Who Was Your First Presidential Vote - DU Poll

[Unknown Beatle]

Last edited Sat Nov 7, 2015, 03:37 PM - Edit history (3)

My first vote was for George McGovern for President, 1972. Damn Nixon won. I was really heartbroken.

Assuming everyone voted Democratic.

Edit: I tried to include Gore, Kerry and Obama but it has a limit of ten spaces.

Edited poll to delete Harry Truman and Adlai Stevenson and include Obama, Gore/Kerry. Again, since there's only ten spaces I had to double Gore and Kerry.

One vote for Truman by katmondoo. Great job, kat.

If you click on Show Usernames and it reads that katmondoo voted for Obama, that's false.

66 votes, 3 passes | Time left: Unlimited
	Obama
	1 (2%)
	Gore/Kerry
	0 (0%)
	John F. Kennedy
	2 (3%)
	Lyndon B. Johnson
	1 (2%)
	Hubert Humphrey
	1 (2%)
	George McGovern
	11 (17%)
	Jimmy Carter
	20 (30%)
	Walter Mondale
	8 (12%)
	Michael Dukakis
	8 (12%)
	Bill Clinton
	14 (21%)
	3 DU members did not wish to select any of the options provided.
Show usernames Disclaimer: This is an Internet poll

[bravenak]

1. You did not have Barack Obama. Mine is Barack Obama.

I feel left out.

[Unknown Beatle]

7. I tried add Obama but it's limited to ten spaces.

[bravenak]

10. Okay.

[CreekDog]

51. this poll is nonsense because of that now

jeez.

not even voting in your poll.

you could have figuered a way to group some candidates or something.

[LiberalArkie]

2. And you need to add "My first one is next year" for the ones just getting to 18 next year."

[Unknown Beatle]

13. The jury is still out on that one.

[stevebreeze]

3. Nixon, but I have learned a lot since then

A blamed Johnson for the war, and saw the racist Wallace as the Democratic party.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

4. Eldridge Cleaver, Peace & Freedom Party 1968

[dixiegrrrrl]

34. Taht IS going back aways....

I had forgotten he had run.

[ellenrr]

59. woo-hoo - me too. But I remember voting for David Frost of the same party...Maybe

he was vice-presidential candidate?

Or maybe he was running for Senate in my district.
Memory is vague.

But I do know it was Peace & Freedom Party 1968- the most - and last - exciting vote I ever cast.

[joeybee12]

5. Carter...the first time...

And of course his relection.

[ScreamingMeemie]

6. He's not on there because I was a dumb 18-year-old in 1988 who voted

based on name recognition alone. My next vote correct the situation.

[EL34x4]

12. I wrote in myself in 1988

It was the first election I was old enough to vote in.

I would vote for Bill Clinton in '92.

[ScreamingMeemie]

15. We are the same age. I did the same as you, sans the write in, hence the dumb.

[loyalsister]

41. I screwed up in '88, too

The first year I could vote and I didn't even register.

[valerief]

8. Now I know all your ages (approximately). nt

[ScreamingMeemie]

16. 45 (now you know exactly) and a hella lot smarter than I was at 18.

[valerief]

17. Damn, I wish I were 45 again! nt

[ScreamingMeemie]

22. Ahhhh... age is a number.

[DFW]

75. I was 45 once

Dinosaurs roamed the earth once, too


I own fossils of animals that used to be my house pets.

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

9. Some of us are too young to have voted for any of those presidents

And I'm not even all that young anymore... but I was still too young to vote for any of those guys and not alive for a bunch of them too.

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

11. It was either Gore or Kerry for me.

I can't remember if I voted for Gore or not. I was crazy busy with college at the time. I'm definitely sure I voted for Kerry. Obama is the first person I ever voted for that actually got elected president.

[Unknown Beatle]

19. I tried to include Gore, Kerry and Obama

but I was limited to ten spaces.

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

23. Oh OK. That makes sense.

No worries.

[hifiguy]

14. 1976 - James Earl Carter, Jr.and Walter F. Mondale

my home state senator at the time. Was very proud to cast that vote and even banged on doors for Grits and Fritz that campaign season.

