Two VP Candidates, One Soda: How Tim Walz and JD Vance Made Diet Mountain Dew a Political Symbol

Depending on who you ask, Diet Mountain Dew is the great uniter of the 2024 presidential election, or the great divider. Both Republican and Democratic vice presidential candidates, JD Vance in the red corner and Tim Walz in the blue, have pledged their allegiance to the neon green, sugar-free soda, an admittedly compelling liquid commonality between the men.

Diet Mountain Dew entered the discourse and started kissing babies in July, when Vance referenced it during a campaign rally in Middletown, Ohio. “I had a Diet Mountain Dew yesterday, and one today, and I’m sure they’re going to call that racist too,” he said, insisting that Democrats would find reason to call anything about him racist, no matter how unearned.

In a Monday night interview with CNN, Kentucky governor Andy Beshear, a Democrat, had a response adhering to the party’s recent “Republicans are weird” talking point strategy: “What was weird was him joking about racism today, and then talking about Diet Mountain Dew,” Beshear said. “Who drinks Diet Mountain Dew?”

As it turns out, Walz, the man who was an early adopter of the “weirdo” talking point and now Kamala Harris’s running mate, does. A lot.

Walz doesn’t drink alcohol or coffee. He does the Diet Dew, proudly and often. While recording an episode of Pod Save America last month, not one, but two bottles of the stuff sat on Walz’s desk, ready for the sipping. A Los Angeles Times profile of Walz highlighted a social media interaction between him and Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan, in which she joked that Walz was “Dew’n it again” as he headed to the fridge for his soda. Walz, in true Big Dad Energy form, replied, “Had to Dew it.” In April of this year, he tweeted with genuine delight about an office surprise for his 60th birthday, specifically calling out that the celebration was “complete with Diet Mountain Dew, of course.” It’s constantly at hand, literally (this cat doesn’t know why, either, and is pissed to have missed out on those Taylor Swift tickets).

But in its heart, Diet Mountain Dew isn’t red or blue (with the exception of flavor variants like Code Red and Baja Blast). It’s been eye-searingly neon, brat green before brat had even considered bratting, and it’s found a foothold as a cultural symbol. The original Mountain Dew was reportedly invented in the late 1930s by two brothers who, upon moving from Georgia to Tennessee, couldn’t find a local source for their favorite whiskey mixer. They mixed up their own lemon-lime carbonated concoction and called it Mountain Dew, slang for moonshine, packaged it in green bottles, and sold it as a delightful Appalachian treat. PepsiCo purchased the drink in 1964, and by 1974 had tinted it to be the neon green caffeine powerhouse we know today.

It’s a sort of lowbrow favorite, the Crocs of beverages, and can serve as a middle finger to the matcha-sipping crowd. According to recent data, Mountain Dew (non-diet) is the fifth-most popular soda in the US, while the diet variety has something like a 2% market share nationwide. The Dew family of sodas has been embraced by gamers and the extreme sports crowd, as well as the everyman of the noncoastal states. Lana Del Rey released a song called “Diet Mountain Dew” on Born to Die, comparing a love interest to the drink and declaring, “you’re no good for me.” It’s a social signifier with a screw-top: Vance and Walz drink Diet Mountain Dew, and the coastal elite drink Diet Coke.

Though the two vice presidential candidates both enjoy the same beverage, there’s a difference in how they do it, and how it’s perceived.

When Vance does the Dew, he explicitly calls it out. When he said that Democrats would find a way to call his drink racist, he was hoping potential voters would hear a message that he’s one of them, just cracking open a Diet Dew and going about his business, unfairly maligned by liberals who just don’t get it. On August 1, during an interview with Newsmax, Vance doubled down on the Dew, opening a fresh bottle and asking host Bianca de la Garza if they should toast. “This is the good stuff here. High caffeine, low calorie,” he said before taking a swig. All it’s missing is a wink directly to the camera and an advertising disclosure, it’s a moment so ready-made for promotion.