Election merchandise ready to fly off the shelves as presidential race is set

After President Biden dropped out of the presidential race one month ago, campaign merchandise was all but vetoed. Yard signs, buttons, and shirts that advertised the Biden-Harris ticket were reduced to nostalgic collector's items. 

It's been two weeks since Vice President Kamala Harris announced Governor Tim Walz as her running mate – enough time for new merchandise for the Democrats' new presidential ticket to be made. 

At the Democratic Headquarters of the Desert in Cathedral City, excited patrons were streaming in to purchase new Harris-Walz campaign merchandise, as well as merchandise for local politicians here in the Coachella Valley.

"This is my third visit hoping that merch is here. And finally, it is," one customer said as he was leaving, arms full with a yard sign and T-shirts.

Elle Kurpiewski, the Political Director at the Democratic Headquarters, has been busy over the past week. The organization had fully restocked by the end of last week; in the few days since then, a mountain of brand-new Harris-Walz T-shirts have been reduced to a select few.

"I can tell folks that we are absolutely — we've got everything on order. Again, we are reordering and we're waiting for new shipments because stuff is going fast," Kurpiewski says.

Kurpiewski has been especially blown away by the energy of the people who enter the store. "Yes, it has been overwhelming – 'happy overwhelming.' It's been very good. And we're very excited about what's been happening and how, again, how people are feeling. People are coming in – and ... they're happy."

For the Republicans at the Patriot Store in Palm Desert today, activity was a little slower than their Democratic counterpart. However, they say they saw similar trends when former President Trump announced J.D. Vance as his running mate.

"Once Trump picked his vice presidential running mate, we obviously started stocking that. And everybody —  we've got — we call people because they're like, ‘When are you getting that in?’ So then we have to make phone calls and then people come in and they just start picking things up," recalls Mary Suriano, a volunteer at the Patriot Store.

Both sides, though, encourage everyone to get involved in the upcoming election by registering to vote.

You can visit the Riverside County Registrar of Voters' website to find more information on how to register to vote.