At CPAC, Costumes Make a Political Point

One of the weirder things about the nation’s largest political conference is that a not insignificant number of people attend costumed.

They can be found milling about the crowd, posing for pictures, promoting various groups, and generally standing out amid the thousands of who’ve packed the halls of the Gaylord National Resort in National Harbor, Md., for this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference, the annual confab held in the D.C. area. Red ties are in abundance, as most attendees are dressed up in suits, blazers, loafers, dresses and heels.

But not everyone.

This guy says he dresses up as Declaration of Independence signer Button Gwinnette all the time. He tromped around CPAC carrying a yellow “Don’t Tread on Me” flag and posing for pictures.

This man dressed as Benjamin Franklin to promote the Franklin Center, a right-leaning watchdog group.

This guy came to CPAC with the group Committee for the Republic, dressed as Patrick Henry, the first governor of Virginia.

These guys, who are professional Transformers impersonators (they brought a few business cards to advertise their services, which appear to be apolitical) were brought by an entourage of orange-shirted staffers promoting a book on state demographics and economics.

And this intern at the Leadership Institute, while not wearing a costume per se, did walk around all day in a sandwich board reading “SICK OF STATISTS” to promote an event his group was holding.