The 1984 New Hampshire Democratic presidential primary enters Warhol’s diary through an abrupt collision between electoral news and a celebrity-cover assignment. Gary Hart’s upset of Walter Mondale displaced a planned Michael Jackson cover, leaving Warhol uncertain whether the magazine might use his work later or was simply avoiding his price.

The result and the assignment

On Wednesday, February 29, 1984, Warhol recorded that Time had sent down a picture of Michael Jackson and that he was set to do the cover. The plan changed after Hart upset Mondale in the New Hampshire primary. Warhol described the result as “stupid Hart upset Mondale in the New Hampshire primary,” tying the political development directly to the magazine’s change of direction.

A cover dropped

Time dropped the Michael Jackson cover after the primary result. The magazine told Warhol it might run the cover another week, but he doubted that would happen. The diary does not establish whether the political news alone determined the decision; it records the election result and the cover’s cancellation as closely connected developments.

Warhol’s explanation

Warhol considered the possibility that the proposed delay was a way to get out of paying his price. He also allowed for a more straightforward explanation: Time was a news magazine, and the primary result had made political news more pressing than the planned celebrity cover. The episode shows how quickly his commissioned work could be reshaped by the magazine’s editorial priorities, while leaving his suspicion about the business motive unresolved.