Red and blue text on white background.  Red stripe running underneath "Emanuel" and a blue star next to "Democrat For U.S. Congress".

The button pictured above was either manufactured in support of Rahm Emanuel's 2002 or 2006 bid for the 5th District Illinois House seat. Former investment banker and Clinton staffer from the mid-to-late 1990s, Emanuel jumped head first into Illinois politics when he ran as a Democrat for the 5th District House seat in 2002. The seat was formerly held by now-disgraced politician, Rod Blagojevich, who in that year successfully ran for Governor of Illinois. Emanuel's inaugural election in 2002 was the closest he had ever had, winning every election thereafter by increasingly wider margins. During his tenure in the House, Emanuel had progressively entrenched himself within the base of the Democratic Party, eventually assuming chairmanship of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) in 2006.

Upon President Obama's inauguration in 2008, Emanuel was chosen as the administration's Chief of Staff. In 2010, Emanuel announced his plans to resign as the White House's Chief of Staff in order to campaign for mayor of Chicago. Emanuel was elected as the 55th Mayor of Chicago with 55% of the vote, and was sworn in on May 11, 2011. 

This button was manufactured by the Busy Beaver Button Co.

White text on red and blue borders.  Image/photograph of Jimmy Carter pulling a peanut cart.  Black text on yellow cloud near Carter's head.

This light-hearted caricature of Jimmy Carter pokes fun at his humble beginnings as a son to a peanut farmer in rural Georgia. Produced in support of his 1976 campaign for presidency, the button helped reinforce the Washington "outsider" image Carter sought to cultivate amongst voters. It appealed to the majority of Americans—many of whom felt disillusioned and skeptical about national politics amidst the aftermath of Watergate.

Carter narrowly won the election against incumbent Gerald Ford. His relative anonymity before the campaign, untainted political image, and humble beginnings helped catapult him to the White House in 1976.

Red and black text on white background .  Red stars surrounding an image of a peanut with Jimmy Carter's teeth imposed on the image. 

In the wake of the Watergate scandal and Nixon's resignation, Jimmy Carter's Washington 'outsider' image caught the eye of disillusioned voters who were fed up with the politics 'as usual' mentality corroding Capital Hill. Nixon's successor, Gerald Ford, a rather uncharismatic and aloof president, came out of the Republican primaries bloody and beaten, and nearly twenty points behind Carter in the polls. Much of this was due to the strength of west-coast conservative firebrand, Ronald Reagan.

Part of Carter's success in the 1976 election can be attributed to the effectiveness of his grassroots campaign. The "Peanut Brigade," a group of volunteers, friends, and other Carter supporters from Georgia, led his campaign to a string of victories throughout the primaries, including an important win over George Wallace, an arch-segregationist and former governor of Alabama. In the end, the election was close—Ford closed the lead Carter had once enjoyed in August, but the latter came out on top, becoming the 39th president of the United States. As historian Douglas Brinkley once observed, "It was the right message at the right time. And it didn't happen by accident. Carter created that message, knowing that that's what would win the day."

A lenticular image with bold red text and a photograph of Hubert Humphrey above black text on a blue background.

Hubert Horatio Humphrey, Jr (H.H.H.) served as the 38th Vice President under President Lyndon B. Johnson, from 1965 to 1969. Humphrey began the 1968 presidential campaign as Johnson’s running mate, but when it appeared that primary would not end in Johnson’s favor, Humphrey challenged Johnson for the Democratic ticket. Humphrey won the nomination however, President Nixon eventually won the general election.  

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.