[madinmaryland]

18. Huh? What about Al Gore, John Kerry, or Barack Obama?????

Or do you just want those voters to just get off your damn lawn??

[Unknown Beatle]

20. I tried to include Gore, Kerry and Obama

but it has a limit of ten. Nothing I could do about it.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

21. Ross Perot.

I wasn't a Clinton fan even that far back.

[LostOne4Ever]

24. Kerry

[font style="font-family:'Georgia','Baskerville Old Face','Helvetica',fantasy;" size=4 color=teal]Had I been born half a month sooner I would have been able to vote in the 2000 election.[/font]

[SteveG]

25. '72 McGovern -

A lot of Boomers cast their first vote between '66 and 80

[cyberswede]

26. McGovern, in 1st grade. He won my school. Yeah!

My first legal vote was Mondale. Living in Iowa, I got a chance to meet him - pretty cool.

I also got my photo in the paper talking to the Libertarian candidate at the time - he actually came to my Government class. I was 17, so naturally I asked him about legalizing drugs.

[1939]

69. 8th grade 1952 in Detroit

Our social studies class ran the school election. Very, very blue collar and labor union kids, but Eisenhower won (though the down ticket races were solidly Dem).

Our next door neighbor was part of a UAW "Flying Squad". When my father came home our neighbor was washing his car. My father said, "awful early to be home on election day" and the neighbor said "no use going out, Eisenhower has it". My first taste of electioneering.

[cyberswede]

71. I wish today's Republicans were like Eisenhower. nt

[maryellen99]

27. Bill Clinton 1992

[840high]

28. JFK was my first vote for president.

[brush]

29. Gus Hall in 1976

[Reter]

30. Bob Dole

Not all of us started as progressives.

[alcibiades_mystery]

31. Haha. H. Ross Perot

(C'mon. I was 18).

[beerandjesus]

89. He was right on NAFTA.

You could have done worse, for sure.

[Luciferous]

32. Kerry

[BKH70041]

33. Pat Paulsen

Just kidding.

Though I do know a handful of people who did.

[Blue_In_AK]

46. I attended a Pat Paulsen political rally in Denver in 1968.

That was some fun.

[BKH70041]

65. Presidential campaign slogan: "I've upped my standards. Now, up yours."

[LP2K12]

35. Bush

I know, I'm sorry. I was young, stupid and following my parents. My next vote went to Obama.

[jtbdad]

36. Don't shoot me.

Reagan

[tkmorris]

81. Care to share what you were thinking at the time?

I won't shoot you for it, but... .

[6000eliot]

37. Carter 1980

[DemocraticWing]

38. Obama. Wasn't old enough for Kerry although I was a fervent supporter.

I had Kerry stickers and shirts and buttons and tried to get everybody over 18 that I know to register and vote for him. It didn't work out too well.

We should have ended the war in 2004.

[melman]

39. Dukakis

[Fearless]

40. Obama.

[Spirochete]

42. George McGovern, 1972

I was 18, and they had just lowered the voting age to 18. I was glad to vote against Nixon - for all the good it did...

[DFW]

43. McGovern

I knew it was hopeless, but it was the only possible choice. I predicted BEFORE the election that Nixon would win and that he would not complete his second term. I never met Nixon but I despised him all the same. My dad knew him, but wasn't thrilled with him, either. He had to interact with Nixon on occasion because of his job, and that started back in the fifties. His opinion of Nixon did not improve over time.

In 2000, I predicted that Gore would win the election. He did. I did not predict that he would not take office.

In 2004, I predicted that Kerry would win the election and that Bush would remain in office. That one I got right on both counts.

[Unknown Beatle]

48. How many presidents have you met

and which ones are they?

[DFW]

56. In chronological order

LBJ
Gerry Ford
George Bush (Sr.)
Bill Clinton
Barack Obama

VP:
Hubert Humphrey
Nelson Rockefeller
Fritz Mondale
Bush (Sr.) again
Al Gore
Joe Biden

My dad knew way more than that, but that was part of his job.
I held out hope for a while that Howard would one day be among them, but alas, it is not to be.

