GOP Rivals’ Merch Stores Are Open
A look at the products and messages being sold to supporters by the candidates for president.
As candidates seeking the Republican nomination for president throw their hats into the ring, their campaigns are offering hats for sale—along with a whole bunch of other stuff, from T-shirts to yard signs to sunglasses straps. Besides helping spread campaign messaging, these sales draw in revenue that can, in turn, be transformed into TV ads.
Under the law, buying merchandise from federal candidates is the same as donating money to their campaigns. The Federal Election Commission website notes that “the entire amount paid to . . . purchase a fundraising item sold by a political committee is a contribution and counts against the individual’s contribution limit.” In other words, someone who gives former President Donald Trump the $3,300 per-election maximum and then buys a $45 cap from his campaign is breaking the law. (If caught, of course, they can cry bloody murder about the weaponization of the federal government.)
Here’s a rundown of the merch being offered by the campaigns of declared contenders. Each link reflects the name of the candidate’s actual store page. Merch counts were tallied on June 19.
Asa Hutchinson
The former Arkansas governor’s simple slogan, splayed on T-shirts, golf balls, membership cards, buttons, bumper stickers, beverage coolers, tote bags, and “White Mesh Trucker” hats, is “Asa for America.” This provides some pleasing alliteration; helps clarify that this is his name, not “Ada,” as Trump likes to call him; and justifies the campaign’s relentless use of the colors red, white, and blue. The only available merch that leaves these colors in the lurch is Hutchinson’s “Sportsmen Camo Structured Hat,” which is camo-patterned as well as gender exclusive, at least in name. Eight of the 18 featured products on Hutchinson’s site have the word “white” in their names. Prices range from $12 to $48.
Tim Scott
The black U.S. senator from South Carolina offers merchandise from shirts to socks to caps to a “Tim Scott Logo Sunglasses Strap.” He also sells something called a “FAITH Tumbler,” which, apart from the FAITH design, is otherwise identical to the item sold as “Tumbler.” (Kudos to Scott for providing a secular alternative.) The campaign’s main message, “Tim Scott / Faith In America,” appears on most items. The 18-product array includes “GREAT SCOTT!” T-shirts, sweatshirts, and stickers. Prices range from $7 (the stickers) to $65 (sweatshirts).
Mike Pence
No official merchandise page
Mike Pence was arguably a bit late in finding fault with Donald Trump for getting his supporters to storm the Capitol seeking to hang him; the former vice president had to mull it over for a couple of years before disclosing how diddly-dang angry it made him. He may also have been a tad tardy in entering the 2024 race, which everyone knew he was going to do. Turns out Pence is also a bit behind in getting his merch out. There appears to be no portal on his campaign website to any sort of store. You can’t buy a thing except his love, at suggested amounts ranging from $15 to $1,500.
That said, 'Pence for President' merchandise is not hard to come by. A Google search for those words brings up dozens of items available for purchase by private vendors, including Mike Pence For President 2024 Campaign Scented Candles and Mike Pence Drinking Glasses. One can even buy a lifesize Mike Pence cardboard cutout, which appears indistinguishable from the original.
But the problem with calling attention to merch offered by the private entrepreneurs is that it does not necessarily reflect the views of the candidate, as the official stuff would. For instance, a company called CafePress sells a $16.55 Pence for President coffee mug that also bears the words “TRUMP? Never Heard of Him.” Pence would never say that—unless Trump asked him to. Perhaps that’s why they also sell a “magic” version that hides the inscription until you fill the mug with hot water.
Nikki Haley
The former governor of South Carolina and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under Trump prominently displays the button for “Store” at the very top of her campaign website. And no wonder, as it contains an impressive array of refreshingly plucky products. There are “Nikki for President” golf balls, T-shirts, hats, and flags, along with other merch bearing such sassy slogans as “Sometimes it Takes a Woman” and “In My Prime”—a nod to Don Lemon’s career-killing claim that she was past it. There’s even an adorable foam can cooler with the words “Past My Prime?” on one side and “Hold My Beer” on the other.
The site also sells tumblers, tees, and stickers that say “Women for Haley” and “Veterans for Haley,” proclaim “Strong & Proud NOT Weak & Woke,” and include her incomprehensibly inane quote, “Winners do what losers don’t want to.” The only piece of merch in Haley’s more-than-50 featured products that takes any kind of a shot at her rivals is a sticker that scolds, “Shame on you, Presiden Biden.” Prices run from $5 (a button) to $99 (“full-zip jacket”).
