Presidential election memories

[GeorgiaModerate]

This thread was inspired by a conversation on the 2020 board, in which I was asked about my memories of presidential elections.  So here are mine; feel free to add your own.

I was born in the mid-1950s, and the first election I remember was 1964.  But I wasn’t really that aware of it (being in elementary school at the time).  The main things I remember were the Weekly Reader mock election, and the AuH2O bumper stickers for Goldwater, which the science-nerd kid that was me thought was cool.  I’m certain my parents, both staunch Republicans, voted for Goldwater, although I don’t recall them talking about it.

By 1968 I had become much more aware of current events and politics, and became interested in the election due to ongoing discussions between my parents on who to support.  My father was for George Romney (governor of Michigan and Mitt Romney’s father) while my mother was for Nixon.  She was always a huge fan of his, and even after Watergate would have happily voted for him again if he was still eligible and ran again.  As I suspect is the case for most of us, my initial political leanings stemmed from theirs.  You could have called me a Rockefeller Republican (a now sadly extinct species), i.e. fairly liberal socially but conservative fiscally.  We were all happy when Nixon won, as the election looked close going in and my parents were worried about George Wallace possibly getting enough support to influence the outcome.

OTOH, 1972 wasn’t very interesting, apart from the VP drama on the Democratic side (Eagleton being replaced with Shriver).  It was a foregone conclusion from the beginning, and McGovern’s campaign seemed like almost a joke.  I didn’t pay much attention to the election that year.

1976 was the first year I could vote, and I happily did so for Gerald Ford, who I’ve always considered to be a decent man who was thrust into the Presidency by an accident of history.  I had been distressed by Ford’s pardon of Nixon (as a hotheaded college student, I wrote a paper denouncing it in a poli sci class that semester in 1974), but got over it enough by '76 to support Ford over Jimmy Carter, who I felt would make a poor President.  But if Arizona Rep. Morris Udall had gotten the Democratic nomination, I would have seriously considered voting for him; although his policies were more liberal than I was really comfortable with at the time, I was always very impressed by his intelligence, demeanor, and wittiness.  (Udall’s autobiography, Too Funny to be President, is a terrific read.)  During the early part of the campaign Carter looked like a shoo-in, but as November approached Ford closed the gap and turned it into a real nail-biter.  IIRC we didn’t know the winner until the next day.

By 1980 I was out on my own as an adult, and my first choice that year was Tennessee Senator Howard Baker, one of my all-time Moderate Heroes.  But his campaign fizzled early, so I switched to Rep. John Anderson in the primary.  Reagan was too conservative for me, and I definitely wasn’t voting for Carter, so I stuck with Anderson (and volunteered for him) during his independent bid.  Although it was clear Carter was in trouble, the outcome really didn’t clarify until around September, when Carter’s support started collapsing and it became obvious that Reagan would win handily.  This year reminds me a lot of 1980 except for the lack of a strong third-party candidate.

1984 was another foregone conclusion, and I didn’t pay much attention to the campaign.  Still not fond of Reagan but not impressed by Mondale either, I voted for the Libertarian candidate.

1988: see 1984. 

But 1992 was much more interesting.  Although Bush seemed like a lock for re-election after Desert Storm, the political landscape changed as the economy slowed down.  The Democratic party had been too far to the left for me for a long time, but in the primary I was attracted by Bill Clinton’s pragmatic centrism (very much in line with my philosophy of governing) and I supported and voted for him.  If you’re keeping score, that was my first vote for the winner after four misses.  The moral: don’t give up – eventually the political cycle will be a match for you!  This campaign was interesting due to the presence of Ross Perot, but it became clear by autumn that Clinton was ahead.  I was actually out of the country on Election Night and recall trying to find news reports from the U.S., and being surprised by how easily Clinton had won.

1996: I voted for Clinton again in an election that was another foregone conclusion.  Dole never had a chance against a popular incumbent at a time of peace and prosperity, and everybody knew it.

What can you say about 2000?  I supported Gore (who I believe would have been an excellent President), but it looked like Bush had a small but solid lead through the summer.  However, Gore closed the gap, and the outcome was unclear going into Election Day.  This was the first election I tried my hand at predicting, and I actually thought Gore might lose the PV while winning the EV – just the opposite of what happened!  I was out of town on business the week of the election (having voted absentee, as I did in ’92) and stayed up way too late in my hotel room waiting for a winner to be declared – and then waking up the next morning and finding out that one STILL wasn’t declared.  And then there was the whole controversy over the Florida recount…  I’ve seen some studies that suggest that Gore would have won with a full statewide recount, others that he wouldn’t have.  My take on it as an engineer: the winner truly wasn’t determinable with 100% accuracy due to the limitations of Florida’s punch-card system.  So I’m not willing to say either that Gore definitely would or would not have won in a full recount.  However, I do believe that the Supreme Court was wrong in not allowing one; it only makes sense to try and achieve the maximum accuracy possible, even if that isn’t perfection.

In 2004, I was originally for Howard Dean, another candidate who fit the pragmatic centrist model.  I was terribly disappointed when his campaign fell apart after a promising start.  In the general election, I wasn’t crazy about Kerry but really disliked Bush, so I voted for Kerry.  This was another one that looked close going in, and indeed it was. I correctly predicted that Bush would win narrowly and that Ohio would be the key state.  Don’t remember my full state-by-state predictions in either 2000 or 2004, though.

