Black text on a gold and white lenticular background. The gold "gears" seem to mesh and move with each other when looked at from different perspectives.

This interesting button has the chemical equation for Goldwater and shows gold "gears" in motion. Barry Morris Goldwater (1909-1998) was a 5 term US Senator from Arizona and the Republican Party's nomination for the 1964 Presidential election. He lost the election to Lyndon B. Johnson, but remained active in politics, retiring in 1987.

Photograph for Jesse Jackson centered on a yellow background above a white rectangle with black and blue text.

Jesse Jackson is a civil rights activist, Baptist minister, and politician. Jackson ran for president on the Democratic ticket in both 1984 and 1988, making him the first African American man to make a serious bid for the U.S. presidency. He received 6.7 million votes in the 1988 primary, however Michael Dukakis won the Democratic nomination. 

Black and white text on a red, white, and blue background.

Designed for the undecided voters of the 1976 presidential election, this button underscores the derisiveness permeating the 1976 election. Voters had to choose between a relative unknown, a Democratic candidate from Georgia by the name of Jimmy Carter, or the seemingly awkward incumbent Gerald Ford. In the end, the American people chose Carter. His modest upbringing on a Georgia peanut farm, for many at least, had been a welcome change. The majority of Americans had simply become disillusioned with the perceived ruthlessness and callousness of Capital Hill insiders amidst the aftermath of Watergate.

Globe containing gold flakes (originally suspended in liquid) on the center of the button with blue text and white background.

Barry Goldwater unsuccessfully ran in the 1964 presidential election against incumbent Lyndon B. Johnson, who took over after John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Johnson was still positively associated with Kennedy's popularity and won 61.1% of the popular vote, the highest margin since 1820.

Black text reading on white background and white text on a blue banner underneath a photograph of a man in a suit.  Blue stars to the left and right of the photograph.  Red stars underneath blue banner.

Barry Goldwater was a Republican Senator from Arizona most known for his alignment with the labor-union reform and anti-communism movements. He stepped down from the Senate in 1964 to run for President of the United States. Goldwater won a very difficult Republican primary while opposing the Civil Rights Act of 1964, but Lyndon Johnson won the presidential election by a landslide. Goldwater won only six states in the general election.  Goldwater fought to help stop communism from spreading throughout the globe. He was also a supporter of the conservative coalition which led to Congress passing new reform in 1957 against anti-corruption. Many of his opponents in the primary elections tried to covey Goldwater as an extremist with his conservative views, though his voting record proved to be in line with other members of the Republican party.

Photo portrait of Jimmy Carter in a gold frame with blue image of the US Capitol Building and blue and white text on an American flag 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.

Bold, dark blue text printed abvove an illustration of a burst of red color on a light blue backgound.

State Senator James Devitt represented the 28th district of Wisconsin from 1969 to 1976. Before entering politics he was a partner in a real estate development firm and the director of the Bank of Greenfield. Devitt then served two years in the Wisconsin Assembly before he was elected as State Senator. In an ugly 1972 campaign against Democrat Robert Hoskins, Devitt was accused of charging nearly 850 personal calls to his office during one month in 1971.

Black and white photograph of Dan Quayle with white text above and below on a red background.

During his time as vice president, Dan Quayle was ridiculed for his perceived incompetence and his confusing and humourous public statements. A tongue-in-cheek organization called the "President's Prayer Club" sold T-shirts and buttons with the motto "Keep George Healthy", warning that Quayle would have been the next in line for the presidency if George H.W. Bush could no longer hold the office. In 1990, the second year of Quayle's vice presidency, the Center for Media and Public Affairs reported that he became the subject of the most late-night talk show jokes.

Blue text with black shadow on an orange and yellow striped background.

This button references New York Senator Jacob Koppel "Jack" Javits, who served in the United States Senate from 1957 to 1981. Javits, a liberal-minded Republican, supported monumental legislation while in the Senate, such as the 1957 Civil Rights Act and Lyndon Johnsons' "Great Society" programs. Although he initially supported the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, by 1967, he denounced the Vietnam War, calling for a peaceful resolution. Javits served in the Senate until his 1980 loss against Democrat challenger, Alfonse D'Amato. Javits died of ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) at the age of 81 in March, 1986.

Photograph of candidate's face within a red and black circle above an American flag illustration.  

This is possibly a memorial button for Nelson Rockefeller, the 41st Vice President of the United States (1974–1977) under President Gerald Ford. He was a member of the wealth Rockefeller family, a businessman and philanthropist. Rockefeller sought Republican Presidential Nomination unsuccessfully in 1960, 1964, and 1968 and became Vice President after Richard Nixon's resignation in the wake of Watergate Scandal. During his political career, he was progressive, liberal and moderate, and thus, the Liberals in the Republican Party were called "Rockefeller Republicans" in his time.