was critically judged along with their policy. Those listening to the debates on the radio thought Nixon won because he was a great orator; however, those watching the television thought Kennedy won as Nixon looked sickly and pale compared to Kennedy’s youthful, photogenic appearance. Nixon and Lodge lost the election by a narrow margin.

A white button with black text features an illustration of Ronald Reagan smiling

This button was manufactured by a group expressing their opposition to the reelection campaign of Republican President Ronald Reagan in 1984. Reagan won the 1980 presidential election in a landslide against incumbent president Jimmy Carter, and went on to win the 1984 election with his two-time running mate George H.W Bush. A former film star and governor of California, Reagan made his political stance clear in his 1981 inaugural address with his statement, "government is not the solution to our problems: government is the problem." Key policies of the Reagan years include massive tax cuts, large withdraws of government oversight and regulation, an increase in military spending, and the escalation of the Cold War. 

Red, white, and blue text in the shape of an American Flag over blue background. 

Michael Dukakis (1933- ) ran as the Democratic Party's nominee for US President in 1988. Dukakis was then Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (1975-1991) and had previously been state representative for the Commonwealth's Norfolk District (1963-1971). His father immigrated from Turkey in 1912 and settled in Lowell, Massachusetts. His mother's family was from Greece and settled in Haverhill, twenty miles downstream on the Merrimack River, in 1913. At the time both Massachusetts cities were centers for the textile industry and first US cities for many immigrants. Dukakis graduated from Brookline (Massachusetts) High School, then Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, before serving in the US Army from 1955 to 1957. After the Army, Dukakis attended Harvard Law School, and graduated in 1960.

His 1988 presidential bid was based around the "Massachusetts Miracle," in which the Commonwealth experienced a strong economic uptick after two generations of de-industrialization and unemployment, especially in the cities along the Merrimack River.  The idea was that Dukakis could do for the nation what he had done for Massachusetts.  Unfortunately, for Dukakis, then US Vice President, Republican George H. W. Bush (1924- ) painted a picture of Dukakis not as a leader and reformer but as someone who would be soft on crime and uneducated on foreign policy.  The America public agreed.  Dukakis faced Bush election and lost by a margin of 426 Electoral College votes to 111.

Alternating images of black text on white background and white text on black background. 

This flasher button was used in the 1956 election to promote the Democratic candidate Adlai Stevenson II.  Stevenson was the 31st Governor of Illinois and received the Democratic Party's nomination for President in 1952 even though he had not campaigned in the primaries; he was again nominated in 1956, but was defeated in a landslide by war hero Dwight D. Eisenhower in both elections.