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.

Blue image of "The Scream" next to white and red text over red, white, and blue striped background. 

This is an unofficial anti-Bob Dole button. An image that looks hauntingly close to Edvard Munch's painting The Scream humorously hints at the fear some people felt about a potential President Dole. Robert (Bob) Joseph Dole was the Republican candidate during the 1996 US Presidential election. Dole ran against, and lost to, incumbent Democrat Bill Clinton. Dole received 159 electoral votes, while Clinton received 379.

Dole was born in Russell, Kansas and served in the US Army during World War II. He began his political career shortly after the war, in 1950, when he was elected to the Kansas State Legislature. He served only two years in the state legislature, and then serverd as the Russell County Attorney. In 1960, he was elected to the US House of Representatives. In 1969, Dole became a US Sentator for Kansas, an office he held until 1996 when he ran for US President.

White background with blue text at the top and bottom edges of the button and an american flag in the center.

Frank Annunzio (1915-2001) was a US Representative for Chicago, Illinois's 7th and 11th Congressional Districts, 1965-1973 and 1973-1993 respectively.  This button dates from Annunzio's 1972 election bid for the 11th District.  Annunzio used the slogan "Your Voice in Congress" in at least one other election (1976).  He was born, raised, educated, and worked in Chicago until entering federal civil service as the War Ration Board Chairman during the WWII.  After the war, he returned to Springfield, Illinois and served on the Illinois Industrial Commission on Health and Safety and the Committee on Unemployment Compensation and as Secretary of Labor.  He championed working class causes throughout his political career, especially consumer rights in housing, banking, and finance.  He was well-respected in Italian-American communities and was responsible for having Columbus Day declared a national holiday.

In 2009, another Frank Annunzio ran for Illinois's 5th Congressional District and used the slogan "Your Voice in Congress" in an answer during a candidates forum.

White text on half red, half blue background with a slanted white stripe across the middle.

Dwight D. Eisenhower (Ike) ran as the Republican candidate in the 1952 US presidential election, with Richard Nixon (Dick) on the ticket as the vice presidential candidate. Eisenhower and Nixon won the election and served two terms in office, from 1953 through 1961. Democrats initially wanted to nominate Eisenhower as their candidate, however he instead chose to run for the Republican Party nomination. 

Black and white portrait of Jimmy Carter luxuriously surrounded by yellow ribbons, cascading American flag, and topped with an eagle. Red text below portrait over blue background. 

James "Jimmy" Earl Carter ran against incumbent Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr. in the 1976 US Presidential election. Carter's running mate was US Sentator from Minnesota, Walter Mondale. Ford stuck with his vice president, Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller.  Carter and Mondale received 50.1% to Ford and Rockefeller's 48% of the popular vote. The electoral votes were not so close with 297 going to Carter and Mondale, 240 for Ford and Rockefeller, and 1 vote from Washington State going to Ronald Reagan.

When Carter was elected, he became the first Democrat from the US South to be elected to the office since before the Civil War. During his single term, Carter established the Department of Education and the Department of Energy. His presidential legacy is often overshadowed by economic and international relations problems, culminating with the USSR's invasion of Afghanistan beginning in 1979 and the Iran Hostage Crisis from 1979-1981. Carter lost to Ronald Reagan in the 1980 election by a margin of 440 electoral votes.

Black and white illustration of Jimmy Carter over an American flag above black text over white background. 

When James "Jimmy" Earl Carter began his campaign for US President, he was a litle known Southern Democrat from Plains, Georgia. Carter had state experience with two terms as a state legislator from 1962-1966, and one as governor from 1971-1975, but his name lacked recognition outside Georgia. After being selected as the Democratic National Committee's mid-term election leader, his popularity grew within the party. He gained a reputation as an ethical, down-to-earth Washington D.C. outsider, and Americans came to view him as the peanut farmer from Georgia who could set the country straight in the aftermath of Watergate and the Vietnam War.  

Carter was selected as the Democratic candidate in the 1976 presidential election and ran against incumbent Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr. Carter's running mate was a US Sentator from Minnesota, Walter Mondale. Carter and Mondale emerged victorious, receiving 50.1% of the popular vote and 297 electoral votes. 

Photograph of Bill Clinton playing the saxaphone next to white text over red and blue striped background. 

This button endearingly pokes fun at Bill Clinton, 42nd President of the United States. The picture on the button was the famous picture of Clinton playing his saxophone on Arsenio Hall Show in 1992, during the election. As the first Baby Boomer Presidential candidate, Clinton's youthfulness and jazz-playing grooviness were identified with by the large voter population who grew up in the 60s and 70s and thus led to Clinton's defeat of the incumbent President George H. W. Bush in 1993. 

Black and yellow text over black and yellow background. 

This is a satirical button that served to attack Bill Clinton's credibility in his 1996 election. The message of the button was to align Bill Clinton with O.J. Simpson, an NFL football player famous for his controversial acquittal in the murder case of his wife in 1994. Bill Clinton was the incumbent President at the time and managed to proceed and win the election.