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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Whimsical caucus souvenirs in demand as big night approaches

Duration: 02:15s 0 shares 1 views

Whimsical caucus souvenirs in demand as big night approaches
Whimsical caucus souvenirs in demand as big night approaches

As excitement mounts in Iowa over the approaching first-in-the-nation Democratic nominating contest, a quirky t-shirt and novelty goods store in Des Moines is joining in on the fun.

Colette Luke reports.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) MIKE DRAPER, FOUNDER AND OWNER OF RAYGUN, SAYING: "It is like having a small university dropped on to Des Moines every four years…" Meet Mike Draper.

He is the store owner of Raygun, which sells caucus-themed souvenirs in Des Moines, Iowa where the first presidential nominating contest will be held on Monday.

Every four years, journalists, volunteers and campaign staff descend on the midwestern state in their thousands to see who will be the first candidate to get a step closer to their party's nomination...and many of them stop into Draper's store.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) MIKE DRAPER, FOUNDER AND OWNER OF RAYGUN, SAYING: "This weekend will be wild and then the day after is pretty surreal.

You'll have staffers with roller bags on their way to the airport coming in to the store to get their last souvenirs and sometimes they're like, oh, I'm going to, like, Ohio, I'm going to Wyoming, I'm going to California.

Back in 2008, somebody was like, what are you guys going to do now?

And I was like, well, I live here, so I don't go anywhere.

I just wait until you come back in four years." Since the 2008 contest, Draper has been here selling whimsical and quirky items to take home, and this year it's much the same.

From Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders souvenirs to books written by the 2020 hopefuls, shoppers are able to buy and wear their favorite candidates.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) MIKE DRAPER, FOUNDER AND OWNER OF RAYGUN, SAYING: " So kind of the candidates that sell the most stuff are who you would expect.

We've done a lot in particular about the candidates, so Bernie Sanders 'I wrote the damn bill,' 'Give Pete a Chance,' 'Straight but not Straightforward,' also for Pete Buttigieg, and then 'two cents, two cents' for Elizabeth Warren.

They kind of moved the most product.

Kamala Harris moved a lot of stuff when she had the quote, like 'I'm effing moving to Iowa,' that really moved the needle saleswise.

We haven't had a lot of Biden stuff, just because he doesn't really speak in, like, catchphrases like other candidates." And what's one of the most popular selling t-shirts?

Draper said it's the special pre-caucus update shirt that lists all 24 Democratic candidates and crosses out the ones that are no longer in the race.

And as for those candidates like Kamala Harris and Cory Booker with early exits... Draper says they go to another section of the store.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) MIKE DRAPER, FOUNDER AND OWNER OF RAYGUN, SAYING: "As we say here, the winners go to New Hampshire, everybody else goes to Raygun's sale section."

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