Hillary Clinton enters swag primary with pantsuit T-shirt

Hot off the presses: The $30 "pantsuit" T-shirt.

There's a Hillary hoodie, a "future voter" onesie for the Charlotte generation, and even a pillow stitched with the words "A woman's place is in the White House." The latter slogan is a throwback to 2008.

The Hillary Clinton throw pillow

One of President Barack Obama's great successes during that campaign was turning the old free advertising of campaign buttons and yard signs into a way of getting donors to buy into his campaign by purchasing swag. He used that tactic again in 2012.

Clinton's not alone in establishing an online store to capture small contributions in exchange for apparel and accessories. Kentucky Senator Rand Paul's presidential campaign has some pretty clever gifts.

store.randpaul.com

store.randpaul.com

Campaign operatives have long since discovered that voters who buy merchandise are often willing to pull out their credit cards for future donations to the campaign. And it helps the campaigns boost the percentage of donors who give small amounts, figures they often use to argue that they aren't pawns of their big-dollar contributors.

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