Within thirty minutes of being released, soon after Tim Walz was selected as Kamala Harris’s Vice-Presidential nominee, 3,000 camouflage hats with “HARRIS WALZ” written in orange lettering sold out online.
American-made and Union-printed, nearly $2 million worth of the hats were sold quickly after. The product, which can be found on the Harris campaign’s website, is now on backorder until mid-October and has taken the internet by storm.
The brilliance and duality of this hat is the reason for its branding success — for certain Gen Z supporters, the hat is perceived as “camp” and alludes to LGBTQ rights, and for other rural supporters, the hat appeals to their country roots.
No matter which category voters fall under, this hat is the first substantial marketing success the Democrats have had since the beginning of Donald Trump’s political career.
To understand why the hat appeals to younger voters, you must understand who Chappell Roan is and how her ‘80s synth, hyper-pop music has taken the music world by storm. Similar to Walz, she experienced a rapid rise to notoriety and is seen as providing refreshing authenticity within her industry, garnering a large fan base.
Born in Missouri, Chappell Roan (Kayleigh Rose Amstutz) loved music from an early age and grew up in a highly Christian, conservative family before eventually moving to Hollywood, Calif. where she felt more comfortable and accepted in her queer identity.
“I grew up thinking being gay was bad and a sin,” she told The Guardian. “I went to a gay club once, and it was so impactful, like magic. It was the opposite of everything I was taught.”
She wrote “Pink Pony Club” describing this experience, now featured on her break-out album “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess.” Her music gives light to the queer experience in the Midwest and other traditionally conservative areas of the country, a story that breaks the typical expectation of what Midwesterners are “supposed” to act like and identify as. As a play on her upbringing, she began selling camouflaged hats that read “Midwest Princess” to fans — a style the Harris-Walz campaign would soon recreate.
A year before Chappell Roan was even born and a few states north of Missouri, Mankato West High School’s principal was in the process of selecting an advisor for the new gay-straight alliance club. He selected the school’s football coach and geography teacher — Walz.
“It was important to have a person who was so well-liked on campus, a football coach who had served in the military,” said Jacob Reitan, a former member of the alliance, to The New York Times.
Walz was chosen to be the advisor for many of the same reasons many speculate he was chosen for Harris’s Vice-Presidential nominee: he defies the stereotype of what a modern-day liberal looks like and is popular, having been repeatedly re-elected as governor of Minnesota.
Walz was born in a conservative state, served in the military, identifies as straight, is working class and owns no stocks, bonds or a home. He offers an alternative identity to J.D. Vance’s version of rural America, outlined in his highly controversial memoir “Hillbilly Elegy.” Recently, the Pew Research Center has found that Walz is viewed more positively than Vance.
Although no singular area can be generalized as holding one specific set of ideals, rural America is often seen as more conservative whereas urban areas are seen as more liberal. Walz represents populations in the Midwest who don’t believe Donald Trump’s values align with the spirit of their communities and character — embodying an overlooked experience, similar to Chappell Roan.
Thus, he’s been deemed the Democrat’s “Midwest Princess,” and the iconic hat was born. The camouflaged hat is brilliant marketing from the Democrats as it represents two different, yet overlooked groups in an area of the country that is also often misrepresented or stereotyped. It also functions as an opposition to arguably the most infamous American political marketing: Trump’s bright red “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) hat.
The red hat and accompanying phrase have come to be loaded with political implications and is associated largely with rural, working-class communities. The new Harris-Walz hat serves as a literal and metaphorical retort to how their communities and beliefs are represented — the Democrats are attempting to rebrand to finally catch up to the republicans.
The Harris-Walz hat is a result of a conscious change in the marketing of the Democratic party and in many ways, Walz is in the forefront of the shift. He’s called Trump and Vance “creepy” and “weird,” and news organizations such as Vanity Fair and The Atlantic have dissected the ways in which Walz is fundamental to the party’s rebranding as normal and non-elitist.
The Democrats have stopped playing by the old rules and niceties of American politics and are ready to play by Trump’s rules. @kamalahq on TikTok has used Charli XCX and Chappell Roan’s music to make edits making fun of Trump and fangirling Harris and Walz, a tactic that has been used by Trump’s team for awhile.
As America’s political landscape seems to stray further from a battle of policies and closer to a battle of internet memes and strategic marketing, time will tell who wins the war of the baseball caps.
