TheĀ Kamala Harris-Tim Walz camouflageĀ āmidwest princessā hat, seemingly inspired by singerĀ Chappell Roan, has reached nearly $1m in sales in 24 hours.
On August 6, Vice President Harris declared the Minnesota governor as her Democratic running mate for the 2024 presidential election this November. In the official announcement video posted by Harris, an ecstatic Walz was featured, celebrating his bid as her vice president candidate from the comfort of his home. The 60-year-old politician dressed in a simple outfit: a black T-shirt, khaki bottoms, and a camouflage baseball cap.
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The $40 āHarris-Walz Camo Hatā is available on theĀ campaignās website. According toĀ Teen Vogue, 3,000 hats were sold within 30 minutes of the sale going live. Since then, sales have amounted to nearly $1m, according toĀ Teen Vogueās report.
On the website, the hat is said to be āAmerican made, union madeā and all profits go to the Harris Victory Fund. āThe most iconic political hat in America,ā the description reads. And Bon Iver thinks so as well. The iconic musician was photographed wearing it on stage at a Harris-Walz campaign rally in Wisconisn on August 7.
Iām really dismayed by your political system - I canāt put into words how much it disturbs me. I know itās a good thing that the Harris Walz campaign is doing well, but all I hear when seeing news like this is how much money politicians are taking from āaverageā people to give to insanely rich advertising firms, to develop ads, and even more insanely rich media corporations, to run them. Itās messed up.
Itās not all ads and media. Itās a little tough to get a good source on it, but somewhere between 30 and 50% seem to go to ads based on some older campaigns. The rest go to things like operations (offices, staff), consulting (political strategy, focus groups, etc) and other smaller things like travel and supplies and such.
Those later things can make a bigger difference than the ads, too. If Hillary spent better on her operations in Michigan, for instance, her team would have been more aware of her vulnerabilities. More money wouldnāt have helped there, though, as her campaign was already flush with cash and was misspending it on places like Florida.
Ideally campaigns would be funded via taxes, merch sold purely at cost, and strict laws against soliciting donations or running privately funded ads
There is no need for official political merch anyway, itās not a band or a sports team. I donāt mind if people or associations make and wear them, bit why does a political party need to sell stuff?
The same reason that PBS sells tote bags.
How so? Even if itās a no-profit, PBS is still a business. Even though they are operated like one in the US, political parties are not supposed to be businesses.
To raise funds in order to keep operations going.