Donald Trump’s campaign is getting some dough-lightful news out of Ohio.
A beloved Cincinnati bakery, whose “cookie poll” has accurately predicted every election outcome but one since 1984, currently has the former president and Republican nominee leading Democrat Kamala Harris in its unscientific survey.
Trump notched about 54% support (2,953 cookies) to Harris’ 39% (2,134 cookies), with an “independent” smiley-face cookie scoring 7% (397 cookies), per the latest tally shared with The Post by Busken Bakery.
The cookie poll will remain open until election day on Nov. 5, so the tallies reflect the result of “early voting” by those with a sweet tooth.
“We like to joke and say [customers] can stuff the ballot box,” bakery president and CEO Dan Busken told The Post.
To contribute data, customers simply purchase the cookie of their preferred candidate online or at one of Busken’s four area stores.
Each cookie purchase counts as a single vote, and there is no limit to how many a customer can buy.
Despite the lack of psephological rigor, the “poll” has been remarkably accurate in the ten elections it’s predicted so far. The only result it’s missed was last year’s victory by Democrat Joe Biden.
“Our results, out of our four retail stores, kind of cover the north, south, east and west portions of Cincinnati. So they’re pretty diverse,” Busken explained.
“It’s definitely interesting that in a state like Ohio and in a city like Cincinnati that there’s been such accuracy in this cookie poll over the years.”
Ohio has long been considered a quintessential bellwether state, picking the winner in every election between 1964 and 2016.
That changed in 2020, when — in a case of life imitating pastry — Trump won Ohio, but lost the election.
The candidate contest was conceived by Dan Busken’s dad and predecessor, Page, who had noted the success of similar “polls” in the past, including one to predict a Super Bowl.
“We hire a local artist [Jim White] that does caricatures, and he draws a caricature of each candidate. And then we transfer that image to a cookie,” Dan Busken explained. “It’s meant to be fun.”
But not everyone is having fun due to the contentious nature of presidential politics.
“Some people this year — especially more than any prior elections — have been more vocal and, not so friendly about things,” Busken reflected. “But we’re moving forward. We’ve done it for 40 years. We think it’s fun.”
Several partners of the bakery opted not to sell candidate cookies this year, but sales are still looking strong, according to Busken.
“We sold a lot more in the first two weeks than we did the last election,” he said. “So I’d say cookie voter turnout has been up.”
The contest between Trump, 78, and Harris, 59, is widely expected to be the closest election since the contest between Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore in 2000, when the outcome was not decided for 36 days.
