Rand Paul Brings First Wave of Official 2016 Campaign Merch

While Team Hillary in waiting is discounting whiskey glasses, newly announced 2016 candidate Rand Paul has launched his own campaign store.

The pro-Hillary Clinton super PAC, Ready for Hillary, is getting set for the Democratic presidential candidate to officially enter the presidential race. This afternoon, the group sent out an email to supporters announcing a 50 percent sale on whiskey glasses, mason jars, and Champagne glasses.

Ted Cruz, the first Republican to announce his 2016 presidential candidacy, and Ben Carson, who has launched an exploratory committee, do not appear to have campaign merchandise for sale yet at their respective sites. However, Rand came out of the gate with a diverse stock of swag available.

At Rand’s campaign store, the items range from regular signs and t-shirts to some products that are rather creative, including a mock eye exam chart sporting a campaign slogan, a webcam cover (to block NSA spies), a blanket covered in an image of the U.S. Constitution, or even a signed copy of said Constitution for a mere $1,000.00.

It’s hard to find a greater defender of the U.S. Constitution in the Halls of Congress than Rand Paul. As a Constitutional conservative, he makes it the core of everything he does in Washington. If you would like a signed Constitution in a neatly bound book, contribute $1,000 and we will send you one. It’s size is perfect for comfortable carrying in the pocket of a sport coat, a purse, laptop bag or in the back pocket of some worn out jeans.

Merchandising is  now part and parcel of the political process, even in the UK — as the Guardian points out.

If only political parties could make the merchandise everyone wants, like an Ed Miliband action figure that says “Hell yes” when you pull its string, or some David Cameron-endorsed designer kitchenware bearing the rousing campaign slogan “three-and-a-half-ish more years”. Instead, they persist in using their websites to flog a vast selection of deeply idiosyncratic “gifts”, as though you’d bestow any of these things on anyone without the express intention of starting a 30-year feud. Still, for those with precisely that aim in mind, here follows an edit of the most covetable pieces this election.