In the early stages of the 2008 campaign, I was for a candidate who now embarrasses me: Rudy Giuliani.  Yes, I admit it, and you can laugh at me. 😊  But the Rudy of the mid-2000’s was not the pitiful wreck that Rudy is today.  When he flamed out, I switched to Hillary Clinton.  However, I became very impressed with Obama during the primary and wasn’t sad to see him win the nomination, and I voted for him in the general.  Once the economy went south, it was obvious that Obama would win, but he exceeded my expectations; I didn’t predict him winning IN, NC, or NE-02.

2012 was an election that never seemed as close to me as it did to some other people.  I always felt that Obama was comfortably ahead, and I missed only Florida – my best prediction to date.  But in this election, as in most previous ones, I always felt that even if the opposition won, the country would be OK.  They’d likely institute some policies I didn’t like, but the country wouldn’t suffer any major damage.  I felt that way until…

In 2016 I was for Hillary from the beginning.  I thought Trump’s campaign was a joke, and was flabbergasted that he got the nomination – and happy, as I thought it ensured Clinton would win.  Well, we all know how that turned out.  Moral: don’t root for a presumably weaker/worse candidate to win the other party’s nomination, because they can win!  I won’t rehash the election itself, because most of us here remember it.  My prediction in this election was my worst ever; I did believe that Trump was making some inroads among WWC voters in the Midwest, but I thought his gains would be limited to Ohio, Iowa, and possibly ME-2.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask.  But also go ahead and post your own memories!  It would be interesting to get different perspectives.

[KaiserDave]

One of the best posters we have, thank you Georgia Moderate!

[The Dowager Mod]

While waiting in line to vote in 2000 I was almost arrested, That was fun. 

[GeorgiaModerate]

While waiting in line to vote in 2000 I was almost arrested, That was fun. 

Now you know you can't just leave it there without more details...

[NYSforKennedy2024]

Being 20 I don't have as many memories, but your post was a great read.

2016 - Unfortunately, I hadn't known of Atlas at the time, where I probably would've been. Instead, I bounced back and forth between MSNBC, CSPAN, The Young Turks, and InfoWars; while keeping an eye on my social media feeds.

It was a long, entertaining night. I didn't fall asleep until Trump's victory speech, and woke up for high school like 3 hours later.

[The Dowager Mod]

While waiting in line to vote in 2000 I was almost arrested, That was fun. 

Now you know you can't just leave it there without more details...

I was wearing a Gore-Lieberman pin and instead of just asking me to remove it some Republican poll watcher got incredibly rude with me so things got a little heated, luckily at the time I was married to the cop they sent to save her.

[Ferguson97]

2004: I was 6. My mom took me into the voting booth. I got to press the button (it was for Bush, ick)

2008: I was 10. For a class assignment we had to color in the electoral map, and I remember hearing McCain and Obama's names. My mom wanted McCain, my dad (quietly) wanted Obama.

2012: I was 14. I vaguely paid attention to this. I half-watched one of the debates and stayed up to watch election coverage. I remember thinking it was a big deal when Romney lost his home state. Right after this was when I began to pay attention to politics.

2016: I was 18. I fully paid attention to this. Donated to Bernie, followed primary coverage, the whole deal. Bought shirts from Bernie in the primary and Hillary in the general. Lived and breathed political news.

2020: I am 22. I'm paying a lot of attention and I'm now paying more attention to the data and state-level numbers. Supported Beto, then Harris, then Biden. Daily posting on forums, donating to candidates, and phone/textbanking. If it weren't for the pandemic, I'd be canvassing.

[The Dowager Mod]

The first time I voted was by mail, Because I was at boot camp at Ft Jackson SC.

[DKrol]

2004: The first election I have a memory of. I was in 2nd grade and we held a mock election, as all kids do, and we voted overwhelmingly for John Kerry, because he was from Massachusetts and we thought we had to vote for the candidate from our state. I don't remember much else from 2004.

2008: I was in 6th grade and much more politically aware. My mom took me with her to vote in the MA primary for Clinton but when Obama when the nomination I became a McCain supporter (as much as a 6th grader could be). I remember being the only kid in my civics class who a) was engaged and excited about the election process and b) who said they supported McCain. On Election Day, I wore a "John Olver for Congress" pin to school, because he had given it to me during a campaign stop in town. My school was a polling place so when I walked into the lunch room wearing the pin, I was told I was too close to the polling booths while wearing the pin and had to take it off. I thought this was the greatest tragedy.

2012: I was a strong Romney supporter from the start of the primaries. I loved the idea of a moderate businessman swooping in to fix the country's problems. I hosted a mock political talk show for my school's morning news/announcements program, and even interviewed a former Governor (and family friend) for the program. This was the first election I tried to predict and had Romney winning CO, FL, IN, MI, NC, NH, OH, PA, VA and the election, handily. I ate quite a bit of crow the morning after.

2016: As a college freshman during the primaries in New Hampshire, I bounced around between various moderate Republicans. I started out as a Bush supporter, then Christie, and then settled on Kasich, volunteering to some extent on all three campaigns. My roommate and I were at Kasich's New Hampshire Primary night rally. After Trump steamrolled to the nomination, I held out hope that the "Free the Delegates" movement would win at the Convention and Romney, Kasich, Rubio, or Cruz would emerge as a compromise nominee. When that failed, I flipped between Clinton and Johnson. Because I continued to vote in MA, despite being legally able to in NH, I knew it didn't matter who I voted for in the end, so I was fairly strongly settled for Johnson. And then "What is Aleppo." So I was back to being torn, until I attended a lunch with Donna Brazile, whose passion and spark cemented me in the Clinton camp despite working for other Republican candidates and being a College Republican.

