Fall Hardy Mums Buyers are the Key to the 2024 Presidential Election

A Case for Mum Mania in 2024. The ‘Path to 270 Electoral Votes’ Runs Through Hardy Mums Buyers: Suburban Moderate Women in the Upper…

Fall Hardy Mums Buyers are the Key to the 2024 Presidential Election
Whichever side wins votes of ‘hardy mums’ buyers this fall season will likely win the White House in 2024. Photo via https://grasspad.blogspot.com/2014/09/hardy-mums-or-garden-chrysanthemums.html

A Case for Mum Mania in 2024. The ‘Path to 270 Electoral Votes’ Runs Through Hardy Mums Buyers: Suburban Moderate Women in the Upper Midwest

Each September, like clockwork, hardy mums interest skyrockets in the United States. Hardy mums replace dying spring and summer flowers across garden beds nationwide, adding a splash of fall reds, oranges, and yellows delivered via a plant that can survive cooler temperatures in the transition of seasons. Whether or not buyers can keep the mums alive until next year is not important. Each fall is ‘Mum Mania’ for about 9 weeks from Labor Day to around Halloween each year.

Google Trends data. Each year ‘Hardy Mums’ spikes in interest in September, stays up in October, and returns back to Earth by December.

Hardy mums are the Midwestern fall ideal for women-who-have-their-s**t-and-lives-together. 2024 is the year of the Midwestern ideal.

  • Tim Walz is rising
  • Gretchen Whitmer is rising
  • Chappell Roan, with her album Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, is not falling but only rising
Via Chartmetric.
‘hardy mums’ Google search interest from 2004 — September 1, 2024 is concentrated and overindexed in the Midwest.
Via Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball, Center for Politics at the University of Virginia. The winning path to the White House in 2024 runs through hardy mums states of Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.

Declining Indicators: The Pumpkin Spice Latte and Fall Outfit Crowd

‘pumpkin spice latte’ Google Search trends from 2004 — September 1, 2024 are seasonal as well, but have a lower Midwestern state geographic concentration.
‘fall outfits’ Google Search trends from 2004 — September 1, 2024 are seasonal as well, but have a lower Midwestern state geographic concentration. ‘fall outfits’ are concentrated in red states not in play in the 2024 Presidential Election.

The Key to Incremental Votes in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin is Capturing Hardy Mums Buyers

Hardy mums embody the Midwestern spirit of managing the tough winter through to the new year’s spring. After all, they are flowers that thrive in the cooler fall and winter months.

While the buyers of ‘fall outfits’ or ‘pumpkin spice latte’ fall trends may be younger and more materialistic woman, the ‘hardy mums’ buyer tends to be older, have a family and/or career, a mortgage vs. monthly rent, and is self-deterministic in her ways. The ‘hardy mums’ buyer is the key suburban white woman demographic, a woman who is open to hearing opinions, who is in her 30’s — 50’s, who will decide the 2024 election by moving incremental votes either way in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.

Food and Plants are Now Political Memes

Over the past few years we’ve seen food and plants become political memes.

Some Kamala Harris supporters use the coconut as a symbol to support her.

Ukraine supporters use the sunflower, Ukraine’s national flower and a symbol of Ukraine.

Palestine supporters use the watermelon.

Yet hardy mums are a blank canvas.

No side yet claims the hardy mum, even as hardy mums grow in autumnal popularity, and even though both Republicans and Democrats realize they need to win incremental female votes in Upper Midwest states. The hardy mum buyer may not like Republican VP candidate JD Vance’s takes on ‘cat ladies’ and reproductive rights, yet the Democratic Party has yet to take advantage. The hardy mum buyer may not like Kamala Harris’ ‘coastal’ background, yet the Republican Party has not taken advantage.

Who is going to step up and win the hardy mum vote? Fall consumer buying cycles will happen regardless and it’s up to both well-compensated political consultants and campaign managers to decide who owns ‘hardy mums’ this election season.

The first candidate to take a picture with hardy mums at a nursery and then makes ‘hardy mums’ a thing will have an incredible advantage.

I’ll be watching closely.

Support your local small businesses wherever you live and give hardy mums a spin this fall.

What is the suburban female moderate voter in the Upper Midwest buying right now, now that it’s September? Mums, baby. Photo via https://www.binleyflorist.com/news/plant-of-the-month/110-the-versatile-plant-all-about-mums