landon knox

Rarest of political buttons, the Landon Knox sunflower state button from the 1936 Presidential election

 

LANDON KNOX 1936

One of the earliest and rarest political buttons, from the most lopsided, landslide victory of Franklin Roosevelt over Alf Landon in 1936.  Landon was from Kansas, thus the unique felt sunflower backing.   By winning 523 electoral vote,  Roosevelt received 98.49% of the electoral vote, the highest percentage since 1820. (Wikepedia). The above botton was enlarged 8x for clarity.

The United States presidential election of 1936 was the most lopsided presidential election in the history of the United States in terms of electoral votes. In terms of the popular vote, it was the third biggest victory since the election of 1820, which was not seriously contested. The election took place as the Great Depression entered its eighth year. Incumbent President Franklin D. Roosevelt was still working to push the provisions of his New Deal economic policy through Congress and the courts. However, the New Deal policies he had already enacted, such as Social Securityand unemployment benefits, had proven to be highly popular with most Americans. Roosevelt’s Republican opponent was Governor Alf Landon of Kansas, a political moderate.Although some political pundits predicted a close race, Roosevelt went on to win the greatest electoral landslide since the beginning of the current two-party system in the 1850s, carrying all but 8 electoral votes. Roosevelt carried every state except Maine and Vermont.

But, not everyone liked Roosevelt as we see below…

 

anti Roosevelt

HISTORICAL POLITICAL BUTTONS – ANTI

ROOSEVELT 

FDR was one of the most popular, successful US Presidents, but he wasn’t without his detractors, witnessed by these buttons circa 1940s

 

   fifties-ike-nixon-etc-buttons

‘I LIKE IKE,’ ‘Nixon’s The One,’ Kennedy-Johnson, Scranton for President, Viva Kennedy (Robert Kennedy for President), Ike and Dick, Draft Lodge, etc…

Slogans were more popular in the  50s and early 60s..  ‘I Like Ike  was the biggie… I can even remember as a young boy seeing the  slogan on buttons and stickers everywhere. .  ‘I’m the Guy Who Put the Oaks in Oakland’  not sure about – Can anyone shed any light on that, probably a guy running for mayor  trying to take credit for the popular minor league baseball team…

The smaller buttons were free back then and I started collecting during the Goldwater-Johnson campaign and picked up a lot of earlier ones  and later ones along the way.   It was when I was working at Dad’s ‘Coit Ramsey’ hotel in Oakland that I met a very nice man, Mr. Westergreen. who I believe gave me the ‘Landon Knox’ button along with an original photo of Amelia Earhardt’s last haircut at the Hollywood Barber Shop in Oakland , among other things…

Rarest of political buttons, the Landon Knox sunflower state button from the 1936 Presidential election