Clinton’s not the only candidate in the 2016 U.S. presidential race who feels compelled to share the spotlight with a craft beer. Her Democrat rival Bernie Sanders has been photographed proudly holding a can of Heady Topper, a Vermont-brewed Double IPA that can only be purchased in Sanders’s home state. Most recently, at a New York rally, Ted Cruz was presented with a growler of the flagship Amber Ale from Wolf Hollow Brewing Company, a Glenville, New York, outfit. “Y’all don’t mess around,” the Texan said about the beer.

The most stalwart advocate of craft beer may be former Republican candidate John Kasich, who has championed Ohio microbreweries and the craft-beer industry in general. He was publicly endorsed by Mount Carmel Brewing co-founder Kathleen Dewey, of Cincinnati. The Ohio governor campaigned at the Lansing Brewing Company in Michigan, visited Henniker Brewing in New Hampshire, and appeared on the New Hampshire radio program “Pints and Politics,” a show sponsored by the Granite State’s Smuttynose Brewing.

Brewery visits have become a new political trope. Pouring a beer demonstrates an “I-know-how-to-do-this-too” common denominator with voters. It’s a proverbial toast to the economy and to local businesses. Presidential candidates have seemed to distance themselves from international conglomerates and domestic macro-lagers, such as Bud Light, Coors, or Miller, and found themselves fully embracing the craft-beer movement and all that it represents.

“In craft beer, you’re dealing with voters of the whole spectrum, from 21 until they’re cold,” said Plourde. “Our beer drinkers are left, right, Independent. Beer is the x-factor. People might not agree politically, but they can agree that this beer is great.”

The craft-beer movement suggests there’s a new beer culture in America—this time, shared across demographics and class groups. There are now over 4,000 breweries in the United States, according to the Brewer’s Association; the organization claims this is the first time the number of independent brewers has been greater than 4,000 since the 1870s. Craft beer involves entrepreneurialism and signals investment in a local community. It can also be a symbol of economic recovery: In a recent Atlantic article, James Fallows argued that craft breweries are barometers of a community’s civic success.

“Craft brewing is having a huge impact on our local economies,” wrote Jen Kimmich, the co-owner of The Alchemist, the Vermont outfit that makes the Heady Topper, in an email. “Across the country, craft breweries are playing an important role in the financial success of our communities by attracting tourists, increasing sales tax revenues, and creating good jobs.”

Bart Watson—the chief economist at the Brewers Association, a craft-beer advocacy group—agreed, arguing that small, independent breweries create hundreds of thousands of jobs. For politicians, lining up with breweries is a clear win. “How many manufacturing industries have added people?” Watson pointed out. “Breweries are one of the successes.”