Button, Ferraro-Bush Debate, Sally Ride

This campaign button was owned by Dr. Sally K. Ride. The button references the 1984 vice-presidential debate between Geraldine Ferraro and George H. W. Bush. Ride was a strong supporter of Ferraro, who would have been America's first female Vice President had she been elected. Ferraro's acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention cited Sally Ride's achievement as the first American woman in space as evidence that "change is in the air." Ride saw Ferraro's nomination as inspirational, and said about the DNC speech, "I was as moved by that as many women had been by my flight into space. For the first time, I understood why it was such an emotional experience for so many people, to see me accomplish what I had, as a woman." Ride visited Ferraro at her congressional office a few months prior to the election and posed for photos with her and a t-shirt that Ride had given her bearing the vice-presidential insignia.

Sally Ride became the first American woman in space when she flew aboard STS-7 in 1983. Her second and last space mission was STS-41G in 1984. A physicist with a Ph.D., she joined the astronaut corps in 1978 as a part of the first class of astronauts recruited specifically for the Space Shuttle Program. Viewed as a leader in the NASA community, she served on the Rogers Commission after the Challenger disaster in 1986 as well as the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) in 2003. She also led the task force that produced a visionary strategic planning report in 1987 titled, “NASA Leadership and America’s Future in Space,” but known popularly as the Ride Report.

After she retired from NASA in 1987, Dr. Ride taught first at Stanford and later at the University of California, San Diego. Until her death in 2012, she was president and CEO of Sally Ride Science, a company that promoted science education.

Dr. Ride’s partner, Dr. Tam O’Shaughnessy, donated the button to the Museum in 2013.