[Fuzzy Bear]

In 1972 I wanted McGovern to win.  I grew up in a home where, as far as my Mom and Grandma were concerned, Nixon was the enemy, and I didn't want the Vietnam War to be going on when I turned 18.

In 1976, I was already bummed out because my local candidate of choice had lost a second time.  I was drinking at a bar when it came over the TV that NY was too close to call because of the votes for the third party candidate Eugene McCarthy.  We were young Democratic Committee members and I remember my oldest friend from that circle looking at the TV and sacrastically saying, "Thanks, Gene!".  (Carter barely pulled out NY.)

In 1980 I could not overcome my then-dislike for Carter.  I voted straight Democratic but I blamed him for the sad state the Democratic Party was in.  For most of his first term I believed that Carter would be reelected because he would be seen as an honest and decent man of integrity who brought peace in the Middle East.  In the end, his refusal to debate Anderson, his cutesy statements (e. g. saying how his daughter Amy said that nuclear proliferation was the most important issue) sat wrong with me.  I could not bring myself to vote for Anderson; I viewed him as an opportunist.  I liked Reagan the best of all the candidates, but I could not bring myself to vote for a Republican for President at that time.  I thought of voting for Ellen McCormick, the Right To Life Party's candidate, and I wish I had done so in retrospect.  I remember on Election Night my Town Democratic Chair saying, "I never, in my life, thought I'd see a Republican get the edge on UNEMPLOYMENT!".  It was, indeed, a first.

In 1984 I voted for Mondale.  I thought he ran a terrible campaign and I didn't like him, but I was a Democrat and voted for him out of partisanship.  I was no longer active politically.  I had moved to Florida and I voted for two (2) downballot Republicans; this was a first.

In 1988 I voted for Dukakis.  I remember being with a girl I was dating watching the returns and feeling bummed out seeing Dukakis absolutely blow MD, PA, CA, and several other states he had been leading in.  She would later dump me on January 20, 1989, the very day my grandmother died.  So what's a guy to do but go with a friend from AA to a Bush Inaugural Party he was dee-jay at.

In 1992 I voted for Clinton and was glad to see Bush lose.  BILL Clinton was a Democrat who had some realization of the fact that the Democratic Party had become inconsequential in the everyday lives of the working class voters it professed to deeply care about.  I looked forward to a centrist Democratic Party that would represent best the well-being of people that worked for a living.  That Clinton set the party on a pathway of social liberalism and economic neo-liberalism wasn't clear at that time.  

In 1996 I voted for Clinton, but I voted Republican for Congress.  It was my first vote as a registered Republican, but I was really an Independent voter.

In 2000 I voted for Bush 43.  I didn't like him, but I cast my first pro-life vote after considerable prayer.

In 2004 I voted for Kerry.  I didn't like him, but he was more anti-war.

In 2008 I voted for McCain.  I decided in the voting booth.  I had a favorable opinion of both McCain and Obama and decided to vote for McCain based on greater experience.

In 2012 I voted for Obama.  Romney had the most elitist platform ever, and he was a liar.  A sneaky liar, to be sure.  Romney's signature accomplishment in office was Romneycare in MA, but he refused to tout it because it incurred the ire of movement conservatives.  That, for me, represented unusual cowardice.

In 2016, I voted for Trump, due to his anti-war, anti-globalist agenda.  It was the first time I was enthusiastic about voting Republican for President.

In 2020 I voted to re-elect Trump.  I have no reservations about having done so.  "The Resistance" in its entirety needs a rebuke and a defeat at the polls, all of it.

That's my Presidential election life.

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

I was born in 2001 and I am not American. This is the first United States presidential election I am really following a lot.

2004. I have literally zero memories about that year at all, let alone of the United States presidential election.

2008. Quite funnily I already knew the name of the President of the United States (George Bush), and I remember hearing at some point that there was this 'battle' between Obama and Clinton and that America would have had either its first woman candidate or its first Black candidate.

2012. I knew about Obama and Romney of course and probably had some vague interest but I know that I missed Election Day/Night and that I got to know only later that Obama had been reelected. I rooted for Obama I guess?

2016. I think I should have clearer memories, because it's nearer in time, but I don't. I think for large parts I didn't really care. I have some memories of the Democratic primaries and finding Sanders pretty cool, but mostly it was a classmate of mine who really loved 'Bernie' (and still does actually I think). I don't think I liked Clinton (neither Trump for that matter). Did I even support anyone? I actually have few memories of the pro-Clinton conventional wisdom too, although I remember it getting shattered after Trump won.
The funniest part is that after the election I was for a time very proud of telling people LOOK AT THIS GUY JOHNSON HE TOOK 4 MILLION VOTES AS A THIRD PARTY THAT'S SO MANY (also this gal Stein more than 1 million) I LOVE THIRD PARTIES which was a function of my contrarianism.

2020. What you see is what you get. Before joining talkelections dot org slash FORUM I binged on 538 for almost a year (I started following American politics uninterruptedly somewhere in spring or summer 2019).

[It’s so Joever]

2004: I was two, I don’t think I knew who Bush was.

