If “c” is for cookie, then “d” is for democracy, as an Ohio bakery attempts to correctly predict the outcome of the 2024 election by selling candidate-themed treats.
Cincinnati’s Busken Bakery has only been wrong once in the past 40 years when predicting the outcome of the presidential race.
Cookies with the faces of both candidates (as well as a third option, ‘Cookie Party’, with a smiley face) are sold at various branches of the store and a tally is kept in an attempt to predict who will win in November.
The store’s track record so far could be big news for Donald Trump, who has outsold Kamala Harris cookies by 2,953 to 2,134.
It’s always important to keep in mind potential third-party candidates who may play spoiler, as the “Cookie Party” giveaway has sold 397 “votes” so far.
Cincinnati’s Busken Bakery has only been wrong once in the past 40 years when predicting the outcome of the presidential race.
The store’s various branches sell cookies with the faces of both candidates, as well as a third-choice ‘Cookie Party’ option with a smiley face, and keep count in an attempt to predict who will win in November.
It should be noted, however, that the only time they have been wrong since the 1980s was in the last election, when Trump outsold Joe Biden by a wide margin.
Ohio has become a Republican state and Cincinnati is right on the border with Kentucky, although the city’s mayor and entire city council are elected Democrats.
The bakery’s CEO says it’s all a joke and hopes everyone will vote early and often.
“We like to joke and say that (customers) can stuff the ballot boxes,” Dan Busken told the The New York Post.
He says his father, who ran the company, came up with the idea in the 1980s, along with promotions predicting the Super Bowl.
A local artist is hired to create somewhat exaggerated designs for the two candidates in the race.
Busken believes that the company’s four branches can appeal to a diverse segment of the electorate, in addition to online sales.
“Our results, from our four retail stores, cover the north, south, east and west areas of Cincinnati, so they are quite diverse,” Busken said.
The store’s track record so far could be big news for Donald Trump, who has outsold Kamala Harris cookies by 2,953 to 2,134.
Polls show Trump is in the lead, at least in terms of Busken cookie sales.
Unfortunately, Busken notes, polarization and partisan politics have begun to ruin what is supposed to be a harmless exercise.
“This year, especially more than any election before, some people have been more vocal and not as friendly about certain things. But we’re moving forward. We’ve been doing this for 40 years. We think it’s fun.”
He adds, however, that the advantage of this is that sales have increased significantly since the last election.
“We sold a lot more in the first two weeks than we did in the last election, so I’d say voter turnout for cookies has increased.”
Earlier today, Trump received positive news from slightly less sweet but more professional pollsters.
Trump leads Harris in three key states where both candidates have been campaigning intensively as the race for the White House enters the final stretch.
The New York Times/Siena College poll shows the former president’s strength in the Sun Belt, where he holds a sizable lead over the vice president in Arizona and is ahead in polls in Georgia and North Carolina among likely voters.
Respondents said Trump made their lives better when he was president and they are concerned that the Harris administration will not.
Donald Trump campaigns in Wilmington, North Carolina, on Saturday, September 21, according to the NYT/Siena poll, which shows him in a tight race. He will return to the state on Wednesday.
In Arizona, a state Trump lost by just over 10,000 votes to President Biden in 2020, the poll shows Trump with a five-point lead (50 percent) to Harris’s 45 percent.
In Georgia, another state where the Republican presidential nominee lost by fewer than 12,000 votes in the 2020 election, Trump leads with 49 percent to Harris’s 45 percent.
In North Carolina, where Trump won in 2020 by just 75,000 votes, the race is extremely close: the former president has 49 percent of the vote to Harris’s 47 percent.
Polls show just how close the presidential race really is, likely to be decided in just seven swing states, where a few thousand votes could make a huge difference in who determines the course of the country over the next four years.