[ellenrr]

60. I saw the queen once, in Canada. nt

[DFW]

62. Now THAT I have never done!

Only royalty I ever got close to was Albert King (he was pretty royal to me anyway!)

[ellenrr]

68. haha. that is tobacco, right? I was a child and my family was in Canada,

and there was a procession.
I remember when we drove to get there, for some reason some people thot we were part of the royal procession.
(I can't imagine why!)
They were rubber-necking us..
So my mother started regally waving her hand. lol
We joked about that forever.

[DFW]

70. I love stories like that

The one year of my life that I went to a boarding school, I hated it with a passion. Alumni included both generations of Bushes, so no one should have been surprised, but the place in the States I was going to before sucked, too--I lived in Spain for a while in the interim--in those days (I'm told it's better now, and Obama sent his daughters there), so I took the chance. oops.

But I got my revenge at graduation. To me, it was an insignificant prank, but to the all-important alumni and the class rah-rah jocks, it apparently was a serious scandal. Victory!! What happened was this: my brother, who was a student at a "rival" school across the state line, was at my graduation and was with me when we were all herded together for our class picture. He started trying to crawl over my classmates to get out of the group before the picture was taken. I stopped him and said, "why bother? Neither of us is ever coming back to this place." So he took his place next to me, and the school didn't even find out about it until months later that a ringer from their bitter rival was in my class graduation photo.

To some of the alumni and the school administration, this was the equivalent of Katrina hitting the ninth ward of New Orleans. Apparently it was a thorn in their side for years after, which delighted me to no end. Now, they keep writing me for contributions, and I keep writing them back that instead of pleasing the alumni that were dying off, they might have considered terrorizing the new kids a little less while they were there. I had a horrible time there, and if they were so concerned with alumni contributions from me, the time to address that was while I was there as a future alumnus, not trying to make amends 20, 30, 40 and 50 years later. But don't cry for them, Argentina. There were still enough Bush types in that class to keep them awash in alumni contributions without my meager participation.

[ellenrr]

72. scandal is good. :) nt

[DFW]

73. Scandal is especially gratifying

...when I perpetrate the scandal, and a bunch of pompous self-righteous asses in suits and bow ties are the ones scandalized.

By the way, though I never met JFK, his press secretary, Pierre Salinger, lived near us in Virginia, and for my 11th birthday, my dad got Salinger to get JFK to autograph a photo of himself and dedicate it to me personally in his hand. I still have that photo in the original frame I got with it in 1963.

[WinkyDink]

58. I've met Carter and Clinton. And Gore, the real elected Pres.

[Lyric]

44. Al Gore nt

[Xyzse]

67. -sigh- I wish I could say the same.

I learned a lot since then... You have no idea the amount of kicking myself I have done.
Granted, I am from MD, so Gore still had my area, but still...

I have been kicking myself since 2000.

[Blue_In_AK]

45. I could have voted for Hubert Humphrey,

but I was too pissed off about Chicago and everything else to participate in 1968 when I was 22. I had favored Eugene McCarthy, was really upset about the assassinations, and Chicago was simply the last straw for me politically that year. McGovern was thus my first in 1972.

[Hekate]

87. It was truly a horrible year that way. I remember it all too well.

I worked for Gene McCarthy too.

[davidpdx]

47. Mine was Clinton

I missed the 88' election by a bit over 7 months. Granted Dukakis got pummeled. Overall my "record" stands at 4-2.

[DFW]

83. My track record is way worse than yours.

I'm 5 for 11. Lost to Nixon once, Reagan twice, Bush Sr. once and Junior (well, with a little help from his friends) twice. I voted with the winner with Carter, Clinton twice and Obama twice. I never did have much in common with the "no difference" crowd.

I never got to vote for Howard Dean for president, unfortunately. Lost a candidate, kept a friend (doubt he would have had much time for me if he had been elected). I still wish he'd have made it to the Oval Office.

