Remembering That Campaigns Used to Be - and Still Can Be - Fun
How historic nature of presidential campaign will affect 2024 campaign button collectors
It’s been a rough presidential campaign so far. As the final stretch in the general election rapidly approaches, it promises to get rougher.
With the “dog days of summer” still upon us, I thought it would be good time to pause, just a moment, and remind ourselves that hard fought political campaigns used to be - and still can be - at least a little bit fun.
While we no longer have marching bands and torch lit parades, part of the fun that remains is the brightly colored, sometimes clever, political buttons campaigns often distribute.
My guess is that Iowa has as many or more campaign button accumulations in closets, dresser or desk drawers - if not actual collections - as any state in the union. The long Iowa Caucuses campaigns that have taken place in the state since the early 1970s have given Iowans ample opportunities to not only meet the candidates, but collect - or at least accumulate -their campaign buttons.
This past week, I wanted to learn more about what the historic nature of the 2024 presidential election would be on such campaign memorabilia. I traveled to the national convention of the American Political Items Collectors (APIC) organization which was meeting in Pennsylvania to find out. I wanted to learn from the experts what kind of political buttons are the most collectible, and how the history saturating this year’s contest might affect that.
APIC is a national organization of people who collect political memorabilia, as its name suggests. They come from all walks of life, as do voters - professionals, blue collar, farm workers, small businessmen and women, entrepreneurs, men, women, etc. Mostly they collect political buttons, but they also collect a wide range of historical items: buttons, posters, books, printed party platforms, tickets to significant political events, etc. APIC members are students of political history, and gatherers and preservers of political artifacts reaching back to the beginning of political campaigns in America.
They do America a great favor in helping to preserve and showcase its history. They have fun doing it, too.
I should add they attract members from all political views and rigorously avoid taking sides in their convention conversations about current political races. I heard far more conversations about Teddy Roosevelt’s 1904 campaign than the contest between Vice President Harris and Donald Trump in 2024.
They get, ask, and answer a wide range of questions in pursuit of their hobby, which makes them a pretty good place to go for an assessment of what political campaign buttons - widely available from most presidential campaigns for free or a nominal donation - will be most collectible from this year.
Tony Lee, APIC’s new National President , said the most frequent question he gets asked is whether President Joe Biden’s 2024 campaign buttons became more collectible when he dropped out of the race. Yes, but only slightly is his answer.
What makes Biden’s 2024 campaign buttons more collectible isn’t so much the fact that he dropped out, Lee says, but that his buttons will be manufactured in much smaller quantities than they would have been had he finished the race.
Available quantity.
We’'ll hear that word again in this discussion, as it seems to be a recurring consideration.
Historic significance of the candidate.
A candidate breaking barriers is a candidate making history. Doing so is also a factor that increases collectibility. Both candidates have some “buzz” on that front, but, in my view, Vice President Harris seems to have more of it.
“You have the first African-American/Indian American running for president in this race,” Lee said. “ Like Barrack Obama in 2008, there is going to be a special interest in items produced for her campaign. Interest will continue well beyond this election, for years to come because of the importance of her running for president.”
I would add that Donald Trump also carries some “history making” buzz. If elected he would be the first former president to be elected, defeated and then elected again since President Grover Cleveland in the late 19th century. He would also be the first twice-impeached president returned to office and the first candidate carrying 34 felony convictions to be elected to the office should he prevail.
Specific dates and events.
Ted Hake, the founder of Hake’s Americana - one of the political button collecting hobby’s largest auction houses and most authoritative sources on political buttons and other Americana - says collecting buttons tied to specific events, dates and places is a good bet. “The more focused an object is, the better chance it has of becoming a rarity and not something everybody else has.”
“Take a Trump button with his picture on it. Then there are the buttons that were sold at Butler on the day of the assassination attempt, with the date on it. It’s those dated things, used for a very specific purpose, with the very specific location - and were made in very small quantities - that have the potential to be worth something down the road.”
Early Career buttons
Richard Leavey, an APIC member said interest has spiked in buttons from Minnesota Governor Tim Walz’s early career, congressional and gubernatorial races. “Nobody was collecting him before,” Leavey noted. Interest in those items “has suddenly sky-rocketed.”
Note to northern Iowans who get the “buton bug.” Check the flea markets and. yard sales in sourthern Minnesota.
“Harris for DA;” “Harris for AG;” or “Harris for Senate” early career or “pre-presidential” buttons would be another example of buttons to look for in this category, but unless you are in California, its going to be hard to find them, and they certainly won’t have them at your local Harris-Walz campaign headquarters.
Inspires or Ignites Passion
Passion - for or against a candidate - certainly boosts the collectibility of their buttons, according to David Lindeman. He’s in charge of political and historical auctions for Anderson Americana, another leading and authoritative auction house in the hobby. Items from the campaigns of presidents with “fanatical followers” - one way or the other - do well over time, Lindeman says. He cites John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan and because of his historical significance, Barrack Obama, as examples.
“Look for the person who generates that energy, positive or negative, those are the ones that last.” He cites Donald Trump as a classic example. “He’s that guy in this race. People either hate him or love him,” Lindeman said. As a result, while political memorabilia from most presidents decline once they leave office, Trump’s items “have not lost a lot of value.”
Winning.
Everyone I talked with at the convention agrees that winning the presidency makes a candidate’s buttons far more collectible than losing the race. With the outcome of the race undetermined, and with only one winner possible, Harris and Trump score equally high on that measure, at least until Election Day when one of them will win and the other will lose.
Collecting tip. Pick the winner. Or cover your bets and get a button from each. Buttons aren’t cheap, though, so if you are picking up a button from a candidate you don’t support, do leave at least a small contribution.
Negative anti-candidate buttons
Anti-candidate buttons are also highly collectible the experts agreed. “Some are dirty. Some are clever and funny. They are all collectible,” APIC member Leavey said.
Examples of anti-candidate buttons are plentiful throughout history. As far as collectibility is concerned, “the nastier the better,” Hake added.
Clearly negative campaign attacks are not a recent invention and have been with us since the beginning. The buttons prove it.
The winning combination for boosting the collectability of political buttons seems to be to find a candidate (a) who has historic significance; (b) who is first to break a barrier; (c) who inspires or ignites passion among followers and/or opponents; (d) who distributes buttons that are manufactured in limited quantities, such as for specific events or specific dates; (e) who has some obtainable “early career” buttons out there and (e) who wins.
There seems to be plenty of all that in the 2024 presidential race.
How do you get started collecting campaign buttons? A good way is to simply get involved in political campaigns in your area. The campaigns - especially this year with the stakes so high - are very welcoming and will often give you a button to wear as you do your volunteer work with them.
That campaign button won’t make you or your grandkids rich, but it will preserve your personal connection with the most important election in a lifetime; it can become an important future family heirloom; and you can have a lot of fun and do your duty as a citizen in our democracy in the process.
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