Ron DeSantis
Grab Your Official Merchandise
The Florida governor’s merch site is as deeply uninspired as every other aspect of his campaign. It contains fewer than three dozen items, most saying the same three words: “DeSantis for President.” There are a few items that say “Great American Comeback” and “RD24,” which stands for, you guessed it, Ron DeSantis 2024. One T-shirt features a knockoff MAGA-type slogan—“Restore America.” Only a handful of products say anything else: a T-shirt that has “I’m a DeSantis Republican” on the front and “Freedom Lives Here” on the back; a “Youth T-Shirt” that says “Future Freedom Voter” on the back; a T-shirt with the belligerent inscription “Stop Pussyfooting Around” on the back; and a $65 quarter-zip pullover that features a backside drawing of an alligator with the message “Where Woke Goes to Die.” DeSantis’s merch site is where campaigns go to sleep.
Chris Christie
No official merchandise page
Here’s another guy who has somehow managed to launch a campaign with a website devoid of official merch. In fact, the former New Jersey governor’s site appears to contain nothing at all beyond a donation page and a YouTube clip. As with Pence, it is easy to find Chris Christie merch through private vendors. Among the scores of items available on the free market: “Christie 2024” socks, an Obamaesque campaign poster, and a “Christie 2024 Republican PopSockets Swappable PopGrip,” a suction cup thing you use on a phone that appears to lack any actual reference to Christie on it.
Doug Burgum
The former governor of North Dakota’s preponderant merch message is “Doug 24 Burgum,” which sandwiches the year of the election between the two parts of his name. The campaign is also selling an adorable “Doug Burgum for America” baby bodysuit and a bumper sticker that proclaims “New Leader for a Changing Economy”; the candidate’s name is barely visible. There are 18 featured items ranging from $12 all the way up to $35. Notwithstanding his nice-looking logo, something about Burgum’s campaign shouts “Not Ready for Prime Time.”
Larry Elder
The conservative commentor’s pathetic merch site offers just four options: a T-shirt, a hat, a sticker set, and a yard sign. Dude, don’t waste our time.
Francis Suarez
The latest entrant into the GOP presidential sweepstakes, hard-right Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, has 19 featured products, all bumper stickers, hats, mugs, and tees. His main recurring symbols are the sun, palm trees, and the American flag; he also experiments with vaporwave motifs, blocks of trendily formatted text, and images of Joe Biden peeking out of a garbage can (“Dump Joe Biden”). His one clever touch is selling items decorated with a Twitter post in which he asks, “How can I help?” The answer is obvious: More stuff.
Vivek Ramaswamy
Perhaps in recognition of his lack of name recognition, the former tech and finance executive has leapt into the race with a vast war chest of campaign merchandise. There are 66 featured products, mostly tees but also signs, caps, cups, and copies of his 2021 book, Woke, Inc. Almost all include the name “Vivek,” or in some cases “Vek” or “V.” None except for the book cover mention “Ramaswamy.” The candidate’s teeming mass of messages include: “Excellence Over Politics,” “Keep America Free,” “Save America—Vote Vivek,” “Stop Wokeism—Vote Vivek,” “The New American Dream,” “VEK-TORIOUS,” “Courage is Contagious,” “Don’t Tread on Vek,” “Say the Quiet Part Out Loud,” “Free Thinking American,” and “Truth.” One design for shirts and coffee mugs lists four words, the first three crossed out: Transgenderism, Climatism, Wokeism, Truth.” How can he lose?
Donald Trump
The former president and undisputed King of Merch enters his third campaign with nearly 100 featured products—shirts, caps, bumper stickers, signs, mugs, buttons, beverage coolers, and stickers. The messages include “America’s Favorite President,” “Trump Was Right About Everything,” “I Stand With Trump,” and “Trump Country”; that last message can be customized to appear over an outline of specific states like Iowa and Nevada. There’s one T-shirt that pictures Biden standing at a podium with a banner that says “Nation In Decline.” Only a few items include Trump’s own image, including one T-shirt where he is shown wearing a crown and being proclaimed the “MAGA King,” and another that puts a fake mugshot over the words “Not Guilty.” That’s only true if the crime is good taste.
In case you’re wondering . . .
Joe Biden
The current president’s campaign store carries a notably meager array of 26 items, including tees, mugs, totes, and stickers. Most just say “Biden/Harris.” A few feature only Harris or pride flags. The most expensive item in the mix is a $65 “Pride Flag Embroidered Crewneck Sweater.” The weirdest are the “Dark” images of Joe Biden with red glowing eyes, a riff off the Dark Brandon meme.
