The story behind WA Democrats’ light-up hats and ‘Cowboy Kamala’ sashes

Washington’s delegation to the Democratic National Convention caught some national attention on Monday for wearing light-up cowboy hats and sashes that say “Cowboy Kamala,” a reference to the Beyoncé album “Cowboy Carter.”

The idea for the hats and sashes came from Shasti Conrad, the Washington Democratic Party’s chair.

“I’m a huge Beyoncé fan, and I’m a huge Vice President Harris fan,” Conrad said by phone from Chicago, where the convention kicked off yesterday.

“The BeyHive is sort of what the KHive built themselves after — sort of this rabid fanbase for both,” she added, referencing the fanbases of Beyoncé and Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for president. “So we were like, let’s celebrate the two of them and this cultural moment, political moment — and these incredible women of color.”

One of Beyoncé’s songs, “Freedom,” is Harris’ campaign song and the soundtrack of her new ad.

Conrad said the party worked with Buttonsmith, a “great union, women-owned” printing shop based in Redmond, Washington, to get the sashes printed. The hats were bought wholesale but have “union-printed” stickers on them.

Younger delegates were excited about the hats when the party showed them off at breakfast on Monday, Conrad said, but some older delegates were more hesitant. That changed when they got to the convention center.

“Everybody loved the hats because they could find us. We looked awesome,” Conrad said. “It was so fun and we were definitely the talk of the town.”

So much so that the Smithsonian got involved: Conrad was approached by a representative of the museum, Jon Grinspan, who collected a hat and sash for the Smithsonian’s political history collection.

Conrad was also able to give a hat to Walz, the party’s vice presidential nominee, and his wife, Gwen Walz.

“The governor took the hat and he shook my hand and said thank you,” Conrad said.

The Washington delegation has plans for daily fashion themes at the convention, which runs through Thursday. Tuesday’s theme is Washington Democrats pride and Wednesday’s is “Purple Rain” in reference to Prince, a musical icon from Walz’s home state. The delegation plans on wearing pink and white for the last day to celebrate Harris.

The hats and sash, though, will definitely be the flashiest.

“We did international press, we did national press, everyone kept commenting on how we were the most fun delegation!” Conrad said.

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