[davidpdx]

84. Yeah that was a bad time to come of age as a Democrat

Carter was the only shining start until Clinton. I remember watching the 1980 election on TV, I was only about 9. After that I watched the coverage of the presidential election (except 2004 when I was working).

[DFW]

96. I was living in Spain during the 1968 election.

I couldn't stand Nixon or Agnew. I was only 16, but I foresaw bad times ahead. Like I said before, in 1972, the first time I could vote in a presidential election, I predicted that Nixon would win but would be behind bars before the end of his second term(I did not foresee Ford pardoning him, but then, Agnew hadn't even resigned at that point).

During the 2008 election, I was asked by West German News Radio to be a guest on their all-night live coverage of election night. Because of the time difference, the show started at midnight and went through to 6 AM. Quite a marathon, but quite an experience, too. As no one in Europe expected Romney to have a ghost of a chance in 2012, I passed. Maybe again next year. After the 2008 radio show, at 6 AM I went to a nearby victory celebration of the Democrats Abroad in Köln and then went home (I'm about an hour north of there by car) exhausted, but happy.

[Hortensis]

49. Whoever voted to reelect Truman, good job! :)

[DFW]

74. Both my parents, and all four of theirs

I was less than a year old, and hadn't yet registered.....

[Hortensis]

76. I've read that the MSM, including some of the greatest names

of journalism (if not actually competent journalists) spent Truman's entire presidency telling the electorate he was completely incompetent.

Somehow they failed to kill him, with people like your folk observing for themselves.

[DFW]

78. My dad got his big break during Truman's presidency

That was the time his one-horse town paper decided to take a big risk and start a permanent Washington bureau with one correspondent: him, at age 28. My dad actually knew Truman's opponent, Gov. Dewey of New York, since his beat was the Albany state house before taking the Washington posting.

My one big success in the obligatory America History class in my senior year of high school was my oral report on the 1948 election, and I got kudos for my "research." Ha! Some research. My dad got me inside info directly from the author (a friend of his) of the definitive work on the 1948 election, called "Jumbos and Jackasses." I got to hear an election night tape of the nasty-voiced radio reporter who was reporting with great Schadenfreude that "Thomas E. Dewey has been elected president of the United States!" Oops. I cracked up my normally dour (and very British) history teacher by imitating the guy's voice using his exact words. The teacher had heard the original at the time, of course, and couldn't believe this 18 year old kid was accurately imitating a broadcast that happened before I was even born. No internet or podcasts in those days. You had to dig to hear that kind of thing in the original. Or have some Washington "Vitamin C."

[Hortensis]

80. Wonderful story, DFW. I just found an old "Jumbos and Jackasses"

on Amazon and ordered it. It sounds like it should be fun, or have some interesting stuff, anyway. 505 pages, not even including the title, "Jumbos and Jackasses: A Popular History of the Political Wars-Democratic Versus Republican Issues, Leaders, Compromises, Achievements, Balloons and Brickbats." Thanks.

[DFW]

82. There are still copies of that to be had?

Now you're delving into the realm of rare books. You'll love it!

I don't even know where our family copy ended up. The author inscribed it to my dad, but we had SO much political memorabilia to divide up, I don't know where everything went. I got some of my dad's best autographed photos, including one from Bobby Kennedy, made out to him "with high regard." Now you know why I never even tried to go into journalism. His shoes would have been impossible for me to fill. I also inherited a photo of FDR inscribed to my grandfather "from his friend, Franklin Roosevelt." Our Democratic ties go back a ways, you see.......

[B Calm]

52. I voted for McGovern overseas in Villa, France when I was in the Navy.

[Freddie]

53. Carter in 76

Absentee ballot, I was away at college. I see lots of us boomers here.

[JustAnotherGen]

54. 92 - Bill Clinton

Unapologetic about it!

[2pooped2pop]

55. Slick Willy

Isn't that what they used to call Bill Clinton?

[WinkyDink]

57. 1972, McGovern. I was 23.

[ProfessorGAC]

61. Carter

I turned 18 in 1974. Voted in mid-terms and state elections then, but didn't have a vote for POTUS until 1976.