2008: I didn’t know an election was happening. I remember learning that Obama became the new president later in February 2009, and I just brushed it off as it had no impact on my life.

2012: First election I actually remember.
Most of my friends and classmates were solid Romney supporters although 2012 was pretty calm overall and there wasn’t that much drama in school over it.

(Although I do distinctly remember my next door neighbor talking about how Obama deserved to be hit by a car in graphic detail...he was literally 10 then and I think is in some detention facility now)

My parents were still Obama supporters and talked about how Romney would screw up the country.
I was at first very scared Romney would win when he led in North Carolina and was getting close in Ohio, but was relieved when Obama clinched it.
 
2016: I was most actively engaged in this one, I was like 14 at the time. I argued with my uncle a lot over Hillary (“but her emails”) I also was a pretty strong liberal and arguably more left than I am now.
I was also accused of brainwashing my parents into becoming liberals (like, they voted for Obama twice but alright I guess)
I did have a bad feeling about the election and by October, predicted a narrow Trump win. While the top line was correct...the states I thought Trump would flip were certainly not (CO, NH, NV plus the FL/OH/IA we all knew was happening)
 

[Left Wing]

2008: I was a little kid. All I remember was my parents sitting me down to watch Obama's inaguration

2012: Still very young. Watched all the presidential debates. I remember being very mad when Mitt Romney said he wanted to get rid of Big Bird. I also remember being very happy when I woke up the next morning and Obama won.

2016:  Rooted for Bernie in the primary but didn't really care that much. My school was across the street from the Mike Pence's house so when the Indiana primary happened and Trump went to go meet Pence we saw him get out of a limousine through the window. Became kind of a pro-Hillary fanatic. I was on a plane to NYC when Trump won and was crushed when I got off. I saw the first showing of Hamilton after he won.

2020: Didn't really think about politics until June 2019 when I suddenly got really excited for the first debate. I wanted Jay Inslee but of course he didn't go too far. Rooted for Tulsi for a bit until her dumb 'present' vote. I then started rooting for Joe. Super Tuesday was probably the happiest I've been in several years.

[S019]

2008: Barely any memories other than remembering seeing MT as a tossup on the morning news, told my mother to vote Obama, because his name sounded cooler than McCain

2012: Remember watching some of Election Day, supported Romney, because my family did and also remember hearing a lot about how if Obama won again, the ACA staying meant our taxes would be very high

2016: Actively followed and made predictions for the elections. Major surprise to me was how close VA was on Election Night. Went to sleep around 10:30, but followed Election coverage for the whole day (no school on presidential Election days)

[President of the great nation of 🏳️‍⚧️]

2004: None, I was 3, I was more into Elmo on the Nintendo 64.
2008: I still preferred video games to politics, but this time I'd graduated to Super Mario 64.
2012: I watched the first debate, but I wasn't as invested as later times.
2016: I was thoroughly invested, but I couldn't vote.
2020: I can vote, but I have yet to.

[100% pro-life no matter what]

2004 (age 8 ): I decided I wanted Bush to win, not out of any ideological reason, but because, as far as I could remember Bush had always been the president and I liked the president.  I remember seeing a Kerry-Edwards sign and calling it stupid, even though my mom was voting for Kerry.  On election night, I walked into my parents' room and saw Kerry leading and I was upset, but my dad told me "it's like a baseball game in the first inning".  The next morning, I woke up, heard Bush was probably going to win, and was happy.  Though, I do remember seeing the full results in the paper and worrying about DC going 90% for Kerry (thinking "they're the closest to the White House, so what if they know best").

2008 (age 12): Going into the election, I decided that I wanted to see something that had never happened before- to see history.  I knew there had never been a female or black president, so I thought it would be cool to have either Clinton or Obama win.  I decided on Clinton, I think because I had a weird thing where I kind of liked to root for the champion against the upstart in sports, which kind of carried over into that primary.  During one of the debates, my grandfather tried to figure out my political views, and asked me what I thought of abortion.  I had never heard of abortion, so I asked him what it was; when he told me, I was horrified.  But, I still didn't know who was on which side, so I continued to support Hillary in the primaries.  That summer, after Obama won the nomination, my aunt asked me who I wanted to win.  I gave an unenthusiastic "I guess Obama" answer.  When my aunt asked me why, I said something like "there's this thing called abortion- I don't know if you've ever heard of it [I genuinely didn't realize that everyone knew what abortion was]-, which I believe is the killing of babies.  Obama's against it, and McCain's for it, so I guess I'll support Obama."  My aunt told me I had it all backwards, so I switched immediately to supporting McCain.

2012 (age 16): I started to learn about other issues since 2008, and I became a staunch Tea Partier and despised Obama with a passion.  I didn't know much about the various Republicans running until the primaries started.  I found myself rooting for Santorum to get the nomination, probably because he was the most vocally pro-life.  When Romney got the nomination, I vehemently supported him and used Rasmussen and Gallup polls to convince myself that he was going to win.  While I couldn't vote since I was 16, I did go to my local "victory center" to phone bank for Romney on Election Eve and Election Day.  One teacher also got upset with me for wearing a Romney-Ryan pin on my shirt in class (didn't punish me, but told me to take it off), even though the Dean of Students said it was OK.

