GREENSBURG, Pennsylvania — The “Let’s Go Brandon” message on the Hoods Up Quick Lube sign was up for four days, but it was long enough for the owners to make their point.
Ever since Oct. 3, when an NBC reporter interviewing NASCAR driver Brandon Brown mistook a vulgar chant from the crowd — “F–k Joe Biden” — as “Let’s Go Brandon,” the phrase has gone viral. Within days, people across the country were sharing their displeasure with the president by putting up homemade “Let’s Go Brandon” signs along roadways. They’ve been chanting the message at high school football games, wearing it on the backs of T-shirts, and displaying it on digital signs at construction sites where they work. A rapper performing a “Let’s Go Brandon” tune on TikTok has shot to the top of the iTunes charts. Recently, a Southwest Airlines pilot was allegedly captured on video saying “Let’s Go Brandon” over the flight’s intercom, leading to an internal investigation.
Bill Bretz, chair of the Westmoreland County Republican Party, said he posted a photo of the Hoods Up Quick Lube sign on his party’s Facebook page last Thursday and it quickly caught on.
“We had over 8,000 people view it within 24 hours,” Bretz said. “The interesting thing about this phrase is that it has caught fire not because a political party tried to make it happen, but because people without any direction made it happen organically.”