[AngryOldDem]

63. John Anderson, 1980.

[Hobo]

95. ditto that eom

[underpants]

64. *gulp* Poppa Bush 1988

Hey! I was young! I didn't know!!!

[Bettie]

66. Mondale

I was so disappointed when Reagan won.

[LWolf]

77. For young voters,

Obama may have been their very first vote. Really, that includes anyone in their mid-twenties at this point. Why not take this one down, take the two oldest off the poll, add Obama and an "other" for the oldest?

[Unknown Beatle]

79. Great Idea.

Will do just that.

[AZ Progressive]

85. I can now roughly tell how old 218 DU posters are, as well as the average age of DUers

[Hekate]

86. Fascinating how many of you voted for a Repub the first time. Hope that tranlates into understanding

...how a certain current Democratic presidential candidate could have been a Goldwater Girl as a teenager, but a Democrat by the time she cast her first ballot.

Ya think? Don't be shy in those threads.

I worked for Gene McCarthy in 1968, turned 21 in the autumn, supported Hubert Humphrey in the election.

[aikoaiko]

88. For President, it was Dukakis, First Primary vote was Jesse Jackson.

Jesse actually got 42% of the democratic vote to Dukakis' 48%. Its too bad Dukakis didn't OK Jesse for VP.


http://articles.latimes.com/1988-04-17/news/mn-2143_1_dukakis-leading-jackson

[uppityperson]

91. Jigsaw puzzles

Of do I repeat myself?

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

92. Clinton in 1996 n/m

[Meldread]

93. Ralph Nader.

I had just turned eighteen in 2000. I was angry at Clinton / Gore for passing DOMA and DADT. I was also disenfranchised with 'third way' DLC Democrats, who honestly didn't represent me at all. I am a liberal.

Ralph Nader spoke to me. He is the person who got me politically active with one of his campaign speeches. He was basically pushing the same agenda that Bernie Sanders is pushing today, but his message was directly to people my age at the time: 'Turn onto politics, before politics turns on you!' He kept repeating that over and over, and I was actively under assault from the religious right, who had much more overt power and influence at the time.

By 2002 I had started to become more fully informed on the issues, and I had started to take a stand against the drum beat to war in Iraq. It was around this time also that I discovered DU, and around this time formally became a member of the Democratic Party. I then supported Howard Dean in 2004 for the Democratic Party nomination, voted for Kerry in the election, supported Obama in 2008 for the nomination, and voted for him twice for President.

I've become a lot more pragmatic as I've gotten older, though my liberalism has never faded or faltered. The values that I held at eighteen years old have only strengthened, deepened, and magnified as I became older and wiser and better able to articulate and defend them. I've had the pleasure of watching the DLC and 'third way' Democrats slowly die off, and the Democratic Party start tacking more toward the left.

[Agschmid]

94. Turned 18 in 2003.

[Aristus]

97. George H. W. Bush.

I voted for him again in 1992.

That was my last vote for a Republican...

Solid liberal Democrat ever since...

[ladyVet]

98. There's a funny story behind my first vote, for Mondale.

My then husband, a fundie freak, and I were at our tiny precinct voting place, standing for hours in a long, slow-moving line. It was the days when you walked into a booth, pulled a lever to close the curtain, then pushed buttons and another lever to cast your vote. Took forever to do.

Anyway, we were in this line when he started in on me about how I was supposed to vote. That I would cast my vote for Reagan, because ex was the boss of the family and I would do what he said. The Bible said so, and I'd better know my place.

Well. That wasn't going to go unanswered. He found out in short order that nobody was going to tell me who to vote for, not even him, that Reagan was a crook and an evil SOB, and he'd just have to suck it up. Everybody in the place started laughing, and the other women applauded me.

The only consolation I've had over the past decades was that even though I was unhappy with most of the Democrats I've voted for, I was at least canceling out one Republican vote.

[Robbins]

99. I turned 18 in 1992

so my first vote was for Bill Clinton

since then it has been

1996-Clinton
2000-primary and GE-Gore
2004-primary-Dean GE-Kerry
2008-Primary and GE-Obama
2012-Obama