2016 (age 20): I was acutely tuned into this race from the start.  I initially supported Scott Walker, then Marco Rubio, and finally Ted Cruz.  During the primaries, I legitimately thought Trump was a secret liberal who was trying to infiltrate the Republican Party to throw the election to Hillary Clinton.  I was extremely upset when he won the nomination after months of saying that there was no way he possibly could.  In the general election, I felt that there was no real option but to vote for Trump.  While I still wasn't completely sold on him, I took solace in the fact that he didn't stop paying lip service to the issues I cared about after winning the nomination.  Kind of enjoyed "triggering the libs" more than I'd like to admit today.

2020 (age 24): For most of this cycle, I've been in a "settle for Trump" mood, acknowledging my mixed feelings about him and what he is doing to our party versus the real support he has given religious liberty, the right to life, and other causes I believe in.  I did cast a protest vote in the primary, but one with the full intention of voting for Trump in the general.  I did briefly waver on it in the early summer (considering a write-in in the general), but pretty quickly moved back into Trump's column.  I also feel like I've been somewhat radicalized by the pandemic and an Orwellian "new normal", which I entirely oppose.

[exopolitician]

2004 (Age 15): I was born and raised in the Panhandle of Florida, and my father pretty much was the typical conservative voter that you would find in Okaloosa county. He was a huge Bush fan, and being under his influence I considered myself more right leaning when I was younger. We spent most of the day listening to the radio and jumping back and forth between Fox news, which is what we ended up watching the rest of the night when the returns started coming in. He voted Republican up until his death before the 2012 election.

2008: The was the first election that I actually became motivated to seek out a campaign I wanted to volunteer for. I supported John Edwards at the beginning, because I was drawn to his populist message. Once Barack Obama won Iowa though, I quickly hopped on that train instead and began planning on what I wanted to do to get involved. February of 2008 is when I moved to Virginia, and I immediately took advantage of the changing political climate in the state. I volunteered twice to canvass for Barack Obama in the Richmond suburbs, and I ended up driving across the state to see him speak four times. It still is the best set of election memories I have to date, nothing has topped the feeling of watching Obama win the election in 2008.

2012: I was already back in Texas by the time Obama was up for re-election, so I didn't get involved so much this time around. It was hard enough trying to convince my friends here to even consider voting at all, let alone voting for Obama. I spent most of election night getting drunk on wine.

2016: Fast forward a couple years I had moved out of Texas AGAIN, this time I was up in New England. I never was able to switch my registration to Rhode Island, so I was still registered in Texas where I flew back twice to vote (in the primaries and in the general). I was all in for Bernie Sanders, I drove to New Hampshire on primary day and knocked on doors for five hours in the snow that day. A few days before, I was in Keene where I was onstage with the Senator as he was delivering his speech in a tiny auditorium in town. That was the highlight of that election, since everything that followed was pure garbage. (Minus the Clinton rally in New Hampshire in October, it was an outdoor event and the campus we were at was so beautiful in the fall)

2020: I'm back in Texas this time! I wanted to get back into the game and start volunteering again for Bernie Sanders. There was a time for a moment where I had planned to drive up to Iowa the weekend before the caucus to help the campaign but at the last minute I decided not too. Looking back, I'm so glad I didn't waste my time going up there. I instead decided to help out anyway I could down here, including going to all three campaign stops for Bernie when he was barnstorming the state before Super Tuesday. I actually finally got to meet him and shake his hand after I helped his crew set up for his Mesquite rally in late February. Then everything basically went to hell after ST, and then Covid happened. Since then Ive managed to help get a handful of friends motivated to register and vote (for the very first time), and Ive just been a huge ball of anxiety since Biden officially clinched the nomination. Here's hoping the end result erases all the headaches the rest of the year has caused, that would be a perfect end to a terrible year.

[GeneralMacArthur]

2000 (age 8 ):  I had no idea what was going on but I remember playing in the kitchen and my mother calling me into the living room.  She told me "this is history right here.  You'll remember this night for the rest of your life."  I think she tried to explain to me what was going on but I didn't understand.

2004 (age 12):  I don't remember watching this election in real-time but I remember walking the dog the next morning down to the local coffee shop to get a bagel, and being upset at the newspapers celebrating Bush's victory.  I remember knowing that Ohio was the clincher state because we visited Ohio later that year and I was like "booo, Ohio!"

2008 (age 16):  I watched this one with my parents in our living room.  I was very passionate about the election, a big fan of Barack Obama and really despised Sarah Palin.  Not only did Obama win but I was also closely watching the Senate races, I remember being particularly excited at Kay Hagan's victory over Elizabeth Dole.  I think Dole had run some ad attacking Hagan for not being sufficiently christian, which I found incredibly offensive.  I was taking advanced classes in high school and during one of the senior days off, I was the only underclassman left for one of my classes, so the teacher and I watched the Obama inauguration on TV.  The guy was retired Army and kept a running commentary on the security protocols for the inauguration parade.

2012 (age 20):  I watched the election returns at an event with John Aldrich at Duke University, along with some other notable local pundits and politicos.  Most of the other guests were obsessing over 538, whereas I already knew all the contours of the election, so I was annoyed by the guests and spent most of the time hanging out with Aldrich and the politico types.  I was pretty surprised that the Democrats did as well as they did.  Aldrich and I spent a lot of time commiserating the what-ifs of the GOP primary, where we both thought Romney would have been an easy mark for a more talented field.  Aldrich thought Christie would win in 2016.

