While Brandon Brown was being interviewed after his first NASCAR career win last October, the crowd at Talladega Superspeedway was loudly chanting “F–k Joe Biden,” and the reporter mistakenly told him that the fans were instead cheering, “Let’s go, Brandon.”
It marked the beginning of how Brown “unwittingly became entangled” and embroiled in a “culture war he never asked to be part of,” as the phrase became a rallying cry in addition to being synonymous with insulting President Joe Biden.
However, according to CNN, the phrase is now garnering new meaning thanks to a recent trip to Houston for an 8-year-old named Brandon Brundidge. The young boy started to see “Let’s go, Brandon” signs everywhere. He “believed the signs were meant to encourage him. He consequently started trying activities he’d never attempted before, such as learning to swim and removing the training wheels from his bicycle.”
This prompted his mother, Sheletta Brundidge, to write a children’s book entitled “Brandon Spots His Sign.”A mother of four children, three of whom have autism, Sheletta has written books that focus on each of her children and has described how her son Brandon suffered from social anxiety. But, she saw a marked change after her son saw the ‘Let’s go, Brandon’ signs and assumed people were cheering him on. He suddenly had a whole new attitude and wasn’t nearly as shy about trying new things.”
Sheletta’s book caught the attention of President Joe Biden in addition to the NASCAR driver who unwittingly helped to originate the phrase. The President wrote a letter of admiration, and Brown invited the family out to the Xfinity Series race and “even had the cover of Brundidge’s book splashed across the hood of his Camaro.”
Brown is excited about changing the narrative—”To have this come though was like that breakthrough moment for us…This can be positive. This can be good. It doesn’t have to be hateful or divisive.”
This meeting wasn’t simply a one-time thing for Brown that stopped after the race, who “calls or texts [Brandon Brundidge] all the time to talk about Minecraft or just check up on him.” Sheletta relays how this has been an enormous confidence booster for her son.
“I have seen his confidence go through the roof…Kids with autism are so often chosen last or left out. A lot of times, it’s because other children just don’t understand why they do what they do…You just have to pray for a good support system and for love…And Brandon Brown has loved my child. He has put a spotlight on children with autism for the whole world to see.”