Cincinnati bakery's cookie poll that predicts presidential elections goes viral

CINCINNATI — Steeped inside a bellwether of a bakery, you'll find one of the Tri-State's most tried and true methods for determining the presidential election winner: a cookie poll.

While political scientists may have a more complex system for forecasting elections, Busken Bakery claims it has been predicting presidents with a much simpler method.

In every election cycle, since Ronald Reagan defeated challenger Walter Mondale in 1984, the bakery has been selling cookies with each candidate's face on them. The cookie that sells the most is the winner.

Since it started its cookie poll, Busken has only gotten one election wrong — the election of President Joe Biden in 2020. That impressive stat has put more eyes on Busken's poll.

"Well, it brings a little levity to this, let's call it hostile, political climate that we live in, which is what we've always tried to do as a bakery," said Dan Busken, CEO and president of Busken Bakery. "There's been some interesting developments in the 2024 cookie poll we didn't expect."

Busken said the bakery's cookie poll has gone viral before, but after a New York Post article about it garnered national attention, the numbers skewed heavily in Trump's favor.

When the New York Post shared Busken's story in September, Donald Trump was in the lead with 2,953 cookies to Kamala Harris' 2,134 cookies. The "Cookie Party," or independent/undecided vote, had tallied 397 cookies.

The news was reposted on X (formerly Twitter) by Elon Musk. The owner of X Corp. shared the Post's story with an image from the movie "The Boss Baby" that says, "Cookies are for closers."

"That really put the cookie poll on the map like it's never been before," Busken said. "It does skew the results a little bit, but we're encouraging ... the other side to step up, and maybe we'll get a Taylor Swift tweet or something to really drive some sales for the other side."

As of Monday morning, Busken has sold 19,596 Trump cookies to Harris' 6,582. Busken also said 1,148 "Cookie Party" cookies have been purchased.

"When there's a lot of seriousness and you need to take that edge off — if there's something a local business can do to help with that, let's do it," he said.

While Busken sells its cookies in-store,the bakery also ships its presidential cookies, meaning anyone can purchase a box of eight Trump, Harris or "Cookie Party" cookies for $15. Busken said it will continue to update its numbers daily on social media.

To find a local location to cast your vote,click here.