2016 (age 24):  I had planned a bar crawl with some friends to watch the election, but only a few people showed up, and it quickly became clear that Clinton was in deep trouble as she was way behind in Florida and Virginia, so the party dissipated.  I went to a dive bar and got hammered as I watched OH, FL, NC, and Clinton's odds dwindle to near-zero.  The bartender thought it was a big joke and was talking about what a laugh it would be to have Trump as president, so I left and went to an expensive place, now all-but-abandoned, and watched miserably as the election was called for Donald Trump shortly after he won Pennsylvania.  Somehow I still made it into work the next day.

2018 (age 26):  After the 2016 election I became a radicalized Democratic Party hack and obsessively modeled and tracked every single House and Senate race.  I had my own "big board" and 5 or 6 friends who relied on me for updates and prognostication.  One of my friends had a birthday party that night and I attended but insisted on CNN on the TV.  Bounced back and forth between socializing and celebrating.  I was the only person who gave a damn when CNN officially projected Democrats to retake the House.

2020 (age 28):  Once again I have my "big board" tracking all the key races, and I'll be inviting 5-6 people over to watch in my living room, as well as popping into some Zoom parties and being on the phone with some family members who have also enjoyed having the election as an easy topic of conversation.

[Hope For A New Era]

Not much memory here, but I'll write what I can.
Edit: okay maybe more memory than I thought there was lol

---

2008 (age 7): I wasn't super aware here. I remember that I knew that the candidates were Obama and McCain, that they were a Democrat and Republican respectively, that they were from Illinois and Arizona, and that my parents were supporting McCain. I don't remember the election night itself, though I imagine I must have seen some part of the coverage. My only memory of election day is from the morning - I saw my teacher walk in wearing an "I voted" sticker and asked her who she voted for. She refused to tell me. (looking back with what I know about her, probably McCain). I didn't really have an opinion or strongly support either candidate.
I remember being at school the next day (or maybe a few days later) and being shown a map of states won by each candidate. All of them were filled in red or blue except Missouri, which was greyed-out because it was still too close to call at that point.
Here's the weird thing - I didn't realize Obama was black. This despite having seen countless photos of him and McCain for months. It wasn't until after the election when people kept talking about how he was the first black president that I looked closely at a photo and was like "huh, he actually is black. I didn't realize." Not sure how that worked. 7-year-old me was weird.

---

2012 (age 11): I was much more aware here. The general sense among people I knew was that Obama would win again, but by a much smaller margin than before, which is exactly what happened. Not really any surprises. I remember watching the news coverage with my mother. I didn't have a map, but I think I was listing the states won by each candidate as they were called? Something like that. I remember having a pen and paper for something.

---

2016 (age 15): This is when I really got into politics. Before I start I should note that I first developed views of my own around 2013-2014, though the process that led me there started in 2012. It was kind of a slow realization of "wait, but I thought the Republicans were the good guys?" - anyway, point is, I was strongly anti-Trump from the beginning. I remember not thinking he had any chance of winning the primary until around February. My parents were Kasich supporters. I remember asking them what they would do if Trump won the primary, and they both said they didn't know. They eventually ended up voting third party in the election.
Election night itself was very tense. I remember thinking it was a slight lean toward Clinton but that it was very uncertain. My first hint that things might not be going as I hoped was Florida, and it all went downhill from there. I got up and started baking cookies, just to have something to do, but I remember struggling to get the dough onto the pan because of how much my hands were shaking.
I remember being most shocked by Pennsylvania. I had always viewed Pennsylvania as part of the solid block of northeastern D states, along with its neighbors NY/NJ/MD and the like, so as far as I was concerned it was equal to calling Connecticut for a Republican. It really took me a while to pick my jaw up off the floor after that one.
Races were called for Blunt and Greitens around the same time. The Greitens one was a disappointment to all of us - my parents had actually voted D for governor, in my father's case literally only the second D vote he had ever cast in his life (the first was for Douglas Wilder in 1989 in Virginia).
I finally went to bed around 3AM (Central time). I remember doing the math that if Clinton could win Arizona, Alaska, and New Hampshire (or some weird combination like that) she could still win, and then I went to sleep hoping it would happen or that states would find some missing D ballots or something.
Obviously, that didn't happen.
The next day was...bizarre. Really surreal. It felt normal, but...subdued. I considered skipping school, but ultimately decided not to, which was probably a poor decision, because I was basically sleepwalking the whole time.
0/10 would not recommend.

---

2020 (age 19): I pretty much view this as the election that decides whether American democracy will survive for (at least 4) years to come or whether the country will fall into authoritarianism. The stakes are...whatever the stakes equivalent of "priceless" is. Immeasurably high. The most important election of our lifetimes. A Flight 93 for democracy.

The rest is to be determined. I'll probably update this after the election. Now, we can only wait and hope. I'll be mailing my absentee ballot (straight D, to the point of leaving Rs running unopposed for county offices blank) within the next 12 hours, and after that...I guess it's time to let the cards fall where they may.

[ProgressiveModerate]

2016 is the only one I truly remember. I didn't understand how the EC worked, and I remember seeing the plain states all filled red and thought Trump was blowing it out of the water (even though it was a narrow win). I got sent to bed by 10:00 or so and I remember being dissapointed about not getting to see California.

[Rules for me, but not for thee]

No real memory much of elections in my youth until teenage years.

