2026’s Missed Opportunity: Better Campaign Merch

While we’re ticking down the days to November 3, I have a particular gripe I want to air.

It’s one that pertains to both sides of the aisle.

The gripe is this: What the hell happened to all the good campaign merch?

I started researching what campaigns were selling to boost their finances last week, prompted by my team having noticed a few weeks ago a particular piece of campaign merch that dovetailed with something that is of professional interest to us. I thought it would be interesting to see if it really was a one-off.

What I found appalled me. Basically, candidates of all stripes are selling the same old, boring swag: Branded T-shirts, tote bags, coozies, lame bumper stickers, and hats with their names or logos or slogans (or two of the three) on them.

Because Americans don’t have enough crappy canvas tote bags.

Honestly.