Signs

I live in a traditionally Blue city, and the way elections usually go you see a bunch of signs on houses before the primary, but you don’t see a lot before the general election in November. And signs for the presidential candidate are rare, since they usually focus on state and local candidates. This year is different.

Whether it’s an indication of support for Kamala Harris, or disgust with Trump, well, I’ll leave that for the social scientists to say. But this isn’t a normal year. Right when the Democrats were about to formally endorse her in August, even before the official convention, handmade signs were being posted for Harris.

Before Walz was even nominated, people were putting up signs with just Harris’s name. This one appears to be official, with a call to action asking people to text the campaign. There’s a union “bug” in the bottom right corner indicating the printing job went to a union shop, and fine print at the bottom suggests this sign was vetted by campaign lawyers.

Here you see a handmade anti-Trump sign, combined with an early Harris-only sticker.

This one also has the “bug” and some kind of disclaimer, suggesting it can be traced back to the campaign.

And as you could have predicted, signs in the style of Shepard Fairey’s famous HOPE poster for Obama started showing up, along with posters mocking J.D. Vance’s nutjob ideas about women who own cats. And of course Walz’s name started appearing on signs too.

You could even see Shepard Fairey-style posters combined with different religious figures.

The widespread number of signs with all kinds of designs and no clear consistency suggests that people have been just ordering whatever they could find, even before the campaign was ready to meet demand.

If you’re a campaign trying to go from zero to sixty, you can think of worse problems. You just want the signs out there. Do you complain if this car sticker has a different color scheme?

Or if this color scheme isn’t consistent?

I’m guessing they’re happy with every bit of visual support they get. And if someone adds the tag at the bottom “NOT WEIRD AND CREEPY – NOT CONVICTED FELONS” then you just roll with it.

In parts of the state with a lot of red voters you can see a lot of identical, regimented cookie cutter signs for Republicans lining the sides of roads. But this kind of spontaneous, uncoordinated, and very widespread display for Harris is very welcome, whatever it implies for November.