1988 (age 8 ): I remember my friend's house having a party of Dukakis vs Bush as comparing male vs female genitalia, and they weren't happy the female part won.

1992: (age 12): Remember my dad having a long discussion with my friend's dad who was a 3M engineer and inventor that convinced him to vote Perot.

1996 (age 16):  Starting to develop my own ideas on politics, I wanted my dad to vote Perot again. He said he'd vote Clinton because "he did a good job for the previous 4 years".

2000 (age 20): My first vote for President was Harry Browne, and the only presidential candidate I've even met in person so far.  But I was hooked to the TV after election day (mostly Fox News, which wasn't quite as partisan at the time and had the most coverage) for the election drama.  Probably what got me more interested in the process: hanging chads, SC of Florida decision, etc. I haven't watched Fox more than a clip here and there for many years now.

2004 (age 24): I lost any interest when the Dems failed to put up an interesting candidate (like Howard Dean) and knew Bush was going to win.  I just supported the Libertarian again.  I started posting here but don't think I was really excited about any result,  I believe I was full into trying to plan to move to New Hampshire for the Free State Project, which I never ended up doing as the movement cheated to get their count total up and I got disillusioned with any real change possible there.  

[Del Tachi]

2000:  I was 5 and in kindergarten.  I remember having a mock election in my kindergarten class where me and my best friend voted for opposing candidates (can't remember who voted for whom though, I think I voted for Gore?  maybe?)  No actual memories of election night/the aftermath, but I do vaguely remember my mom calling Gore a "sore loser" for wanting to recount the votes.  All of my family was for Bush. 

2004:  I was 9 and in fourth grade.  My school just so happened to have fifty 4th-5th grade classes, so we each class got assigned a state to represent in the school's mock "electoral college."  My class was Wyoming with its three tiny EV's, lol.  As a class, we spent a few weeks learning about our state and the election process  before each class voted in a mock election.  We all gathered in the gym on election day to tally-up the electoral college, and it was a Kerry landslide (I went to a majority-Black public school in rural Mississippi.)  Personally, I have some faint memories of watching debate coverage with my parents.  I also remember my conservative grandmother saying one time that she thought Kerry was going to win (I don't think that was particularly close to election day).  No election night memories, but I remember waking up the day after and my mom telling me Bush had won.  All of my family was for again for Bush. 

2008:  I was 13 and in eighth grade.  This is the first year following the primaries, and I really liked Mitt Romney while the rest of my immediate family was for Huckabee.  I remember the nastiness of the Democratic primary, with Hillary Clinton's "3 AM" ad and the Jeremiah Wright controversy.  I remember my grandmother (a socially conservative, middle-aged "WWC" woman) really liking Sarah Palin.  I remember watching both the DNC and RNC on cable TV.  I remember the first debate in Oxford, MS (not too far up the road from where we lived.)  I remember the SNL snits, which were by far the best of any election I've lived-through.  At school, we organized a "mock debate" between students representing the McCain and Obama campaigns.  I had a reputation as a kid big into politics, so I was tapped to play the role of the moderator.  On election night, it was my grandmother's birthday so we took her out to dinner in another town.  I remember being kinda upset that I wouldn't be able to watch election night coverage on TV, but on the ride back we heard on the radio that Obama had been declared the winner in Ohio (which pretty much meant the race was over.)  When we got home, the West Coast polls had closed and Obama had officially been declared the winner by the news outlets.  I remember the next morning (which I remember was particuarly cold for North MS in early November), I remember my dad telling me and my siblings how historic it was that a Black man had been elected president and that we should all feel proud of our country.  My mom and grandparents were for McCain, but my dad was real coy about his vote until he ended up voting for Obama on election day.   

2012:  I was 17 and a senior in high school.  In a lot of ways, I would say I remember 2012 less saliently than 2008 (which I'll chalk up to the campaign being a real snooze fest, at least comparatively.)  In the primary, I remember my parents being for Romney and my grandparents for Santorum.  My high school had a daily, student-run newscast that was played in home room for about 10 minutes every day.  I was an opinion writer for the school newspaper and was tapped to play the role of "Mitt Romney" in a series of pre-recorded "debate segments" to air on the school newscast in the weeks leading up to the election.  Obama won our school's mock election easily (which I don't attribute to my performance as a candidate!)  On election night, our U.S. government teacher hosted an "election night party" at the school that kids could come to for extra credit.  We watched the returns for awhile, but eventually switched over to YouTube to watch SNL's election skits.  I was on my laptop refreshing the NYT elections page to follow the results though (my true Atlasian had come out this election cycle, I suppose!)  All of my family voted for Romney.     

2016:  I was 21 and a senior in college.  During the primary, I was interning in a GOP senate office in Washington, D.C. and I remember how much all the staffers hated Donald Trump (though several ended up working in his White House, lol.)  My parents and siblings were "Never Trumpers" who went through a Bush/Rubio/Kasich evolution during the GOP primary, but I think my grandparents came around to Trump before the primary had wrapped-up.  For the fall campaign, we all settled into being "Republicans for Clinton."  I was the president of a nonpartisan political honor society at my university, so my circle of friends in college was pretty politically-interested (lots of College Democrats and College Republicans.)  The honor society held multiple on-campus voter registration drives and organized an on-campus debate between students representing Trump and Clinton (which over 1,000 people attended.)  I was well-known as the big "Clinton Republican" on-campus at that time, so I had the unusual honor of playing opposition in debate prep for both debate teams.  On election night, some friends and I got together at a bar to watch the initial returns.  Once it become clear that things were a lot closer than we had initially suspected, the Democrats in the group started getting upset and wanting to leave and go home.  I ended up going over to the my parents' house (they live in the same town where I went to college) around the time Ohio was called for Trump.  I remember a good friend of mine who went to college out-of-state calling me that night to ask me what was going on and if Trump was actually going to win, to which I remember telling her that he probably would.  We went to bed a little bit after Trump gave his victory speech.  I stayed home from class the next day to watch Hillary Clinton's concession speech, which I still think was one of the best political speeches I've heard.  This was the first election in which I voted (for Clinton), and all of my immediate family did as well.  My grandparents were for Trump though.             

