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Strategy May 13, 2019

‘Cocaine Mitch’ Swag Generates Campaign Funds, Stirs Controversy

‘Cocaine Mitch’ is a reference to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

By  Christopher Ruvo

Most everything in American political and civic life seems to be a source of controversy these days.

Add U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell’s latest campaign swag to the list.

The Senate Majority Leader recently launched T-shirts and stickers to help fund his reelection campaign. The promotional products play on his image as “Cocaine Mitch.”

It’s a kind of ironic embracing of what was initially intended as a slag. During the 2018 GOP Senate primary in West Virginia, then candidate Don Blankenship said in an ad that he would “ditch ‘Cocaine Mitch’” if elected. Blankenship was trying to connect McConnell to a report that 90 pounds of cocaine was found on a ship owned by the Senate Majority Leader’s father-in-law – James S.C. Chao, a shipping magnate. McConnell’s wife is U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao.

While Blankenship lost the primary, the ‘Cocaine Mitch’ nickname stuck. Rather than fight the intended insult, however, McConnell’s campaign has welcomed it in an affirmation expressed through promotional products. “Team Mitch” released red T-shirts that show McConnell’s faceless silhouette surrounded by cocaine dust. The design is a nod to the Netflix series “Narcos,” which centers on deceased Colombian drug czar Pablo Escobar. Text on the back of the tees reads “Cartel Member.” Stickers bare the same design.

‘Cocaine Mitch’ sticker is available here.

“A year ago, conspiracy theorists and liberal bloggers started calling Senator McConnell ‘Cocaine Mitch’ – and we decided to just embrace it,” says McConnell’s website. “Like that, the legend of Cocaine Mitch was born.”

The Cocaine Mitch marketing push is trending, finding particular favor with some conservatives who have applauded what they view as McConnell’s humorous use of what was supposed to be a negative epithet. Press reports indicate that McConnell’s campaign has raised more than $30,000 through sales of the T-shirts.

Nonetheless, others have criticized the Cocaine Mitch merchandise as inappropriate, saying it seems to normalize and even glorify drug use, while being insensitive to the drug overdose problems plaguing McConnell’s home state of Kentucky. Kentucky had the nation’s fifth-highest age-adjusted drug overdose death rate in 2017, federal statistics show.

Lynne Patton, a Trump Administration appointee who advises the president on housing and urban development in New York, has been among the critics. “As somebody who has personally struggled with cocaine addiction, I don’t think that that is funny or appropriate," Patton said during an interview with Bold TV. Patton said the shirts are “almost like making drugs cool, and they’re not...Not to sound like Nancy Reagan, but drugs are not cool, just so you know."

Social media flared with opinions of folks opposed to the shirts.

For promotional products pros, it’s interesting to consider: Is the Cocaine Mitch swag inappropriate? Or is it effective? Maybe it’s both.