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If you're a political junkie, then one thing you might be interested in doing is starting a campaign t-shirt collection.  Many years ago, people who were really into politics used to collect campaign buttons.  When I was younger, I remember seeing a neighbor's campaign button collection and being in awe with all of the different ones that he had.  I specifically remember that he had one of those famous Barry Goldwater buttons (AU H20) and thinking that was a pretty cool thing.  Anyway, these days, I see a lot of campaign t-shirts and thought that collecting them would be fun.

I've generally run into two different groups of political memorabilia collectors.  In the first group are people who collect items just from their own political party.  So, if they're a Democrat, they want items only from the Democratic candidates; if they're a Republican, they only want items from the Republican candidates.  The second group consists of people who will collect whatever items they can get their hands on, regardless of party affiliation.

In this day and age, getting a campaign t-shirt collection going is very easy.  In fact, you can get started at any time – even if it's not a national election year.  For example, even though the last presidential election was in 2004, you can still purchase brand-new campaign t-shirts from various websites.  The auction site e-Bay is a great place to start, and a quick search today shows a number of George W. Bush campaign t-shirts for less than $10 each.  There are even some t-shirts with those popular red state/blue state U.S. maps screen printed on them.  I think 20 or 30 years from now, that kind of shirt will be just as famous as the AU H20 buttons that my neighbor had.

You can also get t-shirts from local and statewide campaigns as well.  This might entail a bit more legwork and effort on your part, however, as you will probably have to attend some events in order to score some shirts.  If it's impossible for you to physically attend a rally or whatever, you might try calling the candidate's election headquarters and asking for a shirt.  The person who answers the phone might ask for a donation in turn, but it's entirely up to you how much you want to give, if anything.  

Sometimes, you might be interested in a state election that is not actually taking place in your own state.  For example, many political campaign t-shirt collectors are interested in celebrity campaigns.  So these people would try to get their hands on a shirt from Clint Eastwood or Sonny Bono's mayoral campaigns, as well as Arnold Schwarzenegger's gubernatorial campaign, even if they don't live anywhere near California.  Again, auction sites are a good option for these, as well as just scouring the Internet for random websites that might be selling.

If you're looking for a fun new hobby, why not consider collecting political campaign t-shirts?  You can always just start wearing them if you get bored with your collection!