Texas U.S. Representative and former punk rocker Beto O’Rourke has officially declared that he is running for president in 2020. And you know what that means: He’s adding to our growing amount of 2020 campaign merchandise, which seems especially robust this election cycle due to the large number of Democratic nominees swearing off big money and courting small-dollar donations.
So, as we’ve done with the rest of the candidates thus far, we’re going to take a look at his merchandise offerings.
Beto O’Rourke doesn’t seem to have any policy positions on his campaign website yet — but he does have lots of merchandise for sale. https://t.co/IU9gq62K2T
— Jenna Johnson (@wpjenna) March 14, 2019
Our first impression is that we’ve seen this before. Where could that have been? Oh, yeah. Weezer’s awesome Black Metal Hub.
Possibly digging into his punk rock roots, Beto’s merchandise is all black-and-white themed. Since this is the first wave of merchandise, it’s not a surprise that it’s relatively sparse.
In terms of the actual items, you have your standard T-shirts, buttons, hats, stickers and yard signs. The most rock ‘n’ roll item on the list is a patch, which only really becomes rock ‘n’ roll when sewn onto an old, tattered denim jacket or vest.
Speaking of things like that, there are a few things Beto could do to really add some of his personality to his merchandise line.
A Beto for America bass guitar, touching on his past in touring post-hardcore and punk bands, would be pretty cool.
He’s also been known to ride around on a skateboard every now and again, so a Beto skateboard would be fitting, too. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy, just one of those retro plastic penny boards would be solid.
But, we’re not part of his campaign merchandise team. While he’s on this track, though, it couldn’t hurt to reach out to Weezer’s people. He might have a connection or two.
