Election Day

In his diary, Election Day is less a report on voting than a record of how politics was encountered through travel, invitations, and a carefully staged party. On November 6, 1984, Andy Warhol went to Washington, D.C., with Fred Hughes and Jean-Michel Basquiat; the day’s political setting supplied a backdrop for the group’s social routines and Warhol’s dry observations.

A rushed start and an invitation left out

The entry begins with a strained morning. Warhol was ready by eight, but Fred Hughes seemed exhausted and rambling when Warhol called him. About an hour later, they had reached the District of Columbia. Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia joined them, while her daughter, Catherine Oxenberg, was expected later because she was beginning work on Dynasty the following week.

Some members of the party went to the White House, but Warhol and the others were not invited and stayed in their hotel rooms. The small exclusion sets the tone for the day: proximity to political power did not guarantee access to its central rooms. The diary notes the distinction without turning it into a grievance or explaining who determined the guest list.

The presidential yacht and the evening party

After an expensive lunch, during which Jean-Michel Basquiat ordered a 1966 Château Latour priced at $200, the group went by limousine to the Sequoia, the presidential yacht. Warhol describes the outing as cold, miserable, and growing dark, and remarks that the gathering was composed of the same familiar people. Peter Max attended with his girlfriend, whom Warhol recognized as a model from Heaven’s Gate, and Warhol spoke with Chip Carter.

Back at the hotel, Jean-Michel Basquiat rolled a joint, and the group ordered dinner, which Warhol disliked. Fred Hughes discovered that he had only yellow socks to wear with brown shoes and therefore could not wear his black suit. The detail makes the day’s public formality concrete: the clothes expected for a political gathering could be undone by an ordinary mismatch.

Warhol was also stopped by Entertainment Tonight and asked whom he had voted for. He answered, “For the winner,” and, when asked who that was, replied, “The winner is the winner.” The exchange offered no clear account of his vote; instead, it turned an election question into a brief, evasive performance for television.

At the Weismans’ “Non-partisan Party,” Warhol photographed Melvin Laird dancing. He observed that the party was called nonpartisan because the Weismans had hosted a Democratic gathering at the previous election, while this time the guests were Democrats pretending to be Republicans. The evening’s political identity thus rested on a social fiction that the diary records as part of the entertainment.

The day as a social record

The entry’s emphasis falls on who was present, where the group could go, what they ate, and how they appeared, rather than on candidates, policy, or the result. The White House visit that some guests made, the yacht gathering, Warhol’s television encounter, and the party’s performed political neutrality form the day’s sequence. Election Day registers as a passage through elite social spaces, with access and presentation more visible in the account than electoral decision-making.

The diary continues into November 7, when Warhol called Jean-Michel Basquiat’s room before the group left for the airport. That brief continuation places the Washington gathering within the practical rhythm of an overnight trip rather than giving it a ceremonial ending. The election remains the occasion for the journey, but Warhol’s record preserves the contingent particulars around it: the missed invitation, the costly wine, the unsuitable socks, and a party whose guests were described as pretending to belong to the other side.