2020:  I'm 25 with a full-time government job in Jackson, MS.  Since the circle of people I see everyday is now much less political than it was in 2016, I have probably followed this election less than I would have in college.  I'm voting for Trump.  On election night, I'm having some people over to my apartment for drinks/snacks and planning on taking off from work the next day.  We'll see how it goes! 

[TDAS04]

1996:  I was 9.  I had nothing against Clinton, but I rooted for Bob Dole because Abraham Lincoln and many other of my favorite presidents were Republican (I knew all the presidents by then).  I watched a debate with my parents, and Dole blinked a lot.  I was sad when he lost; my mom was hospitalized with pneumonia on Election Day, and I caught pneumonia the day after.

I did pay attention to the primaries that year also.  The first campaign ad I noticed was for Steve Forbes; it mentioned Ronald Reagan.  I thought it was cool that a Buchanan was running, since that was the name of a past president, not realizing how crappy both were.  I remember my Dad saying Pat Buchanan won New Hampshire.  Also, I did get to see part of a debate on TV among Dole, Buchanan, Forbes, and Lamar Alexander.  My grandma grew tired of it and turned it off.  I was disappointed, but didn’t say anything.

I also noticed the senate race that year.  A Tim Johnson ad accused Larry Pressler of “throwing mud” and “running a dirty campaign.”  I don’t quite remember how literally I took it.

2000:  Not such a Republican anymore after learning more about what the parties stood for.  I began watching the news regularly that fall, moreso after the election as I was glued to the TV during the Florida fiasco.  I secretly rooted for Al Gore, but acted like I didn’t have a preference.

2004:  I was still interested, but didn’t watch as much news because I was stressed out at school during 11th grade.

2008:  By then, I was completely honest with myself about being a liberal.  I payed close attention from the 2006 midterms to Obama’s inauguration.  I waffled quite a bit between Obama and Hillary.  Once that was over, I got firmly behind Obama and enthusiastically voted straight Democratic ticket.

2012:  I was even more enthusiastic about voting for Obama this time.  He had endorsed gay marriage, and I disliked Romney more than McCain.  My parents and I were very happy on election night.  It was also wonderful to see gay marriage finally win at the ballot box.  Things looked up for the country.  On with continuing the progress by electing Hillary in 2016.  LOL

2016:  Ugh.  (Though my personal life began to get more productive.)

2020:  This should be much better.

Question to the OP:  Did you grow up in Georgia?  Goldwater and Wallace would have carried your state then.

[GeorgiaModerate]

Question to the OP:  Did you grow up in Georgia?  Goldwater and Wallace would have carried your state then.

No, we moved around a fair amount when I was a kid, although I've lived longer in Georgia than anywhere else.  In '64 we were in Wisconsin (won by LBJ) and in '68 Tennessee (won by Nixon with Wallace second).

[OSR stands with Israel]

2004(Age 7): I was for Bush because he was the President, he seemed cool and in my 2nd grade's class mock election Bush won like over 80% of the vote cause we really didnt know who Kerry was and since we were in 2nd grade we supported Bush mainly cause he was the President.

2008 Primaries(Age 10/11): I was for Obama but Hillary won the primary vote cause all the girls voted for Hillary while all the boys were divided between Obama and McCain. I was for Obama cause he seemed cool on tv and I remember by dad explained to me the primaries are the election equivalent of the Western and Eastern Conference Playoffs and just like the winner of the Winner Conference playoffs and Eastern Conference playoffs play each other in the finals the winner of the Republican and Democratic primaries face each other in the main election.


2008 General(Age 11): I was for Obama and he did win my 6th-grade Hummanites Mock Election but I liked McCain too. On election night I remember I was happy when Obama won .

2012 General(Age 15): I was strongly for Romney cause I liked his economic plans better and didnt think Obama had done a good job and the debates made me like Romney even more. Obama won the 10th grade humanities mock election although the gender gap was pretty large(with slightly most of the boys being for Romney and all the girls being for Obama) . I had made my first election prediction which I had Obama winning but Romney wining the popular vote so I kinda expected some part of how disappointing the 2012 election night was

2016 primaries(Age 18/19): I was for Walker in the first half of 2015 but from the second half of 2015 on I was strongly for Kasich but by super tuesday while I still was for Kasich is was rooting for different candidates in each state to ensure a contested convention .

2016 election(Age 19) : I expected Hillary to win but my confidence on Hillary chances were dropping the last week but I remember on election night seeing shocked when Virginia seemed to be going Trump's way for a long while, him ahead in Florida. The moment I started to think Trump was the favorite was when Ohio was called so early in the night, and then after Florida was called I basically expected Trump to win