Tim Walz loves camo. Now Democrats do, too

Camo hats, the preferred accessory of hunters and military officers, are about to appear on the heads of your local progressive. And it’s all thanks to Tim Walz. Last week, Kamala Harris announced she had picked Walz to be her vice presidential running mate. Within 10 hours, her campaign designed a camouflage hat emblazoned with the Harris-Walz logo in orange. It’s a tribute to Walz, who is an avid hunter and regularly wears hats like this.Democrats, it turns out, are very into camo. The first run of 3,000 hats, which cost $40 a pop, sold out in less than 30 minutes. The campaign went on to sell a total of nearly $1 million in hats in 24 hours, which are expected to ship in October. Many other merchandise manufacturers are already capitalizing on the trend. You can already buy similar Harris-Walz camo hats on Amazon for $25.Part of what makes the camo hats so appealing is that they subvert expectations we have about Democrats. Camo is associated with hunting in rural America and to some extent the punk rock scene; meanwhile, Democrats are often caricatured as overeducated coastal elites more likely to be seen at the symphony than in a mosh pit or tree stand. But given how easily subcultures have co-opted the pattern over the years, this is an opportunity for the Democrats to make camo their own. And it allows Democrats to telegraph a new identity to the next generation of voters.Camouflaged model of Battleship Cruises at Boston: This diminutive reproduction of a battleship, camouflaged in approved fashion, is cruising along the Charles River in Boston. [Photo: Getty Images]The Genius of CamoCamouflage was born in the trenches of World War I. In 1914, the French military hired artists to create designs meant to hide military personnel and equipment, which became even more important with the invention of fighter jets. “[Camouflage could] make their locations less identifiable to aerial observers,” says Roy Behrens, a professor emeritus at the University of Northern Iowa and the author of False Colors: Art, Design, and Modern Camouflage.The camouflage patterns the artists developed were meant to mimic the colors and patterns of the natural world. “Areas of dark and light tone next to each other have the effect of breaking up shape and outline, especially when viewed from a distance,” writes Tim Newark in the book, Camouflage, written in association with the Imperial War Museum in London.Camouflage was a groundbreaking military innovation. It has been used in almost every war for more than 100 years, from the jungles of Vietnam to Ukraine winters. But since its invention, it has also been widely used by hunters, who need to be able to get close to their prey without being seen. In his book, Newark points out that there is a lot of overlap between military officers and hunters. It makes sense that soldiers trained to use a gun might enjoy shooting game as civilians. And both worlds have historically been coded as masculine.Walz’s background places him squarely in the worlds of the military and hunting, which explains why he is so often photographed wearing camo gear. He grew up in rural Nebraska and spent his adulthood in Minnesota, which are conservative strongholds. He enlisted in the National Guard at the age of 17, and went on to serve for the next two and a half decades. He is also known for his love of fishing and hunting. He’s the proud winner of the “Top Gun” award at the annual congressional clay shooting competition, held by the bipartisan Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus, of which he was the cochair. As a progressive Democrat, Walz is a foil to the conservative stereotype of hunters and guardsmen. But he seems to relish subverting cultural expectations. As a high school football coach, Walz advised the school’s gay-straight alliance, using his privilege as a heterosexual white man to support queer kids who might otherwise be bullied. As a congressman and governor, he showed up for events dressed in casual hunting gear or Carhartt jackets, which are all associated with Midwestern, working-class Americans rather than coastal elites. By wearing camo, Walz is trying to redefine what it means to be a Democrat. He’s making the case that you can be from a small town, join the army, love hunting, and still support progressive values.S1W and Chuck D of the rap group Public Enemy perform onstage at the Hammersmith Odeon on February 11, 1987, in London. [Photo: Getty Images]A History of Co-Opting CamoWalz is part of a long history of taking the cultural significance of camouflage and turning it on its head. In Newark’s book, he points out that very soon after camouflage became a symbol of warfare, it was co-opted by people who rejected war. In the 1960s, designers were already decorating military surplus camouflage jackets with anti-war messaging. “Protestors against the Vietnam War were among the first to turn this symbol of militarism against the powers that created it,” Newark writes.Then came the musicians. By the mid-1980s, hip-hop artists and metal bands were wearing camo as a statement. Members of Public Enemy, the hip-hop group that engaged with such topics as racism, wore black-and-white camo to promote its 1988 album It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back. Camo outfits continue to be popular at heavy metal and punk concerts. But in another twist, camo is also very popular at gay clubs, as a way of toying with ideas of masculinity.Then, there’s camo as a fashion icon. For decades, artists have embraced camouflage for its beauty and creativity, without necessarily having a particular political or social agenda. Newark describes how Andy Warhol created a series of camouflage prints and paintings in 1986 based on standard patterns used by the U.S. Army, but replacing the dark colors with garish pinks, yellows, and blues. In 1987, fashion designer Stephen Sprouse used these patterns in a clothing collection, creating one of the earliest examples of camo in high fashion. Today, camo is a classic pattern in clothing, used by brands ranging from Gap to Lululemon.[Photo: Chappell Roan]The Democrats are in Their Camo EraEven though camo has trickled down into almost every aspect of American culture, it is not entirely devoid of meaning. Consider Chappell Roan, the pop star whose camo hat is almost identical to the new Harris-Walz version. Roan’s hat is grounded in the singer’s very specific identity. Roan is proud of her Midwestern roots, but is also openly queer, both through her lyrics and her outfits, which take a page from drag. On the one hand, the camo hat is a way to reinforce her allegiance to Middle America, but it is also part of the tradition of gay culture appropriating camo as a symbol of masculinity. And then, it can also be a cute fashion statement.The Harris-Walz camo hat works with a similar logic. It’s a way for Democrats to show that it’s possible to embrace Middle American culture and traditionally male-oriented pursuits, while also supporting LGBTQ+ rights and reproductive freedom. The power of juxtaposing these cultural forces is not lost on the Harris-Walz campaign—it’s part of the reason Walz was chosen in the first place. Given how quickly the Harris-Walz campaign created the hat, it’s unlikely that they were imbuing it with all this cultural significance. But it’s a clever piece of merchandising, one that spurs a gut reaction.The University of Iowa’s Behrens also points out that there’s some poetic symmetry in the fact that the Trump campaign had a lot of success with its red MAGA hat. Finally, the Democrats have a competing hat that signals what they stand for. “There is now—as there was not when aging Joe Biden was the candidate—a sense that there may be a true contest between two evenly matched competitors,” he says. “And so, what better symbol of that than a balanced battle of hats, in which the Harris-Walz camouflage cap takes on that MAGA hat.”