Harris campaign releases viral, Chappell Roan-inspired ‘Midwest Princess’ merch: ‘Is this real?’
Kamala Harris and Tim Walz’s 2024 presidential campaign features Chappell Roan-inspired merch. (Josh Brasted/Andrew Harnik/Getty)
The 2024 presidential election is set to be the battle of the caps, with Donald Trump’s famous MAGA red hat facing stiff competition from new Harris/Walz merch that pays homage to pop girl Chappell Roan.
The merch for Harris and Tim Walz, who has been named as Harris’s choice for vice-president on the Democrat ticket, includes a camouflage-print cap with “Harris Walz” embroidered on the front.
Harris became the Democratic nominee for the presidency after Joe Biden announced his decision not to seek re-election.
The campaign hats have now gone viral after it was pointed out there are uncanny similarities to Roan’s merch for her debut album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess.
Not only are both hats camo-print, but they also feature capital letter text in orange.
Director of strategic planning for mobilisation for the Democratic National Committee Hester Leyser posted: “For all the midwest princesses out there – you asked, we answered.”
It’s unclear whether the lesbian pop star was involved in the merch drop as she asked “is this real?” on X in response to a post that compared her Midwest Princess merch with Harris and Walz’s campaign hat.
Many people were, frankly, flabbergasted by the move; one user posted: “The branding coming out of this campaign is top tier.”
Another shared: “Also not to continue to be a marketing dork but I genuinely think actually capitalizing on social listening like this could win the election.”
The “Harris Walz” hats were originally on preorder for 23 September.
However, seemingly due to high demand, the shipping date has now been updated to 14 October.
Every purchase will serve as a donation to the Harris Victory Fund, a joint fundraising committee supporting Harris’s presidential campaign as well as Democrats nationwide.
Promoting the merch, and his campaign, Walz posted a picture of himself wearing the hat after a Democratic rally.
“Capping off the night,” he captioned the post. Pun king!
Walz has a supportive stance on LGBTQ+ rights, from signing a bill protecting trans youth and their families to working as a high school’s gay-straight alliance advisor in the 1990s.
“Hot To Go” hitmaker Chappell Roan found herself linked to Harris’ campaign even before the hats came out.
Harris pitched herself as the best alternative to Trump in a video edit scored to Roan’s iconic lesbian hit “Femininomenon”.
What’s more, Roan is not the only pop queen Harris has embraced during her campaign to date.
Charli XCX has officially backed Harris by declaring that “Kamala is brat” after Harris embraced the “Brat”-inspired branding.
Also, Beyoncé recently gave her blessing to use the song “Freedom” as the vice-president hit the campaign trail.
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