D.C. Dems' new status symbol: The camo Harris-Walz hat
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Photo: Courtesy of Harris for President
D.C. liberals' newest status symbol might be a camo hat that says "Harris-Walz."
Why it matters: A few hours after the news broke on Tuesday that Vice President Kamala Harris had selected Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate, her campaign store dropped new swag. And one item emerged as an immediate internet favorite.
- The $40 camo hat sold out in 30 minutes, with 3,000 orders. Now it's only available for pre-order, with an expected October release date. As of late Wednesday, sales have totaled almost $1 million, the campaign tells Axios.
Between the lines: The hat is a nod to the one Walz is wearing in the video in which Harris calls to ask him to be her running mate.
- It's also similar to a hat sold by the mega-popular singer Chappell Roan — and the very online wasted no time comparing the two "Midwest Princesses." (Former President Trump's got a camo hat too.)
The big picture: This whiplash election cycle has sent Washingtonians scrambling to flex support for their new candidates (no one was quite as quick as that Metro rider rocking a Harris 2024 tee 24 hours after President Biden dropped out of the race).
- All this turnover means longstanding emblems have suddenly become passé — think "Dark Brandon" or "Let's Go Brandon" merch, some of which have now been discounted.
Zoom in: A plethora of Harris-Walz drip flooded Etsy in the hours after the announcement.
- Think: brat-coded T-shirts, a "Cats for Harris-Walz" top (a riff on Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance's "childless cat ladies" comment), coconut tree bumper stickers, or a shirt playing off of Walz's messaging that Republicans are "weird."
- And, yes, there's even a shirt that reads "Ballz to the Walz" above an image of a bald eagle wearing aviator glasses.
Elsewhere in the Harrisverse, there's now an entire section of her campaign store dedicated to second gentleman swag.
- All the D-Unit merch features a pic of a young Doug Emhoff that the internet quickly heralded for its thirst trap-iness.
The intrigue: Some Trump-Vance merch embraces the criticisms Dems have lobbed against the GOP nominees, such as a shirt that says, "Keepin' It Weird: Trump-Vance."
Editor's note: This story has been corrected to say the Harris-Walz campaign made nearly $1 million in camo hat sales as of late Wednesday (not from the initial 3,000 orders that sold out).