Twitter Tells Pence All About #thatmexicanthing

Hashtag swelled with immigrants' stories of the American Dream

Posted October 5, 2016 at 10:34am

Republican vice presidential candidate Mike Pence tried to dismiss an attack from Democrat Tim Kaine in their debate Tuesday as “that Mexican thing.” Twitter then erupted with a new hashtag, #thatmexicanthing.

After frequently interrupting Pence in their only debate, Kaine, a Virginia senator and Hillary Clinton’s running mate, tried to get in another shot at Donald Trump’s immigration policy.

Pence had criticized Kaine earlier for his canned lines and tried to dismiss the latest with, “Senator, you whipped out that Mexican thing again.”

The Twitterverse quickly called out Pence for the phrase and it soon grew into a thread of stories of immigrants living the American Dream.

Then it became a voter registration drive.

This tweet redirects to the VL Action Network, where people can register to vote in English or Spanish.

By the end of the night, the Clinton campaign owned the domain thatmexicanthing.com, which redirects to the campaign’s website. 

Others used the hashtag to call out other comments from Trump, or to highlight Hispanic stereotypes.