From 2004

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2004-aug-02-et-rivenburg2-story.html

"It’s a campaign tradition dating to the 1800s. But it’s gotten out of hand in recent years. In 1984, President Reagan called the race against Democrat Walter Mondale “the most important choice in modern times.” And so it remained until the next election in 1988, when George Bush declared his bid to prevent Michael Dukakis from occupying the White House “the most important choice in a generation.”
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Of course, that was nothing compared with 1992, when vice presidential hopeful Al Gore told crowds that the Nov. 3 election could be the most important ever. Not surprisingly, 1992 was eventually upstaged by 1996 and 2000.

If presidential elections get any more “important,” life as we know it might cease to exist.

“Every election, we always say this is the most important election ever. But this year we really mean it,” a Sierra Club spokesman told USA Today four years ago, when George W. Bush and Al Gore squared off."