--- title: Election 2016: See All of TIME's Election Special Covers description: From 1952 to 2012—after decades without election results specials—TIME has commemorated the results of presidential elections on its cover canonical: https://time.com/4561118/election-special-issues-history/ author: Olivia B. Waxman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-11-08T19:02:49.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:59:21.382Z article:section: History og:title: See Winning Presidents on the Cover of TIME Dating Back to 1952 og:description: How TIME announced presidential victories og:url: https://time.com/4561118/election-special-issues-history/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc2370ec63eba0e2d/6988ad59bc6cfc1baa3df3a9/521110_720.jpg?branch=production&width=1080&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: 1952 election og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: See Winning Presidents on the Cover of TIME Dating Back to 1952 twitter:description: How TIME announced presidential victories twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc2370ec63eba0e2d/6988ad59bc6cfc1baa3df3a9/521110_720.jpg?branch=production&width=1080&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # See Winning Presidents on the Cover of TIME Dating Back to 1952  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Nov 8, 2016 7:02 PM UTC  The 1952 Election Special cover of TIME The 1952 Election Special cover of TIMEBoris Artzybasheff  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Nov 8, 2016 7:02 PM UTC Though [TIME ](http://www.time.com)published its first issue in 1923, several presidential elections passed before the first special presidential election issue trumpeted the victor on the cover. By that point, Franklin Delano Roosevelt had been elected four times, serving from 1933 up until his death in 1945, and his successor Harry S. Truman—inaugurated April 12, 1945, following FDR’s death—had eked out a[ famous upset](http://time.com/3879744/dewey-defeats-truman-the-story-behind-a-classic-political-photo/) against New York’s Republican Governor Thomas E. Dewey in 1948. In 1952, the Republican Party won back control of the White House in a landslide victory when Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower and running mate Richard Nixon defeated Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson and his running-mate John Sparkman. TIME underscored the enormity of the people’s choice by quoting the Declaration of Independence on the cover: “Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” Framing the results as a “ballot-box revolution,” the magazine went on to argue that “The U.S. is more genuinely united behind the President-elect than it has been for many years. Few Presidents in U.S. history have had so clear a mandate from so many divergent groups. It is, in fact, a mandate for a fresh start in the U.S.’s dealings with the world and with itself.” [_Get your history fix in one place: sign up for the weekly TIME History newsletter_](http://time.com/newsletter) The world will find out on Tuesday night whether the next such winner is elected by a similar mandate. In the meantime, here are the words and images with which TIME has announced the presidential victories of decades past.  The 2012 Election Special cover of TIME Jason Reed—Reuters  The 2008 Election Special cover of TIME TIME  The 2004 Election Special cover of TIME TIME  The 2000 Election Special cover of TIME TIME  The 1996 Election Special cover of TIME Steve Liss  The 1992 Election Special cover of TIME Steve Liss  The 1988 Election Special cover of TIME Cynthia Johnson  The 1984 Election Special cover of TIME Dirck Halstead  The 1980 Election Special cover of TIME Michael Evans  The 1976 Election Special cover of TIME Arnold Newman  The 1972 Election Special cover of TIME Dirck Halstead  The 1968 Election Special cover of TIME TIME  The 1964 Election Special cover of TIME Walter Bennett  The 1960 Election Special cover of TIME Boris Chaliapin  The 1956 Election Special cover of TIME James Chapin  The 1952 Election Special cover of TIME Boris Artzybasheff ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4561118/election-special-issues-history/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4561118/election-special-issues-history/"},"headline":"See Winning Presidents on the Cover of TIME Dating Back to 1952","datePublished":"2016-11-08T19:02:49.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:59:21.382Z","description":"How TIME announced presidential victories","url":"https://time.com/4561118/election-special-issues-history/","keywords":["Media","politics","photography"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc2370ec63eba0e2d/6988ad59bc6cfc1baa3df3a9/521110_720.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Olivia B. 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