Skip to Main Content

Election Day Resources: 2024 in context

Rare and Distinctive Collections

rad@colorado.edu

Website

Classroom: Norlin N345

Reading Room: Norlin M350B

Understanding 2024

The 2024 election has already taken some surprising turns; who’s to say what else it might have in store for us? While no two elections are precisely the same (even between the same candidates), we can look to history to see how elections with similar characteristics have played out.

President-elect Dwight D. Eisenhower addresses reporters during his visit to the White House. Also with him is Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. (center left, in pinstripe suit) and Joseph Dodge (center, behind Lodge's shoulder). All others are unidentified. Credit: Photographer: Abbie Rowe National Park Service. This item was produced or created on November 18, 1952.

In March of 1952, President Truman announced he would not campaign for reelection for another term. An incumbent president had been on every ballot since 1928, but not in this election. The recently-passed 22nd Amendment to the Constitution meant he would be the last president eligible to run for a third term in office. Senator Ester Kefauver emerged as an early favorite to win the Democratic nomination, but pressure from party leadership resulted in the eventual nomination of Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson for President, with Senator John Sparkman as his running mate. General Dwight D. Eisenhower and Senator Richard Nixon were nominated by the Republican Party, and they ultimately won, the first Republican presidential administration in 20 years.

1952 Presidential Election

Delegates and the Stage at the 1968 Democratic National Convention

The 1968 Democratic National Convention was held in Chicago, Illinois, after incumbent President Lyndon B. Johnson announced that he would not seek reelection. The convention is famous for strong dissent among party members; competing groups of delegates from several states attempted to be seated for the convention, and the less racially diverse groups were selected to represent the states. Vice President Hubert Humphrey and Senator Eugene McCarthy were the leading candidates for the nomination, following the assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy earlier in the year. The delegates Kennedy had won before his death were uncommitted, and coveted by both Humphrey and McCarthy's campaigns. Clashes between the police/National Guard and protestors were also frequent, and broadcast on national television.

1968 Presidential Election

A photo of the U.S. Capitol Building by Unsplash user https://unsplash.com/@angelvela

If the COVID-19 pandemic is the most consequential event surrounding the 2020 election, the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. capitol is almost certainly the next-most significant. Months of legal challenges to the 2020 election results occurred, and public rejections by President Trump and other figures (via social media, and other methods) of those results accompanied them. During the electoral vote count on January 6, a crowd assaulted the Capitol building and breached it, with the intent of preventing the vote count, and the future transfer of power to a new administration. Members of Congress were evacuated; injuries and fatalities were suffered both among those in the crowd, and law enforcement officers who responded to the riot.

2020 Presidential Election