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Cookies At Tampa Bakery Gauging Presidential Support

Quincy Walters
/
WUSF News
Shortbread cookies with candidate's faces and icing

National polls show that it's a tight race between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. A west Tampa bakery has a presidential poll of its own. 

Alessi Bakery, which has been in Tampa since 1912, has had this cookie poll since 2004. 

Jason Alessi, the bakery's manager, said it's "been very accurate" in previous years. 

"I think each time whosoever cookie we sold more of, [they] typically won the election," he said.  

When you first walk in, it's hard to miss the scoreboard, showing Trump with a sizeable lead over Clinton. 

Credit Quincy Walters / WUSF News
/
WUSF News
Scoreboard showing Clinton with just under 1,700 and Donald Trump with nearly 3,000

This isn't what's being depicted with national polls. Alessi said that this year is trickier than the past.

"We don't know how accurate it is because are people buying it because they support [Trump]? Are people buying it as a gag?" he asked. "Trump is not your typical politician. People view it as kind of a novelty."

Next week, we'll all find out how the (presidential) cookie crumbles. 

Quincy J. Walters is a junior at USF, majoring in English with a concentration in creative writing. His interest in journalism spurred from the desire to convey compelling narratives. He has written for USF’s student paper, The Oracle and is currently the videographer for Creative Pinellas. If he’s not listening to NPR, he’s probably listening to Randy Newman.
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