He will win on his Dad’s coat strings!

This one was a Facebook post. The poster was responding to Corey O’Connor’s bid for mayor of Pittsburgh. He is the son of former mayor Bob O’Connor. This is a blend of “on the coattails of (someone)” (benefiting from someone else’s success as a means to achieve one’s own success) and “play/tug on (one’s) heartstrings” (elicit strong feelings of sympathy or fondness). The poster may have been not only thinking of the mayor connection but also of Bob’s untimely death because of cancer cutting short his term in office as mayor. A big thanks to Dan Simon for spotting this one in the Facebook comments wild (by the way, Corey did win!).