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US Election Playing Cards
In the fifth century BC, portraits of rulers started to appear on coinage, as the utility of these widely-disseminated pieces of metal began to be realised for political ends. A golden aureus minted in Rome could travel as far as India, propagating an image of power across the known world. Much later, in the sixteenth century, it was found that playing cards could be used to much the same effect.
Naturally, one of the first elements of the deck to fall under political manipulation was the court cards. The Kings, Queens and Jacks took on the form of contemporary and historical rulers, either to glorify or satirise, and soon illustrations of events began to appear on the number cards. Thus one of the earliest examples of subliminal messaging, political ideas would be communicated to players while they were engaged in the game.
The 1828 US presidential election saw the introduction of new methods of campaigning, including the production of playing cards in support of Andrew Jackson, who was challenging the incumbent president, John Quincy Adams. Throughout the subsequent two centuries, this tactic has been used in a number of elections, with candidates or their supporters issuing decks of cards promoting their campaigns and lambasting those of their opponents.
For the 1884 and 1888 elections, editor and publisher L. Lum Smith produced decks featuring the presidential candidates and their VPs. The portraits of the Republican nominees, Cleveland and Hendricks, are printed in blue ink, and the Democratic candidates, Blaine and Logan, in red; this reflects the fact that the seemingly-timeless categorisation of ‘red’ and ‘blue’ states was only really solidified in the election of 2000! Smith’s number cards each bear the name of a state and include statistics about its population, number of electoral votes and its results in the previous election. The respectful illustrations of the candidates on the Jack cards can be quite sharply contrasted against those found on more recent political playing cards…
Prolific among the those of recent decades has been the Politicards series, first published in 1972 with illustrations by artist Peter Green. Green also provided weekly illustrations for the LA Times, and his caricatures of politicians generally received a warm reception, even from the victims themselves: former Secretary of State George Shultz gave decks to party guests on several occasions.
It is the red suits in Politicards that represent the Democrat Party, with Ace cards showing an anthropomorphised donkey, while the black suits, with elephants on their Aces, show the Republican players. Green evidently anticipated Nixon’s landslide victory in the 1972 election, as on the box of that year’s deck the president is depicted as a king upon his throne, wearing football boots and bearing a sceptre topped with a ball, a reference to his days as a junior varsity player.
In 1979, Democratic labour union activist Victor Kamber bought the Politicards name and published decks to commemorate the next two general elections, in 1980 and 1984. He commissioned artists Keith Nichols and Donald Gates, respectively, to illustrate the cards. In addition to the principal politicians in the two elections, figures such as Muhammed Ali, who was recruited by President Carter for a diplomatic mission to Africa, and Bob Hope, whose 1980 comedy special ‘Bob Hope for President’ was set in the context of that year’s election, appear on the playing cards. In 1996, the Politicards name expired and was reclaimed by Green, who continued to produce new decks for each election throughout the subsequent twenty years.
Another manufacturer that produced cards for election years is Parody Productions of Cincinnati, who published satirical decks for the 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016 and 2020 elections.
The cards for the 2008 election come in four varieties: McCain, Giuliani, Clinton and Obama. Key players in the political game are caricatured as cartoon bodies with enlarged photographic heads, with the presidential candidates appearing as the King cards, and their portraits on the Aces and versos. Various prominent figures from American media and culture are also featured, all showing their support for the candidate’s campaign with a range of humorous banners and slogans.
As the decks were designed and manufactured the year before the election, they are somewhat erroneous in hindsight. For example, on the cards depicting John McCain’s campaign, several politicians thought to be under consideration as his running mate wear “VP” badges, namely Mitt Romney, Haley Barbour and John Thune, whereas the surprise VP-candidate Sarah Palin does not appear on any of the cards. Likewise, the Clinton and Giuliani decks present hypothetical presidential campaigns for two politicians who failed in their bid for nomination by their parties. They are also far from being politically-correct, with the Barack Obama decks containing a caricature of Bill Clinton dressed in an apron and asking “do you really want me as first lady?”!
For the current 2024 election season, Parody Productions have produced a new edition of their Trump playing cards first issued in 2016. “The Donald” features on the King and Ace cards, and is accompanied by various family members on the other court cards. Supporters including Elon Musk, Nigel Farage, Tucker Carlson and Kanye West also appear, while “Sleepy Joe” is mocked on the joker, as which he is depicted wearing a jester’s hat.
While they may not have a great impact on voting outcomes, such playing cards nonetheless provide both a light-hearted and far-reaching way of communicating a political message. Indeed, the shuffle and the subsequent random dealing of cards to each player could even be said to reflect the democratic principles on which elections are held.
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Find Us
New York
PO Box 329, Larchmont, NY, USA
Opening hours, London Gallery
Monday to Friday: 10:00 – 18:00
Saturday: by appointment
Closed: all bank holidays and 1-31 August
Opening hours, New York
By appointment only